Page 111 of Simon Says

“Safety in numbers?”

“There is that. And I’m half hoping the bastard does make a play while I’m with you. It’d give me the chance to demolish him.” Having said that, Barber started away, but when Dakota didn’t follow, he looked at her over his shoulder, one eyebrow raised.

“Like you said, you’re my best friend, so I wanted to ask your advice on something.”

He gave one sharp nod. “Shoot.”

“Do you think I should call Marvin—”

“No.”

“—and ask him if he was behind this—”

He turned to face her fully. “Absolutely not.”

“—to find out what he might say, maybe see if he gives himself away somehow or—”

Barber thundered back over to her and grabbed her shoulders. “No.Damn it, Dakota, don’t be a nitwit.”

Never before had she seen Barber act so strange. He was always a goof, always irreverent, but now he seemed totally out of sorts.

“What is your problem?” she demanded.

“I want you to ignore the bastard. Pretend he doesn’t exist. I want you to have zero contact with him.”

She knocked his hands away. “You want a lot.”

Raising his arms, Barber shouted, “You have no goddamned idea!”

Dakota buried her hurt behind indignation. “I don’t know if I did something to piss you off or if you’re just having your monthly, but I’ve had enough.” Confused and fed up, Dakota started to shove past him.

Barber drew her back around, then quickly held up both hands when she squared off. “You want to know what’s wrong with me? Fine. I’m horny.”

Dakota did a double take.“What?”

He laughed at her. “Well, you wanted to know, doll. That’s it.”

“You’ve lost it, Barber.”

He laughed again. “Lust does strange things to a man, and as you’ve already figured out, things went south with sweet Bonnie.”

“Sweet? Now I know you’re nuts.”

“Sweet on the eyes, at least.” He chucked her under the chin. “And now I’m finding that no other woman appeals to me. Not enough anyway.”

“Please don’t tell me you got hung up on Bonnie.”

“Nope. Not even close. I just don’t feel like wasting the time with any other woman when I know it won’t satisfy the itch.”

Barber had always been open with her, and she knew he leaned toward the uninhibited side. But this was outrageous, even for him. “Itch, huh? Poor baby. Want me to spring for some Calamine lotion?”

“I have a better idea. You’re a natural night owl. I’ll be up late performing. And Simon’s out of town. Let’s grab a bite to eat tonight. There’s this little Greek place where a lot of the fighters hang out. They do a mean chicken plank. I know, you weren’t expecting me to say fried chicken, but it’s to die for. What do you say?”

He’d rattled all that off so fast, Dakota felt her head spinning. But since the idea of sitting alone in her motel room didn’t appeal to her, she shrugged. “Sure. Why not?”

With Simon gone, she didn’t have much else to do to occupy her time except stew on Marvin and Barnaby, and neither of those topics appealed.

She glanced at her watch. “I need to go talk to Roger. Then I was going to do a little shopping to get a few more clothes. I hadn’t planned to stay here this long and I’m running out of stuff.”

---