“I only had to know how to get one or two places, mostly to the gym and back home. Usually I had Bucky with me, or Thelma Pearl, or somebody knew where they was goin.”

“I don’t want to hear about that stupid Thelma Pearl.”

“Whoa! You’re mad at me, aint you?”

“Who wouldn’t be, you big oaf? You left me on our wedding day. All by myself, in a strange hotel in a strange city. I went out to look for you and I locked myself out of my room. I didn’t know where you were and I was afraid you got kidnapped!”

“Kidnapped? Who the hell would want to kidnap me?”

“Gangsters. Like those gangsters you told me about in the fight business. I thought maybe you didn’t throw a fight you were supposed to, or you owed them money, or you got hit by a streetcar.”

Jake laughed until she thought he was going to choke. Emaline was so mad she just wanted to slap the big lug and pack her valise and take the bus back to Scottsbluff. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a present wrapped in tissue paper. “Here, girl. This is what I went to find.”

She wanted to fling it in his face, but curiosity got the best of her. She opened it cautiously, as though she might find dynamite inside. It was a lovely tortoiseshell comb. She turned to the mirror on the wall next to the wardrobe and slipped the comb into her hair on the left side, pulling it back. He stood and watched over her shoulder, ran his fingers through her hair. She leaned back against him.

“It’s beautiful.”

“Gawd, I should hope so. I must a walked twenty miles to get it.”

She turned to him. “Don’t you ever do that again. Don’t you leave me alone in a place like this. The rest of the time we’re here, I want you within fifty feet of me, is that clear?”

“Then you’re goin to have to come to the fight. You said you’d never go nowhere near a prizefight.”

“I will this time. I’m not going to stay in this hotel alone.”