“It must have just come on,” Lucy said. “Sometimes people have diabetes for a long time before they ever go to the doctor. He may have been ignoring the symptoms.”
Della nodded. “I think that’s exactly what happened. He was young, so he probably thought he couldn’t have something like diabetes.”
We looked up as the bell over the door jingled, and Jodi walked through it. She hesitated, looking at Della. “Sorry I’m late, Della. It took a little longer to walk here than I thought it would.”
Della frowned. “That’s all right. You can stay late and make up the seventeen minutes.”
She nodded and turned to us. “Good morning, Allie. Good morning, Lucy. I’m so sorry about what happened at your reception, Allie. I feel terrible that your wedding day was ruined.”
I shook my head. “Don’t apologize. My wedding wasn’t ruined. I married the man of my dreams, and the wedding was just the proverbial icing on the cake. Honestly, I’m just sorry for Richard’s family.”
She went behind the counter and stood next to Della. “I still can’t get over it. We were just talking about it yesterday, and it seems so unlikely that he would die from a diabetic coma.”
I didn’t know where they had gotten the idea that he died from a diabetic coma. Was it still called a diabetic coma if he hadn’t been a diabetic? Or maybe the pills had forced him into an artificial diabetic coma?
“Is that what his mother told you?” I asked.
She hesitated, and then she shook her head. “No, I heard it from his cousin, Jared Thomas. Is it not true?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know for sure. Was he feeling sick while you were here cooking in the morning?”
Della shook her head. “No, he seemed fine. As I said, he was tired because he’d been up late the night before. I got onto him because he knew that he had to be here early to make the food for your reception, and he had stayed out late. So, of course, he was tired, and he was whining and complaining about it being so early. He said he wanted to go back to bed.”
“Richard liked to drink a lot,” Jodi volunteered. “I thought he was just dealing with a hangover. When he said his blood sugar was low, I thought it was because he had had too much alcohol the night before, but he insisted that wasn’t it. That was when I suggested that he eat some frosting to help bring his blood sugar back up. Honestly, I’m surprised he showed up at all. Everyone knows that he likes to stay out late drinking on the weekends.” She glanced at Della.
“Maybe he was suffering from a hangover, and that overshadowed the symptoms of whatever it was that he was dealing with,” I said, glancing at Lucy.
Lucy nodded. “I bet that was it. Maybe he didn’t feel well on top of having a hangover.”
“So Richard liked to drink a lot?” I asked.
Jodi nodded, glancing at Della again. “Yes, I was surprised at how much he drank. A friend and I ran into him at the bar a couple of weeks ago, and he was really putting away the hard stuff. I was just so surprised.”
I wondered if he had switched from doing drugs to drinking. Or maybe he was doing drugs on top of the alcohol consumption. At any rate, either of them would shorten your life if you weren’t careful. “I know his mother, Mary Thomas. We need to stop by and check on her,” I said to Lucy.
Della nodded. “I need to stop by and check on her in a couple of days. She was so broken up when she was here earlier, and I’m worried about her.”
“Poor thing. I’m sure she’s struggling right now. Losing a child has got to be a nightmare,” I said. “We’ll try to stop by and see her in the next day or so, too. I’m sure it will be a help to her to have people checking on her.”
She smiled. “I think she would appreciate that.”
We talked about how good the reception food was for a few minutes, and then we left.
“So why is Richard’s cousin telling people that Richard died of a diabetic coma?” Lucy asked when we got into my car.
I shook my head. “I’d like to know the answer to that, too.”
Chapter Eight
Since Alec and I weren’t going on our honeymoon right away, I decided I needed to stop by the grocery store. In the two weeks leading up to my wedding, I did my best not to buy many groceries because I knew we would be gone for a couple of weeks after the wedding, and I didn’t want food to spoil in the refrigerator. My family had all gone to their respective homes, and we had done our best to eat all the leftovers from the wedding reception. That left the refrigerator looking pretty bare. A trip to the grocery store was in order so I could pick up a few things for meals for the next several days. I didn’t know how long Alec would want to wait before we went on our honeymoon, but I was sure it wouldn’t be before the weekend.
I was pushing my shopping cart down the meat aisle looking for some steaks. We could have them one night served with a salad and a baked potato. That would be easy enough to make without any leftovers to worry about. I peered into the refrigerated case at the trays of meat and decided on ribeye steak and found a
