"I was a kid from the wrong side of the tracks. That's an explanation, not an excuse. Then I met him again in the business, and we got close."
"Had he changed?"
"No. I changed. There's nothing like making money to discharge the venom in you. Sam was always the same. A whole man." Lennox smiled gently.
"I like the way you look when you talk about him," Gabby said. "It shows how much you love him."
"Love him?" Lennox was startled. "My God! Don't say that. Men aren't allowed to talk like that nowadays."
"But you do, don't you?"
Lennox nodded. "You know how I feel about you. If you were turned into a man.... That's how I feel about Sam." He stopped suddenly and faced Gabby. "I've got you both, Gabby. Help me hold on to both."
"I'm not jealous," she said honestly.
"I know that, but don't do one thing. If he's got faults that I can't see, don't point them out to me. You and Sam can sit in a corner and make fun of me all you like. God knows, I'm a prize noodnick. You can take my noodnickery apart and I won't care. Just let me love both of you."
"Why did you flinch when I said lovers' knots?" Gabby asked.