Added to the crushing blow of being forced to give up her home and her friends, it was an especially wrenching maneuver because “Ellen” couldn’t have children and the new wife wanted to start a family right away.
In the morning, Mel wasn’t surprised she’d spent a fitful night with disturbing dreams about Elise, Hair Plugs, and pens that spurted blood instead of ink. The one thing she couldn’t figure out from the beginning was why Ellen stayed married to Hair Plugs, or rather Elise to Todd. Surely she could have left him at some point in their marriage when everything started to go horribly wrong.
She woke up to Captain Jack batting her nose. She reached out from under her covers and rubbed his head. He purred and then began to walk on her, up and down from her shoulders to her knees and back, which was his way of insisting that she wake up and feed him. Right now.
“All right, all right,” she said. She pushed the covers off and glanced at Joe. Peanut was still wedged up against him, sharing his pillow and snoring softly just like Joe. She had also managed to maneuver herself under the covers.
As if sensing her gaze upon him, Joe opened one eye, and said, “She snores.”
“Uh-huh.”
“She’s under the covers.”
“Yup.”
“She can’t stay.”
“For now or forever?”
“For now,” he said. “I wasn’t aware forever was on the table.”
He moved to get up, being careful not to jostle the dog. What a fibber! He was totally smitten with Peanut.
“It’s all right if you wake her,” Mel said. “She probably needs to go out.”
“Oh, well, she’s had a rough night,” he said. He tucked the covers in around her. “I figure she could use the rest.”
Mel shook her head at him. “‘He went for her like she’s made outta ham.’”
“Best in Show?” Joe asked.
“Look at you, getting the movie quote right,” she said. “I’m so glad the bakery crew has been such a good influence on you.”
Joe rolled his eyes but it was with a smile.
Captain Jack, clearly unhappy that he wasn’t the center of attention, gave a howl. The noise snapped Peanut awake and she bolted up, getting tangled in the covers as she tried to make a leap for the cat.
Jack hissed and hightailed it out of the bedroom. Peanut launched herself off the bed to give chase.
“And they’re off,” Mel said as she hurried after them.
Mel let Peanut out into their fenced backyard and fed Captain Jack, who seemed much happier with his food bowls up on the counter. When Peanut came in, she was so distracted by her food, she forgot all about the cat.
Mel brewed a pot of coffee and took up the book where she’d left off the night before. She was fully engrossed when Joe entered the kitchen. He had to say her name three times to get her attention and then he pointed his thumb at Captain Jack.
“He’s not coming around, is he?” Joe asked.
“What makes you think that?” she asked.
They watched as Captain Jack swatted yesterday’s mail off the counter onto Peanut, where she was licking her empty bowl as if more food might appear if she licked deeply enough.
“A hunch,” he said. He glanced at the book. “Good reading?”
“Horrifying,” she said. “It’s got it all—sex, power, the rich behaving badly—and Elise barely concealed people’s identities. I can see why there was outrage. If not for the dirty deeds then for some of the nicknames. Can you imagine being known as Foot Stink or Oozing Sores?”
“Those are bad, but enough to try and murder her?”
Mel didn’t like to admit it, but she could see someone being angry enough to kill Elise for this book. It wasn’t just the insulting names she had for everyone, it was also the secrets, the bad behavior, the cheating, the lying, and who really hated whom and what they did to show it.
It was like a how-to manual on cruel and outrageous behavior that she couldn’t stop reading. When Joe kissed her good-bye to leave for work, she glanced up and looked at him, really looked at him. Then she dropped the book and hugged him.
Joe hugged her back and then pulled back to look at her. “What’s up?”
“Just insanely glad that I chose you,” she said. “You’re a good man, Joe DeLaura.”
He kissed her and then smiled. “Not to be argumentative, but I’m pretty sure I chose you.”
Mel grinned at him. She’d had him in her sights since she was twelve and he was sixteen. There was no way he’d pined as long as she had and he knew it. Nice of him to pretend, however, and it was just one more reason why she loved him.
“What’s the plan with the fur people?” he asked.
“I’m going to take Peanut with me to work and beg Oz to let me keep her in his apartment,” she said. “I just don’t think she should be alone, and Captain Jack could probably use a break from her.”
“That’ll get us through today,” Joe said. “I’ll ask my brother Dom if he has any baby gates we could borrow. We can use them to barricade the dog in the living room tomorrow and keep her from destroying the whole house.”
“See?” Mel asked. “It’s all coming together.”
Joe gave her a dubious look but he didn’t argue. He kissed her one more time, rubbed Captain Jack’s ears, and patted Peanut on the head. Mel watched him go, admiring the cut of his suit and the prosecutorial way he carried himself.
When the door shut behind him, she glanced at the pets and said, “I’m going to marry him.”
Captain Jack gave her a bored look as if this was old news, but Peanut barked as if in approval. Of course,
