A Woman To Blame by Susan Connell

fled upstairs.
    * * *
    Next afternoon, despite the perfect weather, his easygoing customers, and the knowledge that Pappy Madison would be coming home for a visit, Rick was feeling decidedly uneasy as he headed over to Pappy's. All the quirky pieces of his recent history kept bumping together like unrelated flotsam. He prided himself on a clear head, so his scattered thoughts irritated him. By five that afternoon, after slamming mackerel, yellow-tail snapper, and grouper onto the display spikes, then posing beneath the day's catch with his smiling customers for the obligatory snapshots, he'd finally figured it out. The weighty combination of his recent visit to Angie's parents, accepting that the Crab Shack was gone, finding out about Pappy's injury, and ending his relationship with Sharon, had shaken his once uncomplicated world.
    Then there was Bryn.
    Despite their strong differences of opinion, he knew the sexual attraction between Bryn and him could not be denied. He knew it as well as he knew his reef charts. As for the rest of Bryn's life, that was none of his business. Especially the mess over the restaurant conversion. If she insisted on demolishing Pappy's Crab Shack simply to hang a few copies of Monet and serve expensive wine, so be it. When she left Malabar Key, and she would, he would see what he could do to help Pappy.
    In the meantime, if she wanted to wrap those gorgeous legs around him and sail off with him to heaven for a few lost hours, he could accept that too. But that was it! All he wanted was to feel the pressure of her knees hugging his hips, to see her head thrown back in ecstasy, and to hear her crying out with pleasure before he melted into her essence.
    "Cripes, Pappy, what have they been feeding you in that hospital? Stones?" Rick asked while he and Jiggy carried the old man in his wheelchair up the stairs.
    "Tasted like stones. Careful you don't flip me out of this," he said, his knuckles tense and white on the armrests.
    From the restaurant's upper entrance, Bryn bit back advice, but gave in to the urge to direct the maneuvers with her hands. When they lowered the wheels to the floor and set the brake, she breathed a loud sigh of relief.
    "Rrrrawkk! Oh, baby, baby, baby!"
    Pappy turned to his right to look at Jiggy. "You had Miss Scarlett at your place, didn't you?"
    "Hey, Pappy. How'd you know that?" Jiggy asked, nervously patting the old man's arm.
    "Because the evangelist I got her from never taught Miss Scarlett anything but scripture. And I wouldn't let anyone talk that way around her." Pappy slapped Jiggy's hand away. "I leave for a while, and when I get back, my bird's talking like she's been watching X rated stuff. Is there nothing sacred to the younger generation? And look at Bryn. She's red as Miss Scarlett's feathers!"
    Just when Bryn thought she'd survive the flashback to Rick's total body kiss, Miss Scarlett let loose with another bawdy line. Bryn stole a quick glance in Rick's direction, and even though he was laughing with the others, his knowing gaze was there to meet hers. He had to be remembering that hot moment when his fingers came close to entering her. As insane as it seemed, his laughing with the others was the only acceptable thing he could do. The only acceptable thing she could do was roll her eyes in mock disapproval and wait for someone to change the subject. That someone was Rick.
    "Come on, Jiggy, we've got work to do. Pappy, give me a call when you want to come down. We'll be over in a minute."
    Bryn didn't know whether to feel relieved or hurt when Rick didn't look at her again before he headed down the stairs behind his employee. There were other, more important matters to concern herself with, she chided herself. "Ready, Grandfather?" she asked, getting behind his wheelchair.
    "Am I ever!" he said, clapping his hands together.
    Her hands were shaking as she rolled him around the screen carved with egrets and ibises and into the dining room. What she had to show