Deadlocked: A Sookie Stackhouse Novel

mad?”
    “She was real surprised,” I said cautiously. “Are you seriously telling me you-all have not talked about last night?”
    “I got in pretty late,” he said. “I slept out on the couch. When I got up this morning, she’d already gone to the store.”
    “Oh, JB.” I shook my head. “Honey, you got to talk to her.”
    “What can I say? I know I should have told her.” He made a hopeless gesture with his hands. “I just couldn’t think of any other way to earn some extra money. Her shop’s not doing so great right now, and I don’t make a lot. We don’t have good insurance. Twins! That’s gonna be a big hospital bill. What if one of ’em’s sick?”
    It was so tempting to tell him not to worry about it—but there was every reason for him to be concerned, and it would be patronizing to tell him he didn’t need to be. JB had made a clever move, for JB; hehad found a way to use his assets to make extra money. His downfall had been in not informing his wife he was taking off his clothes in front of many other women on a weekly basis.
    We talked off and on while JB nursed a beer at the bar. Tactfully, Sam pretended to be so busy that he was deaf to our intermittent conversation. I urged JB to cook something special for Tara that night or to stop off at Wal-Mart and buy her a little bouquet. Maybe he could give her a foot rub and a back massage, anything to make her feel loved and special. “And don’t tell her how big she is!” I said, poking a finger into his chest. “Don’t you dare! You tell her she’s more beautiful than ever now that she’s carrying your children!”
    JB looked exactly as though he were going to say, “But that’s not true.” He was sure thinking it. He met my eyes and clamped his lips shut.
    “Doesn’t make any difference what the truth is, you say she looks great!” I told him. “I know you love her.”
    JB looked sideways for a minute, testing that statement for its truth value, and then he nodded. “I do love her,” he said. Then he smiled. “She completes me,” he said proudly. JB loved movies.
    “Well, you just complete her right back,” I said. “She needs to feel pretty and adored, because she feels big and clumsy and uncomfortable. It’s not easy being pregnant, I hear.”
    “I’ll try, Sookie. Can I call you if she doesn’t soften up?”
    “Yeah, but I know you can work this out, JB. Just be loving and sincere, and she’ll come around.”
    “I like stripping,” he said suddenly, as I was turning away.
    “Yeah, I know,” I said.
    “I knew you would understand.” He took a last sip of beer, left Sam a tip, and went to work at the gym in Clarice.
    “This must be couples day,” India said. “Sam and Jannalynn, Jason and Michele, JB and Tara.” The thought didn’t seem to make her particularly happy.
    “You still dating Lola?” Though I knew the answer, it was always better to ask.
    “Naw. It didn’t work out.”
    “I’m sorry,” I said. “Maybe some day soon the right woman will just walk in the door of the bar, and you’ll be all fixed up.”
    “I hope so.” India looked depressed. “I’m not a fan of the wedding industry, but I sure would like a steady someone. Dating makes me all confused.”
    “I never was any good at dating.”
    “That why you go with the vamp? To scare off everyone else?”
    “I love him,” I said steadily. “That’s why I go with him.” I didn’t point out that human guys were simply impossible for me. You can imagine reading your date’s mind every minute. No, it really wouldn’t be any fun, would it?
    “No need to get all defensive,” India said.
    I thought I’d been matter-of-fact. “He’s fun,” I said mildly, “and he treats me nice.”
    “They’re … I don’t know how to ask this, but they’re cold, right?”
    India wasn’t the first person who’d tried to find a delicate way to ask me that. There wasn’t any delicate way.
    “Not room temperature,” I said. I left it at that, because any more was none of anyone else’s business.
    “Damn,” she said, after a moment. After a longer moment, she said, “Ew.”
    I shrugged. She opened her mouth, looked as though she wanted to ask me something else, and then she closed it.
    Fortunately for both of us, her table gestured that they wanted their bill, and one of Jane Bodehouse’s buddies came in drunk off her ass, so we both had things to do. Holly finally arrived to relieve me, complaining about her no-good car.