"Mike Moscoe - Society of Humanity 03 - They Also Serve" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moscoe Mike)

"Well, man, if you wanted all those technological baubles, you might have stayed in
Richland." Annie's words came fast and well practiced. Still, she left off the unkindest cut,
"where you belong." Annie always had. Maybe she sensed what Jeff had learned early in
life, that the third child of a family like the Sterlings did not belong anywhere. He had no
place, nor ever would have oneтАФunless he found one for himself.
Introspection could not be allowed to delay his retort. Jeff grinned at Annie. "But who
in Richland would serve me my morning tea with such a fetching smile?"
"Man, if you take me scowl for a smile, you're more blind than me ma says you are."
Said scowl grew wider, adding dimpled shadows to offset the milk white of her
complexion. The temptation to steal a kiss grew. He stuffed the rest of the bread in his
mouth to stifle it. Sterlings took what they wantedтАФif they were Vicky or Mark. Last
born learned quickly that everything worth taking was took. At least in Richland. Now,
out here in the foothills, that was another matter. Maybe.

"Maybe there is something wrong with my eyes," he agreed. He opened his map case
and pulled out a stack of pictures. They were in order, all but the last. It was the newest,
and it didn't fit. Annie came around the counter to stand beside him, so close her warmth
and scent nearly overpowered him. He kept his hands on the pictures. If he didn't, they'd
be around her waist. That, at least, would answer one question. Would she slap him, like a
good Mulroney girl should, or kiss him, like he dreamed of?
"I don't see anything wrong," she said.

He swallowed the lump in his throat her nearness brought. "These are pictures of the
front range, made eight years ago by my brother's survey team."

"And weren't they a hard bunch." Jeff knew the stories, and saw the blond-haired
seven-year-olds running with the other kids. The good Catholic mothers were seeing that
Jeffrey did penance for Mark's sins. The story of my life?
"I took this batch yesterday," Jeff said, laying his own three panoramic shots out below
his brother's.

"There's the Great One." Annie's fingers lightly danced from one set of pictures to
another. A thrill went up Jeff's spine, as if her fingers were touching him. "There's Our
Lady with her two big breasts." There was nothing puritan about the farmers, not with
their big families. They just kept to themselves. Or kept Jeffrey Sterling out.
"Something's missing," Annie muttered, puzzle replacing her smile without removing one
bit of her loveliness.

"Maybe it's just the angle." Jeff suggested the only answer he'd come up with.
"No. Where's that peak?" she asked, her eyes returning to his as if to find the missing
mountain there.

"Do you have a name for that one? The missing one."

She shook her head, dark curls inviting his touch. "It is just a wee one. We don't have
names for every one."
"Then where'd it go?"

Giving her head a final shake, Annie turned for the kitchen.