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SIOBHAN
Nana’s feline friends woke me early the next morning. Apparently, one of the furry demons had figured out how to hook her paw under my door and shake until the jamb rattled loud enough to rouse me. By the time I got out of bed, three very different paws had hooked my door to shake it with fervor. Clever little monsters. I glanced at my phone to check the time. Six-thirty a.m.?! Good grief.
The cats must have heard me moving around because a chorus of pitiable meows broke out.
Where was Nana? How had these beasts managed to get out of her room? Their off-key song grew louder.
“All right, all right, I’m coming,” I said with a groan and grabbed my bathrobe before opening the door. Three pairs of cat eyes widened in startled surprise, as if the miscreants hadn’t expected a reaction to their pre-dawn assault. “Come on. Let’s get you guys some breakfast.”
In the kitchen, I popped open a can of smelly food, added even heaps to their three dishes and through bleary eyes, put on the coffee for myself and Nana. I didn’t even wait for the pot to fill. I shoved a mug beneath the slow drip, filled it with life-giving nectar, and then slid the glass carafe back to finish the process. After adding unsweetened vanilla almond milk, I crept into the living room to watch the slow light of sunrise appear on the horizon. While I sipped the brew to jumpstart my senses, my gaze slid to the driveway, and my newly rejuvenated heart skidded to a halt.
My van. Where the in the world was my van? Had it been stolen? I raced back to the kitchen, checked the basket on the counter where I always kept my keys. Nothing.
I didn’t need the rest of my coffee to put the pieces together. The escaped kittens, the missing van. Nana. God knew where she’d gone. I returned to my room to grab my cell, intent on calling...whom? The police? On my grandmother?
The blip-beep of a disengaging car alarm outside jolted me. I flew back to the living room window in time to see Jimmy, across the street, climbing into his car. Before I could second-guess my decision, I barreled out the front door, waving frantically as he started the sedan and the taillights lit up white to indicate he’d shifted into reverse.
“Wait! Jimmy, wait!”
He stopped at the end of the driveway, the car at a right angle, and rolled down his window. I sucked in a breath when the icy cold pavement slammed against my soles. Crap. I’d totally forgotten I was barefoot. And in my freaking pajamas and robe! I clutched my fuzzy flannel collar up toward my throat.
Jimmy’s bent arm rested on the opening, and he leaned out. “Is something wrong?”
I glanced at the ground. “I...umm...I can’t find my grandmother.” Now that I thought about it, why had I stopped him? What did I expect him to do? Help me look for her?
His eyes narrowed beneath his stern brows. “Have you checked with the neighbors? She seems to like barging in on other people.”
“What do you mean?” I hopped from one foot to the other, staying on my toes, hoping to avoid frostbite.
“After you left yesterday, she showed up at my house with a blueberry cake, intent on participating in some chit-chat. Made herself completely at home. Wouldn’t take no for an answer and wound up staying almost three hours.”
Double crap. Nana was a one-woman whirling dervish. I would’ve preferred she’d stayed home and hosted the imagined frat party than bother Jimmy. “Oh, God. I’m so sorry.” The wind whistled, and I shivered, hopping faster on my toes.
“Don’t you want to go back inside, grab a coat, maybe get some shoes at least?”
I barely registered Jimmy’s comment. My mind was laser-focused on Nana’s latest shenanigans. “She’s got my car.”
Those gorgeous eyes of his rounded in disbelief. “She still drives?”
I shrugged. “I guess so. I have no idea if she’s got a valid license, but I’ve discovered she’s got little respect for rules of any kind.”
“You got that right.” On a sigh, he clicked the locks. “Get in. Warm up. You’re gonna freeze to death out here in that outfit.”
Embarrassment hit me, and I shook my head. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have bothered you. Go do whatever it was you were doing.”
“Actually, I was headed into town to run a few errands. Do you want to take the ride with me? Maybe we’ll run into her.”
“God, yes! Thank you. Just give me five minutes to throw some clothes on. You can park in my driveway and wait in the kitchen, if you want. I made fresh coffee.”
“No, thanks. I’ll wait out here.” The words came out curt, almost bitter.
I swallowed my resentment and reminded myself to be grateful for his help. “Oh. Okay. Be right back.” I raced into the house, peeling off my robe as I hit the hallway leading to my bedroom. In two and a half minutes, I had changed into a sweatshirt, jeans, and sneakers, which left me enough time to brush my teeth while simultaneously running a brush through my hair. At the five-minute mark, I pulled my front door closed, locked it with the spare key, and hurried to the street where Jimmy waited, the car idling.
Seriously? He couldn’t even pull into the driveway? This was gonna be fun. I mean, why did he offer if he didn’t want to take me with him?
I blew air out of pursed lips. Whatever was up his butt better not come out and bite me.
I climbed into the passenger seat, flashed my biggest smile, and buckled up. “Okay, I’m ready. Let’s go.”
Without a word, he drove away, headed for Main Street. The silence in the car—with not even the radio on—strengthened my suspicion something was really weird with him. I decided to try small talk. “Where are we headed?”
I got no reply until a few stony minutes later.
