“Right,” she said, “she was all of what? Five years younger than me?”
“Less, I think,” he said apologetically. “And you have held up for your age.”
“Wow, this is getting better and better,” she muttered to herself, knowing it was five years. “I don’t understand what your comment means about her.”
“Well, she was the kind to get into trouble. She liked to live dangerously.”
“Yes, I know that. I mean, she cheated me out of my divorce settlement and my husband and apparently would be investigated by the bar.”
He looked at her with surprise, but she couldn’t tell if it was a true reaction or not. “What?”
“Oh, you didn’t know that?” she asked. “My understanding is that her, uh, lawyership or whatever you want to call it had been called into question, due to her unscrupulous practices.”
“Oh dear,” he said, with a heavy sigh. “In that case, I wonder if it wasn’t suicide.”
“I believe she was stabbed,” she said, looking at him closer. “Hard to do that to yourself.”
“So,” he said, “rumors have found their way to your doorstep.”
“Yeah, that stuff generally does,” she said cheerfully, and again she hesitated as she looked at the animals. “Well, Mugs is definitely happy to see you.”
“And I’m sure you are too,” he said. “It’s just the shock. And, of course, you’ve had several of them lately. With Robin’s death and all.”
“Not to mention the fact that she came here screaming at me, before she was killed.”
“Oh, that’s so Robin,” he said, with a shudder. “The things that you don’t know about a person, until you live with them. She was definitely into drama.”
“Well, that she was,” Doreen said, “but then you were tired of the old gray mare.”
“Well, you have let yourself go a little bit,” he said, “and gray hair is coming through.”
“And here just a few minutes ago you said I was fresh and natural-looking,” she said, with a roll of her eyes.
“Well, you are that too,” he said, “but there’s no doubt that you’re getting a little older.”
She chuckled. “Yep, and I’m coming by it honestly.”
He reached up and tugged at her hand. “Still, let’s go for coffee,” he said. “Let’s get away from this. Leave the animals behind, and let’s go out for a bit, even if we just go to the park for a walk.”
She hesitated, but curiosity drove her. Finally she nodded and said, “Well, a walk in the park would be nice, but I want to bring the animals.” He glared, as she shrugged. “Me and the animals or not at all.”
He raised his hands in surrender. “Fine,” he said. “I can’t imagine taking the cat for a walk though.”
“You might be surprised,” she said cheerfully. She went inside and grabbed a leash for Mugs and said, as she rejoined Mathew, “Why don’t we walk from here?”
He looked at her in surprise and then shrugged.
She headed down the driveway with the animals, and he hadn’t even seen that she’d picked up Mugs. She’d also picked up Thaddeus and waited for Mathew to notice, but he didn’t seem to see the bird on her shoulder. That just blew her away, but it was obvious that he was seriously focused on something else. Finally, when they walked around the cul-de-sac, she automatically headed toward Nan and asked, “Did you want to see my grandmother?”
“Lord no,” he said. “That old bat never did like me.”
She winced at his wording but had to give him credit for his perspective in noting that Nan never did like him. “Well, maybe she has gotten softer with age.”
“No,” he said, shaking his head, “not at all. Chances are she wouldn’t hold back now either.”
“Well, you did leave me high and dry for a younger woman and without any means to support myself,” she said.
“No, I know that,” he said, and she wondered if that was meant to be some sort of an apology.
“You mean, you didn’t do it on purpose?”
“Well, of course I did,” he said, “but it probably wasn’t fair.”
She just wasn’t sure why this turnabout was happening, and it made her very suspicious. “I’m surprised to hear that from you,” she said. “It’s not what I would have expected.”
“Well, times change.”
She didn’t think about that, but something had definitely changed. As they walked, she passed Rosemoor and said, “Grandma is in here.”
“Ah,” he said, “well, I definitely don’t want to stop and visit her there—or anywhere,” he muttered, picking up the pace. “Come on. Let’s hurry up.”
She said, “I’m not rushing. I walk this way all the time.”
“But not with me,” he said. “I don’t even know why we’re really out here walking, not to a coffee shop, where we could be inside, where it’s nice and comfortable with the coffee.”
“It’s a beautiful day,” she said comfortably. “So no reason not to be out for a walk. I didn’t want to leave the animals alone.”
“Well, you have to leave them alone soon,” he said, “because you certainly can’t take them into the coffee shop.”
“My animals go with me everywhere,” she said. “The town is used to it by now.”
“Lord,” he said, looking at her in horror. “Tell me that you haven’t become the town crazy lady?”
“Huh,” she said, as she thought about it. “You may have something there. That may be exactly what I’ve done. Not everybody knows who I am or what I’m like, but probably just enough do.”
“Oh, dear,” he said. “You know that always upset me.”
“What? Rumors and being talked about?”
“Of course,” he said. “To think that other people are gossiping about you? That’s just terrible. Privacy is everything.”
“It is to you. I guess that’s why I’m wondering why you’re even here,” she said.
“I told you. I want to reconsider our future.”
“And yet there’s no reason for that,” she muttered. “You haven’t had anything to do with me in months, so why now all of a sudden?”
“When did you get to be so suspicious?” he asked in surprise.
She laughed. “You have no idea.” He
