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“How was your lunch, Suzanne?” Trish asked me critically the moment she spied me coming into the diner. “Tell me the truth. It was cold by the time you ate it, wasn’t it?”
“As a matter of fact, it was delightful,” I told her. “Penny told me to tell you thanks for making an exception for us. She said it was exactly what she needed to get her through the rest of her day.”
That seemed to mollify her slightly. “Okay, I’ll be sure to thank her for the kind words the next time I see her,” she said. “What’s up?”
“I was hoping to get a bite to eat myself,” Grace said.
“Are you going to try to take it with you?” Trish asked her pointedly.
“No, ma’am, not on your life. I’ll have the meat loaf special and an iced tea, for here.”
Trish grinned. “That’s what I’m talking about. Go grab a table, and I’ll bring it out to you.” Almost as an afterthought, she turned back to me. “Did you want anything?”
“What kind of pie do you have?” I asked her.
Trish smiled. “Cherry and apple crumb.”
“Is that one kind of pie or two?” I asked her, happy that we were still on good terms.
She laughed at my question. “It’s two, but I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll serve you a half slice of each. How does that sound?”
“Great, if you’ll make it two,” Grace interjected. “After all, I’d hate for those two orphaned half slices to just go to waste.”
“Was that ‘waste’ or ‘waist’?” Trish asked her.
“Probably both, but I’ll take my chances,” Grace answered with a smile.
“Mind if I grab something and join you two?” she asked. I’d promised her lunch with us the next day, but why not do it now?
“That would be great. We can take a few minutes and catch up with each other’s lives while Grace is eating,” I said.
“I’ll be there shortly,” Trish said. “Why don’t you take this table so I’ll be close to the kitchen and the cash register?” she asked as she tapped an empty table near the front.
“That sounds good,” I said.
After Grace and I were seated and served a pair of iced teas, though I hadn’t requested one, Trish added a glass for herself.
“Did you even want a tea?” Grace asked me softly after the diner owner disappeared into the kitchen.
“You know me. I’m always up for tea,” I said as I took a sip. I’d probably be bouncing off the walls later from the overload of sugar and caffeine, but I really didn’t care. There were some sacrifices worth making.
Trish came out with a large tray a few minutes later, and soon Grace was eating her main meal while Trish and I had our desserts. Trish had chosen banana pudding, and it looked wonderful, but I didn’t regret my choice of getting a variety of pie slices. When given the option for dessert, it was a rare day that I ever chose anything but pie if it was available.
We chatted about a dozen things as Grace ate, but the moment she started in on her own small pie slices, I asked the grill owner, “Trish, what were you going to say earlier?”
“Earlier than what?” she asked. “Whoops, I have to go. I’ll be right back.” She left us to ring up a customer as Grace took her first bite of the cherry crumb pie and then followed it up quickly with a bite of the apple crumb.
“Where do you put it?” I asked her in awe. “You’re as skinny as a rail no matter what you eat.”
“I owe it all to clean living and a positive mental attitude,” she answered with a grin. “That and a metabolism like a hummingbird that I inherited from my mother. She could eat anything she pleased and never gain an ounce. I can’t quite claim that myself, but I’m not that far off.”
“You know what? I’m trying really hard not to hate you right now,” I said with a grin, “but it’s kind of tough at the moment.”
“How could you? After all, I’m the most loveable person I know,” she said, and we both started laughing as Trish rejoined us.
“What did I miss?”
“Grace was just telling me how loveable she is,” I said with a smile.
“Okay,” Trish answered, clearly not getting the joke.
“You were about to say earlier?” I asked her.
“Oh, right. I saw something at ReNEWed yesterday, but I’m not sure that it means anything.”
“Why don’t you tell us and let us decide?” I asked her.
“Tyra Hitchings was acting odd, and for her, that’s saying something. She stormed out of ReNEWed about an hour before I heard the first siren.”
“Why would she do that?” I asked. Tyra had once been a wealthy woman who had fallen on hard times recently, and I knew from some comments Gabby had made that Tyra was selling off her nice things a few articles at a time to cover her bills.
“I have a feeling I know. That woman’s always had a temper, so it didn’t surprise me that she’d be upset with Gabby. Tyra’s been selling things to ReNEWed for a while now,” Trish said, independently confirming what Gabby had told me. “She usually does it in the store’s off hours so no one will see her leaving the place. The only reason I know anything about it at all is that I’ve spotted her visiting a few times in the past. She goes in with a large bag that’s clearly full of clothes, and then she leaves later with nothing but a grim expression on her face. This was the first time I’d ever seen her visit the place during regular business hours.”
“I wonder what their argument was about?” Grace asked.
“I’ve got a feeling I know,” I said grimly.
“Why would she be mad?” Trish asked me. “Gabby always pays for what she buys.”
“True, but I’m sure it doesn’t feel as though it’s enough, especially when you see what she turns around and charges for the same things she just bought,” I answered. “If that was Tyra’s first time in the store itself, she must have been furious to learn how much profit Gabby was making off her things.”
“That’s pure speculation, and you know it,” Grace said as she pushed her dessert plate away.
“Yes, but there’s one way to find out. Let’s go pay Tyra a call, shall we?”
Trish frowned. “I wish I could go with you, but I’ve got to stay here and man the register.”
“We’ll let you know what we find out,” I promised.
“You’d better.”
As Trish stood and cleared the table, Grace slid a twenty-dollar bill toward her. “That was delightful.”
“Twenty is too much,” Trish said. “I’ll go grab your change.”
“Just apply it to my next bill,” Grace said with a smile.
“No, ma’am. I’ll forget, and then I’ll remember, and then I’ll be upset,” Trish explained.
“Okay, I’ll be right here,” Grace said. It was pretty clear that she hadn’t understood Trish’s reasoning, but then again, she’d never owned her own business. She may have had her own set of headaches, but that didn’t mean that our lives were worry free. I hated the thought of cheating someone—whether accidentally or not—more than just about anything, and I knew that Trish felt the same way, too.
After Grace got her change, Trish said with a smile, “If you leave me a tip, I’ll dump a pitcher of tea in your lap.”
Grace, who had clearly been considering doing what Trish had just surmised, quickly tucked the money back into her purse. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”
We all laughed about it, and as Grace and I stepped outside, I said, “Let’s take a shortcut through the park and grab my Jeep first. Tyra lives too far away for us to walk.”
“Especially after that meal,” Grace said. “I’m not entirely sure I can make it to your place after everything I just ate.”
“You can wait right here, and I can come by and pick you up,” I offered with a smile.
“No, if you can make the trek, then so can I,” I said.
We headed through the park toward the cottage I shared with Jake, but something stopped us before we got there.
Someone was standing still, staring oddly at the back of my home, and I had a creepy feeling that I knew exactly who it was, though why they were there, I couldn’t even begin to guess.