Flipping on his turn signal, he pulled into a strip mall. “I don’t know about you, but I need a decent cup of coffee first.”
Ouch. The verbal slap hit me, and I retaliated without thinking. “If you didn’t want me to come along, you didn’t have to offer, you know.”
He slid the gear into park in front of the local gourmet shop, a place where a small coffee cost more than a pound of the beans at the supermarket. Who did he think he was kidding with this routine? When had he become such a snob? He was the same guy who used to drink water from a garden hose.
“You’re right” was all he said in reply. No apology, no excuse for his bad behavior.
I whirled on him. “So why did you?”
“I’m not sure exactly. Why’d you come running out to ask for my help?”
My cheeks warmed. “I’m not sure exactly, either.” But I was definitely regretting my decision. I glared out the passenger window.
“Okay, then.” He unbuckled his seatbelt. “You want anything?”
“No, thanks,” I muttered.
“I’ll be right back.” He climbed out, taking the keys with him, I guess in case I inherited my grandmother’s car-stealing habit.
The car’s interior turned cold fast while I waited for my not-so-chivalrous-knight-in-rusted-armor to return. I shivered inside my coat, my breath fogging up the window. I toyed with the idea of writing a crude message to Jimmy on the glass, something he wouldn’t see ‘til the next time the window fogged up—preferably when someone else was with him so he’d have to explain it. In the end, I passed on the childish impulse. After all, if he wanted to act like a jerk, I didn’t have to give him a reason.
The sudden opening of the driver’s door ushered in another gust of icy wind and had me sucking in a sharp gasp.
“Sorry,” Jimmy said as he climbed inside. “Didn’t mean to startle you. Here.” He handed me a plain white paper bag.
I took it with hesitation. “What’s this?” A dead rat? Dog poop?
“Peace offering.”
I unfurled the top and peeked inside with trepidation, half-expecting something to blow up in my face. A chocolate chip cookie the size of a dessert plate looked back at me alluringly. Okay, maybe not. But it sure seemed that way.
“I remember you had an affinity for sweets.”
Was that a dig? I wasn’t sure. I rolled the top down again to seal the temptation from my eyes. The holidays were tough enough for former bulimics like me without the intention of well-meaning saboteurs. “You’ve been gone a long time,” I replied airily. “I don’t have that same sweet tooth anymore.”
“Oh? Good for you.”
That was definitely a dig. I wanted to hit him, I swear.
He sipped whatever he’d bought himself, settled the cup into the center console holder, buckled up, then started the car. “Next stop?”
I looked at him, my brain still imagining his naked and oiled body slowly turning on a rotisserie spit—but not in a sexy way. “Yeah?”
“I’m asking. Where do you want to look for your grandmother?”
My brain got sucked into a black hole. I had no idea. My confusion must have shown because he pressed the issue.
“Any friends she’d visit? Favorite places she likes to go? Maybe out for breakfast?”
I shook my head. “I honestly don’t know.”
He sighed. “Wow. You really thought this through, didn’t you?”
“I’m sorry,” I snapped. “It’s not like I hang out with the lady all the time.”
“Well, when you did hang out with her,” he said with equal animosity, “where would she take you?”
I scratched my temple to wake up my memories and keep my growing temper in check. I should have made him buy me one of his expensive fancy coffees. “I don’t know. I was a kid at the time. I guess she’d take us to the usual places a grandma would take her grandkids: the movies, the library, the petting zoo.”
“None of which are open at this time of morning. Anywhere else?”
“I haven’t the faintest idea.” I placed a palm against my forehead where a dull ache throbbed. “Just drive wherever you need to go. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”
“Lucky.” Jimmy snorted. “That’d be a first.”
Something was definitely wrong with this guy. I surreptitiously checked the back seat for a rifle or an axe. When I came up empty, I convinced myself to relax, but in the recesses of my mind, I prayed for a lot of luck. The faster I got away from Jimmy Vais, the better.
♥♥♥♥
ALTHEA
I managed to get in a full session of yoga on the beach as the sun came up. The wind was bitterly cold but I felt vibrant, alive. And free. Once I was limber and ready to face the day, I said my namastes, rolled up my mat, and returned to Bon-Bon’s van. When I started the engine, the clock on the dash lit up: 6:50 a.m. I figured I’d have just enough time to stop at the local bagel shop then I’d hustle back to the house before Siobhan woke up so I could surprise her. If I remembered correctly, her favorite was an everything bagel with vegetable cream cheese. Personally, I’d always preferred a sesame, toasted with butter. There was something decadent about the way the butter melted into those yeasty holes, making the crisp top a bit softer and saltier while the sesame seeds became sweeter. All in all, a delectable breakfast choice.
The store was busier than I’d anticipated, considering it was early on a Wednesday morning. Based on the number of beat-up trucks and commercial vehicles in the parking lot, I assumed this had become the place for local blue-collar workers to stop for breakfast before beginning another back-breaking day. My Archie had worked hard every day of his life, and eventually, that work had killed him. I shook off the sadness. I wouldn’t dwell on those harsh last few years, not when he and I had lived so many happy decades together.
