"I'm..." The words wouldn't come. He looked to Charity for rescue.
"My husband," she said. She said it defiantly, as though she dared Faith or Aunt Doris or anyone else to contra dict her. Looking at Ross, she shrugged helplessly. "Ross Bennington, meet Faith Ames."
Aunt Doris had finally regained her equilibrium. Set ting down the tea she'd barely touched, she rose at this point and began bustling about the room.
"Faith, dar ling, I never! The outlandish getups you parade around in! Well, you always were a strange one." She shook her head, frowning at her niece.
"But this ridiculous barbecue. We can't have this."
Grabbing two towels she found lying on the table, she took hold of the hibachi by its side handles and started toward the kitchen. Ross stepped forward quickly to help her, but she nodded him away and marched out with the smoking appliance in her own two hands.
"We're going to have to cut your hair, Faith dear," she called back cheerfully. "And find you a nice levelheaded tax accountant to marry. That'll fix you up."
The swing ing doors closed behind her.
Faith looked at Charity. Charity looked at Faith. Sud denly they were both laughing, and Faith held out her arms to embrace her sister. "Mason called me from Mexico City," she told Charity in a loud stage whisper as they hugged. "He was feeling guilty about leaving you all alone. And since we were in the process of being evicted from our house in Tucson, we thought we'd run on over and see if we could help out."
She leaned back to look at her sister, then threw a sideways glance at Ross. "Mason told me about the husband business. You know I don't approve of marriage. It's nothing but a form of slavery as far as I'm concerned."
"Then you'll be pleased to know this one won't last long," Charity told her, pulling away and glancing at Ross herself.
He suddenly felt a bit self-conscious with both women eyeing him this way but he managed to cover it with a cocky grin.
"The two of you seem remarkably close minded on the subject," he noted. "I think things are working out splendidly so far."
If he'd stopped to think, he would have been surprised to find himself an advocate of the married state.
Aunt Doris came out again, the unidentifiable brown objects that had been cooking on the hibachi now resid ing on paper plates in her hands.
"Here you are," she told Faith, plunking the plates down on the table in front of her. "If you must eat this disgusting stuff. I wouldn't feed it to a pet alligator ."