I could hear my landline phone ringing as soon as I walked onto my front porch. I opened the door and my cat, King Henry, trotted up, meowing as if in protest at the noise of the phone. Sometimes that cat seems a little psychic, and my first thought was that he was protesting because Rick was on the other end of the phone connection. He never did like Rick. However, my second thought was how unlikely that was. Successful scam artist he was, but even Rick couldn’t call from the Great Beyond.
I crossed the living room, leaving the door open for Trent who should be arriving soon with that pizza, and grabbed the receiver. “Hello?”
“I just saw the news, sweetheart. Are you all right?”
My mother. Not Rick, but someone almost as annoying. Verification of Henry’s psychic abilities after all.
“I’m fine, Mother. How are you?”
“I am absolutely devastated, and I know you are too.”
“Really, I’m not.”
“Your father and I have decided you need to come home for a few days, just until this all gets settled. Phoebe’s cleaning your old room right now, and she’s going to make baked chicken for dinner. I know you don’t eat right, all that Coke and chocolate. You need a good meal.”
“Thank you, Mother, but I’m just fine where I am.”
“You don’t have to be so brave, Lindsay. I know you and Rick were having your problems, but he was still your husband.”
Leave it to Mom to bring up something I didn’t want to hear. “Only through a legal technicality. Don’t worry about me, really. I’ve got Paula next door, Fred on the other side, and Trent’s on his way here with a pizza.”
“Oh. Trent.” I could almost see the icicles forming along the phone line from Mother’s house to mine. “Lindsay, I don’t know what people are going to think, your spending time with another man when your husband just died.”
“And I’m supposed to care what people think…why?”
Henry wound himself around my legs, still complaining. I’d made the phone stop ringing, so I suspected it was now food he wanted. Maybe it had been all along. Hunger, psychic abilities…it’s hard to tell the difference sometimes, especially in cats.
My mother released a long sigh. “Lindsay, I wish you wouldn’t be like that. You know how your father and I worry about you.”
“Gotta go, Mom. Trent’s here with the pizza.” He wasn’t. Yes, I lied to my mother. It fell under the justifiable umbrella of lying for a good cause, in this case to get my mother off the phone before I lost my sanity or Henry starved.
“Lindsay, we have to plan the funeral!”
The funeral? And I’d thought our conversation couldn’t get any worse. “Bye, Mom!” I put the receiver down before she could say anything else, though she’d already said enough to send me running for chocolate. “Come on, Henry,” I said. “Let’s get some stinky food for you and a nice brownie for me.”
We went into the kitchen where I poured a large quantity of dry nuggets into Henry’s German shepherd sized bowl. He dove in, eating as if he hadn’t already consumed a bowl full of the same food that morning. Henry is a large cat, can’t even get his head in a regular kitty-sized bowl, and he has an appetite proportionate to his size.
I took a brownie from the freezer and nuked it for twenty seconds then gobbled it as greedily as Henry was scarfing down his food. After waiting in my lawyer’s office for Rick to appear, discovering Rick was dead, being grilled about Rick’s death and then talking to my mother, I desperately needed a chocolate fix.
The brownie was small, and I was considering some frozen chocolate chip cookie dough when I heard my neighbor, Fred, calling my name from the living room.
“In here!” I took out the container of dough and turned on the oven. Since I had company, I’d be gracious and bake the dough. Fred loves my chocolate chip cookies. Well, who doesn’t?
“Anlinny!” A small tornado burst into my kitchen and flung his arms around my legs. I grabbed the edge of the stove to keep from falling. I’ll be glad when Zach’s a little taller so he can hug me at a more stable height.
He looked up at me, the expression on his angelic face sad, his bright blue eyes intense as only a three-year-old’s eyes can be. “Mama says Uncle Rick’s gone and you’re sad and we have to be nice to you. Can I have cookies?”
“Zachary!” Paula exclaimed. She and Fred both stood in the doorway. My troops had arrived.
Paula moved forward and pulled Zach from his determined embrace. “Being nice to Aunt Lindsay doesn’t include knocking her to the floor or asking for cookies!”
“Sure it does.” I leaned over and kissed the top of his blond head. “I was just getting ready to make some cookies for Zach, and maybe he’ll share with the rest of us.”
Zach nodded vigorously. “Okay.” He’s a generous boy.
Paula released her son who plopped down on the floor and began to annoy Henry. Henry ignored him and continued cleaning out his bowl.
“I’m so sorry,” Paula said, coming over to hug me. She’s a tiny little thing, blond and delicate, and one of the strongest people I know. “I’m here, whatever you need.”
