This one came from Good Neighbors, Duke. While Bo's attraction to the girl was kind of cute, it was a typical Bo Duke love interest: here today, gone tomorrow.
Bo was a disastrously bad actor. His part of the little play they put on for the benefit of those bounty hunters eavesdropping somewhere in a van sounded just like a first grader reading from a primer to the time of a ruler being tapped on his desk.
Then there was the part where Luke sent him to place a helpfully misleading CB broadcast to Jesse and Cooter (and everybody else with their ears on). Oh, maybe Luke should have given him better instructions than just say something about me having a plan, you don't know what it is, but you're going to ride along and yeehaw a few times. It wasn't one of those things he expected Bo to take literally, but acting clearly was not his cousin's gig. Seemed like all those years of shucking and jiving really ought to have done something more for Bo than just keep him out of jail.
And yet, he had no idea how to be anything other than the six-foot-six, blond, trusting, cheerful, overgrown toddler (except for that mammoth libido which had come along somewhere about ten years ago) that he'd always been. Which meant that his attraction to the Venable girl – Luke stalwartly refused to think of her as the Benson girl – was one-hundred percent, grade-A genuine.
And made Bo lounging around on the couch all casual-like on a Saturday night a complete surprise.
"Ain't you got a date? Like with the new girl?" Okay, so she had a first name too, and Luke actually knew what it was, even if he had no plans on using it anytime soon. Marines had special terms they used for recent recruits; Luke reckoned he was minding his manners as much as he needed to by not calling her any of those.
"Nope," Bo answered and it was all right there in his posture. The novelty had already worn off. Maybe it was that there was no longer any sense of mystery surrounding her, maybe it was that he'd figured out that she halfway looked like Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz and really was too young for him. Shoot, maybe it was that her old man approved of them now; a girl wasn't hardly worth the pursuit without the risk of being sprayed by rapidly propelled rock salt at the end of the night. "I figured we'd stay home."
Well, that sure was nice of Bo to make his plans for him like that.
"I reckoned," he continued, and it seemed like maybe he'd worked out what Luke should do with the rest of his week, too. "With Jesse already out with his checker buddies, and Daisy working, we'd have the house to ourselves." Which would be fine if they were kids again and home held any real interest to them.
Then again, it wasn't like he was on good terms with any of the girls within a fifty mile radius right now, and most of the daddies had upgraded to a larger grade of rock salt just for the likes of Luke Duke anyway.
So he went over to the couch and swatted at Bo's lazy feet, up there in a place where no boots had ever had a right to be. His cousin was just lucky they did have the house to themselves. Jesse would have chosen a much more painful part of Bo's anatomy to hit.
"What exactly did you have in mind to do with our fascinating night at home, cuz?" And dang it, Bo needed to sit up like a grown man instead of sprawling that way.
"Figured I'd get laid," was Bo's answer, timed to coincide with him sitting part of the way up and grabbing hold of Luke's forearm. Wouldn't have halfway worked if Bo didn't cheat by finally moving one foot just far enough to kick Luke's knee out from under him. His cousin wasn't exactly a pillow, at least not when Luke's body was that far off-balance. Hands and knees everywhere, ribs rubbing right up against ribs. Luke's neck still seemed to work though, so he lifted his head up enough to give Bo what he hoped was a highly sarcastic look (then again, his lips might already belong to Bo; he could feel them halfway smiling without his permission).
"You broken that news to Maudine yet?" Oh he was bluffing, there was no way his cousin would be looking at him like that if he was lusting after the mule. That goofy-in-love grin of Bo's was just as silly in frontal view as it had always been from the side.
"She'd only be jealous," Bo murmured, arms tight around his shoulders, one lanky leg trying to capture both of Luke's. He had no purchase to fight against it all, had to let it happen. Bo's lips on his, hips tilting up. Barely had time to like that before the kiss changed, his doing or Bo's, he couldn't say. Softer now, heads tilting in opposite directions. Certainly this was nothing he'd do if Bo wasn't holding him down, but still he had to admit—
For an appallingly bad actor, Bo had a uniquely meritorious method of taking action.
