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what it’s called.”
    “Yes. Trust me, you’re doing me a favor. I get a stunning woman on my arm and my brother won’t
have to fret so much about keeping me entertained.”
    “Right. Stunning.” She turned her face away and blew a
raspberry. Uh…does Jerry do much fretting?”
    Ben nodded. “He’s a bit of a mother hen.” He caught sight
of his brother’s blond ponytail several yards up the path. He steered her
toward it.
    “Listen, Ben…uh…”
    “Looks like they found Nikki and Charlie. We should break
them up before they stage a business meeting in the middle of a theme park.”
    “Yeah, that sounds like Nikki. Working while she plays.”
    “I’m sorry, what were you going to say before I
interrupted you?”
    Her bottom jaw grated side to side in a manner that put
him on guard, but then she tightened her grip on his arm as they approached the
N-by-N delegation. “Nothing. It’s nothing.”
    He didn’t believe her, but wouldn’t press. He wedged them
into the clump congregating very near a refreshment cart.
    She let go of him and eased back.
    He breathed a little sigh of relief to find she hadn’t
run. She was very near, staring at the cart’s menu board. His heart rate had spiked
just from that little snub. She’d raised the stakes and he hadn’t even known
what game they were playing.
    “What are you all talking about?” he asked, keeping one
eye on the slippery redhead.
    Nikki, a short, dark-haired firecracker of a woman,
guffawed. “There’s some country music group I’ve never heard of playing in the
amphitheatre, and Charlie wants to go see them. Megan and the Cleavers, they’re
called.”
    Charlie, her husband, shrugged and adjusted his hat to
scrape his hair back from his eyes. “I like what I like.”
    “Oh, I love them !”
    They all turned to look at the source of the bright voice
behind them, and found Daisy actually smiling as she plucked a red sports drink
out of the vendor’s ice bucket.
    Hmm .
    “I knew I liked you for some reason, Daisy,” Charlie said.
“You’ve got good taste, sweetheart.”
    “And you don’t want to go?” Ben surmised, directing his
gaze to Nikki.
    “Not even a little bit. I’d rather roll this park map into
a cylinder and use it to stab my own eardrums.”
    “You’re wrong for that. You better be glad you’re cute,”
Charlie said.
    “You want to go, Daisy?” Ben edged over to the cart and
handed the vendor a five-dollar bill before Daisy could pry her cash out of her
bra. Yeah, he’d noticed. It was hard not to after they’d all gotten soaked on
the log flume. At least she’d had the good sense to keep it in a plastic
sandwich bag.
    She nodded.
    Ben held his arm out for her once more and she took it. “Okay,
Daisy and I will go with Charlie. Jerry and Trinity, you can adopt Nikki. Maybe
we can meet up afterward.”
    “You’re a brave man, Ben Thys,” Nikki called back as she
let herself be swept toward a vicious-looking roller coaster’s entry line by
her senior staff members.
    “Oh, don’t listen to her, Ben,” Charlie said, adjusting
his hat again. “If it ain’t fancy, Nikki don’t like it. Come on and let me show
you what real music is. I’m gonna teach you all about redneck rock stars.”
    “Oh boy.”
    * * *
    Daisy couldn’t remember when she’d last had so much fun.
Charlie seemed to be just as worked up as she was at the band’s rousing
performance, but Ben had only seemed bemused. She supposed bemusement was a
hell of a lot better than outright boredom, but she still felt a bit guilty for
subjecting the poor guy to something he wasn’t getting a whole lot of enjoyment
out of…even if he had been the one to volunteer.
    She kept waiting for some insult to pass his lips, but one
never came. He just sat there politely at her right, occasionally bobbing his
head to the beat and smiling whenever she cheered along with Charlie about the
next songs coming up in the set.
    Her ex-husband would have volunteered to