The famous biscuits and gravy line, also from Chapter 21:
“Uh, medium, please, ma’am. An butter with the biscuits, no gravy.”
She scribbled hastily, nodding, then looked at Ellery, who wasn’t paying her any attention at all, and said “That sounds nice, make mine the same, but I would like some gravy. Need ta have somethin to dip my biscuits in.”
Ennis gulped, his eyes widening.
“Oh, drinks, you haven’t ordered any drinks.”
“I think we’ll be havin some of yer beers on tap, unless my associate would like otherwise,” Ellery replied smoothly, nonplussed by Ennis’s reaction.
“Uh. No. That’s. Fine....” he choked out, keenly aware of the gaze of the man facing him. Ennis watched the girl make her way silently across the almost-deserted dining room – it was still early for dinner – and gulped again, his throat dry.
“Why Ennis I think you like it when I talk dirty,” Ellery said, pitching his voice so low it was nearly a whisper, which almost made Ennis jump. “Course its only dirty if you think it is.”
“Ellery...”
“I said I wouldn’t lay hands on ya, but I refrained from promisin not to make provocative allusions at dinner.”
Ennis looked up at last, his face deeply flushed. “No one ever talked ta me like this in public, Ellery, I don’t know... what ta say.”
“Yer doin just fine, Ennis. I just love makin you blush. But if you want I kin stop now and go back to blatherin about what a dumbass Bill is and how stupid I am to get roped into his problems and his bar and his customers.” From the rapid change of topic, Ennis found himself able to breathe again, and realized Ellery was doing the equivalent of giving him body space, pulling his hand away to let him decide how he felt.
L