Since I was feeling homesick for Ellery, I went back and did some re-reading of "What I Did On My Day Off," which I think is one of my favorite of all the stories (if I had to pick a favorite). I love it being from Ellery's point of view. And this may very well be one of my favorite quotes of all....
“You gonna be all right?”
And from close range he flashed his eyes at me an he stammered “Just be careful. I don’t want nothin ta happen to ya.”
Black comes in awful handy for not showin when ya suddenly get aroused on the job, an I hoped I was standin too close for him to see what that look did ta me, and said “Don’t worry – we got a getaway car, remember?”
His smile made me ache on top of bein rock hard.
“I ain’t never been shot. This body is in perfect condition, an I aim it to stay that way. I got plans for it.” An I gave em what I hoped was a promise a future pleasures he never dreamed of with whoever it was he’d lost – cause I sure wanted a chance to show him a few.
“I’ll be fine,” he said, an I went downstairs right then – because if I didn’t go then I wasn’t ever gonna go till I locked Pete in the guest room an tore Ennis’s clothes off with my teeth. And I couldn’t afford to think that way with a potentially lethal customer in the bar. Bill’s bar. My bar.
And rushin down those stairs, throbbin everywhere a man could throb without bein beat up, was when I realized I’d fallen in love with a man I’d just met, at the moment when there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it. It was time to be the law. For that half hour, I really fuckin hated my job.