He thought about the short, curvy woman at the salon. How she’d asked him on a date. Now he had to know more . . . which meant talking to Uncle Ennis for longer. Damn it. It wasn’t that he disliked Ennis . . . but the man was a busybody and it crawled under Hank’s skin sometimes because he wanted to be involved in everything.

His dinner beeped.

Hank took it out of the microwave and slapped it down on the table. He grabbed a fork in silence and began to eat. He wasn’t going to ask. He wasn’t. He knew it was a trap, Ennis’s way of getting him to converse when he didn’t want to converse.

He took a bite.

Waited.

Took another bite.

Damn it. “Fiancé?” he asked as Ennis wrote something down on his crossword.

“Mmmhmm.” He didn’t look up. “She got left at the altar, you know. Man broke up with her for the mayor. Well, she wasn’t the mayor at the time. She’s the mayor now. Anyhow, poor Becca was so humiliated. Everyone felt just awful for her.” He shook his head. “Nicest girl. She deserved better.”

Hank grunted again. Took another bite. The food was awful. He took another forkful and then pushed it aside. “She asked me on a date.”

Ennis sat back in his chair, his expression one of utter surprise. “She did?”

Hell. He knew he shouldn’t have said anything. Hank shrugged.

Ennis smiled. It wasn’t a normal smile. It was slow and sure, and far too pleased. “Well now. When are you two going out?”

“Ain’t. I said no.”

Uncle Ennis opened his mouth to protest, a look of confusion on his face. He must not have noticed the warning glare on Hank’s face that told him he needed to let it go. Instead, his eyes focused on the door behind Hank. Two seconds later, the screen slammed and Hank’s younger brother Jack sauntered in. He headed for the fridge and stared inside it, not greeting either one of them.

“Hank was asked on a date by a pretty young woman in town,” Uncle Ennis announced.

Hank gritted his teeth. He shoulda kept his mouth shut, damn it. Now Uncle Ennis was going to tell everyone he ran into all about Hank’s business.

Sure enough, Jack jerked around, his eyes going wide. He stared at Hank, then at Uncle Ennis. “A date?”

“Sounds like.”

“Was she blind?” Jack asked.

Hank scowled. He wasn’t that ugly. “Go away, Jack.”

“Even more than that,” Uncle Ennis said, tapping his pencil on the crossword. “He turned her down. She’s real pretty, too. I’ve known her since she was a baby.”

Jack moved over and put his hand on Hank’s forehead, pretending to feel for a fever.

Hank swatted his hand away. “Cut it out.”