She stood back and Fred came over to offer his hug. I’m tall but he’s taller, so much so that he had to lean down for the embrace. “I’ve got hot dogs, potato salad, and three different flavors of Haagen-Dazs Ice Cream.”
Fred’s a gourmet cook who often turns up his nose at the stuff I eat, so I was a little surprised that he was offering me hot dogs and potato salad. Then he leaned closer and whispered in my ear, “Independence Day foods. But you really should pretend to be a little upset about Rick’s death.”
I burst into laughter. I could always count on Fred to put things in their proper perspective.
The front door slammed. “Lindsay?” Trent had arrived with the pizza. We were going to have plenty of food. There’s nothing like death to bring out the food from friends and family.
Fred brought over his contributions to the meal, and we stuffed ourselves. The thought crossed my mind that I should feel a little guilty, enjoying myself with friends and good food when Rick could no longer delight in either of those pleasures. It crossed my mind then darted into oblivion, and I had another helping of Haagen-Dazs Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream.
By nine o’clock Zach and Henry were lying on the floor together, snoozing.
Paula bent down and gathered up her sleeping son. He snuggled into her arms, and she moved toward the front door then stopped. “Do you want to close Death by Chocolate tomorrow?” she asked.
“Close? No. Why would we?” The only time we’d had to close our restaurant was when a crazy woman tried to burn the place down and we had to have repairs made.
“Death in the family.”
“Oh, that.” My mother was probably going to be mortified at my breach of the social mores, but I shook my head firmly. “He’s not family. I’ll see you in the morning around four.”
Only a few months ago a man had been killed outside the restaurant, and I’d created a dessert I called Murdered Man’s Brownies which had been a huge success. Maybe I could come up with something in Rick’s memory…Rick’s Pieces, a chocolate pudding cake with whipped cream containing pieces of chocolate and toffee, or perhaps Rickhead-free Brownies, no gluten, no nuts.
Nah, that was too tacky even for me.
Probably.
We all walked out on my front porch into the warm summer night and Trent, Fred, Henry, and I watched Paula and Zach cross the yard to her house. I was so lucky to have her as a friend.
When she was safely inside with the door closed behind her, Fred moved off the porch. “Call me if you need me no matter what time it is, but only if you really need me. Otherwise, I won’t answer.”
I’m never quite sure when he’s joking.
He strolled toward his house, his lanky frame moving along casually and confidently, his white hair gleaming in the moonlight. I was lucky to have him for a friend too.
Trent wrapped an arm around my waist. Another person I was lucky to have. Interesting how a death can make us appreciate the ones we have left.
I turned to Trent, wrapped my arms around him and kissed him, standing on my porch in full view of anybody who happened to be looking. I was no longer legally married. It didn’t matter who saw us together.
When I finally pulled away, we both looked around apprehensively. I halfway expected Rick to burst from behind the nearest bush, charge onto the porch and begin berating me. But that wasn’t going to happen ever again, I reminded myself.
“Let’s go inside,” I suggested, trying to make my voice seductive. “I think I’m as divorced as I’m ever going to be.”
He grinned. “Soon,” he promised. “But not tonight. You like to act tough and you want everybody to think Rick’s death doesn’t bother you, but I know it does.” He lifted my fingers and brushed them lightly with his lips. “We’ll have plenty of time when you’re ready.”
“I’m ready now,” I protested.
“No, you’re not.”
“Yes, I am.”
He kissed me again. Just my opinion, but that was certainly no way to convince me I wasn’t ready for him to spend the night with me. “Good night,” he said and walked toward his car parked in the street in front of my house.
I waved as he drove away then went back inside. Henry nudged me sleepily as he passed on his way to the stairs that led to our bedroom. I sighed and started to follow him, then paused at the window that looked out onto the street. I couldn’t restrain myself from taking one more peek just to be one hundred percent certain Rick wasn’t out there spying on me, leaning down from a cloud or pushing up from beneath the sod. Crazy, I know. But he’d done it so many times for so long, I would probably be paranoid the rest of my life.
Of course I saw no sign of him.
But a car parked a couple of houses away started up and moved slowly down the street with no lights on. I held my breath, half expecting to see Rick’s SUV. Of course not. That lay in pieces in the police lab. This car was a dark sedan. Just somebody who forgot to turn on his lights. Nothing I should be concerned about.
But the car slowed almost to a stop in front of my house.
I peered closely but couldn’t see anything through the tinted windows.
Could the driver see me any more clearly than I could see him?
Suddenly he sped away, turning on his lights when he reached the end of the block.
I was being paranoid.
I checked my door to be sure it was locked and went upstairs to sleep with my cat since my boyfriend had gone home.