Dancer in the Flames (35 page)

‘Hey, Boots, whatta ya doin’?’

Boots looked down at the pile of bills. Somehow, lying to Jill Kelly seemed the perfect way to kick off their post-Corcoran relationship.

‘Hangin’ out,’ he said.

‘Well, I have a question I want to ask you.’

‘Ask away.’

‘I want to know whether you’ll still love me if I have to wear a hearing aid?’

Boots shoved the cash into the plastic bag as he carefully considered his reply. Only when he had the words right did he finally speak.

‘Jill Kelly,’ he said, ‘I’d still love you if you wore two wooden legs and a badly fitted set of false teeth.’

‘What if I took the false teeth out?’

And not even Psycho Boots Littlewood had an answer for that one.