Page 46 of Protected By Duval
“My grams was a big fan ofDallasthe TV show,” he started to explain. “She was so damn proud that they used the name Ewing for the big name family on the show.” He folded a fry into his mouth and quickly chewed and swallowed. “Even after the show was done there was no way anyone could convince her that we weren’t ‘connected’ to the show somehow although she wanted to kick JR in the ass.”
Jack looked at him, nodding. “She was a fan of Bobby, right?”
Dally nodded enthusiastically. “Damn straight. Although after that season where he was dead but wasn’t… she felt the show lost its magic.”
“Agreed,” Jack added.
Noelle was struggling to figure out exactly what they were talking about. She took a sip of the lemonade they’d brought her.
“So while my parents named me Dillion, she’d always wanted to call me Dallas.”
Noelle almost choked on her sip of lemonade. “Dallas Ewing?”
Jack sat back, her nose wrinkling. “It’s a little spot on.”
Dally nodded. “She mentioned that around some of the guys I started with on the job and they started calling me Dally.”
“Ahh…” Noelle nodded. “I was thinking it was something like Dilly Dally.”
Jack snorted out a laugh. “Dillon - Dilly. Hell we could’ve called you Pickle.”
Noelle chuckled at that. “Dill Pickle.”
Dally groaned and leaned forward until his forehead hit the table a little too hard. “Why… Why did I say anything?”
“Looks like we might have some interrogation talent in the room.”
Noelle turned her head and saw that the door had opened up again.
McCrae was back.
He walked over and pulled out the chair beside her. “Thanks for saving me a sandwich.”
Noelle felt her cheeks get hot enough to send steam off of her skin.
“I… I didn’t.”
He reached over and wrapped his hand around hers, giving it a gentle squeeze. “Okay, thanks for saving me a seat.”
Noelle started to look across the table, but she chickened out. Still, she saw out of the corner of her eye that Jack and Dally were watching them both with interest. “I was wondering how things went this morning.”
His jaw hardened and she wished that she could take back her words.
“Sorry…”
He wrapped his hand tighter around hers and lowered their joined hands down off of the table and onto his thigh. “I’m not mad at you.”
Her shoulders sagged in relief.
“Good.”
He leaned in a little and lowered his voice. “Douglas has been told to stay away from you and this room.”
“Douglas?”
There was nothing wrong with Jack’s hearing.
“What did he do?” By the sour sound of her voice, Jack didn’t like Douglas much.