Inside the bagel shop, as I expected, a crowd of burly men and a few women loitered, laughing and talking as they waited for their orders. I strolled around the deli cases, checking out the labels on the baskets for the bagel flavors available: blueberry, cinnamon raisin, egg, onion, poppy, salt, plain, and of course, the two I needed.
“Thea? Is that you, dollface?”
Only one man had ever called me dollface. I turned toward the sound of the familiar gruff voice and came face-to-face with that one man.
“Hey, Lou. How are you?”
Lou Rugerman was always a brawny man, and time hadn’t stooped him yet. He still had a full head of hair, now shot with silver, those bright blue eyes with thick, lush lashes that all the girls envied, and an upper torso that looked hewn from a giant redwood tree. More importantly, his heart was as deep and vast as the Atlantic, a fact I knew firsthand.
“I thought you moved away,” he said. “You back for a visit?”
“Nope.” I beamed at him and shimmied my hips like I did whenever I thought about my grand exit from the Florida State Penitentiary. “I’m back for good.”
“No kidding?”
“No kidding.”
“What happened?”
I waved a hand. “You know how it is. There’s no place like home.”
“I agree. I’ll never leave ‘til I’m carried out in a box. How’s the family?”
“Good,” I said, avoiding looking into those stunning baby blues by allowing my gaze to flit around the crowded store. “Yours?”
“Terrific.”
“That’s good...great. How’s business?”
He owned a couple of charter boats that took people out fishing for a few hours or sailed sunset cruises around the harbor. Occasionally, he even hosted small wedding receptions or bachelor parties onboard. In the warmer months, it was a pretty lucrative living. In a cold and windy December? Not so much.
“Not bad. Black sea bass are still running and the cod are starting to show up so we’ve had some nice mixed coolers lately.” All the party boats had enormous coolers to hold the guests’ catches until they returned to the dock. A “mixed cooler” meant a variety of fish were caught that trip and stocked inside.
“Lou?” a young girl behind the counter shouted. “What can I get you?”
“Gimme a sec, Annie.” He glanced at her then back at me. “What’s your poison, Thea? My treat.”
His attention flustered me, like it always had. “Oh, umm, gee, I was just getting a couple of bagels for my granddaughter and me. You don’t have to—”
He clasped his beefy hand around mine. “I insist.”
My tongue grew thick in my mouth, but somehow I managed to eke out my preferences. “One sesame, one everything.”
Still holding my hand, he strolled to where Annie waited, with me his willing sheep. “Gimme one sesame and one everything bagel for the lady, and I’ll take the schooner sandwich, over easy, with ham, American, salt, pepper, ketchup.”
The young girl named Annie wrote down the initials for Lou’s order on a piece of white butcher paper. She then slipped on a pair of disposable plastic gloves. “Does the lady want anything on her bagels?”
“No, I’m taking them home. Maybe...” I held up the hand Lou didn’t currently have in his grasp, my thumb and index finger a bit apart. “On the side, could you give me just enough vegetable cream cheese to spread on the everything bagel? What would that be? A couple of tablespoons?”
She smiled. “We normally sell the cream cheeses by the pound, but since you’re with Lou, I’ll take care of it.” And off she went into the back of the kitchen to place Lou’s breakfast order.
I glanced at the menu overhead. What exactly was a schooner sandwich? Like almost everything else in this seaside town, the sandwiches bore a maritime theme, in this case, sailing ships. The biggest, the “Ship of the Line” was a half loaf of Italian bread filled with six eggs, sausage, bacon, ham, peppers, onions, and two different cheeses. Good God, who ate that much? In decreasing sizes were the “Man O’War,” the “Frigate,” the “Schooner,” and the “Sloop.” All of them came with a small coffee, small orange juice, and home fries. Lou’s choice was two eggs, any style, on a seeded roll with his choice of one meat and one cheese, also known as the traditional Long Island breakfast sandwich.
“When did you get home?” Lou’s question jolted me out of my menu-studying.
“Huh? Oh! Yesterday.”
“Well, that’s great. This town hasn’t been the same without your special brand of sunshine.”
Did I mention Lou was smooth with the ladies, too? Yeah. Me, chief among them. My knees wilted. The man exuded sex appeal the way Vicks Vap-o-Rub exuded menthol.
“I’d like to take you out, Thea,” he said, his tone a sexy purr while he rubbed his calloused thumb over my palm.
Oh, no. Not again. Lou Rugerman was eighteen the first time he said those words to me. I was twenty-three, married, and six months pregnant at the time. He didn’t care. If anything, my unavailability made him pursue me all the harder in those days. These days, I didn’t have a husband and a baby to shield me from his dogged pursuit. My throat dried, and I bit my lip before digging up the sense of humor I’d been using against his charm since 1972. “I can take myself out. How do you think I wound up here?”
“You took my van,” a voice accused from behind me.
Uh-oh. I rotated my neck slowly, hoping I might be mistaken. Nope. There was Siobhan, hands on her hips, and her face etched with anger. Well, shoot. I’d underestimated my granddaughter’s sleuthing skills. I probably shouldn’t have bought her all those Nancy Drew books when she was little.
Time to bluff. “Bon-Bon! What are you doing here?”
“No, Nana. That’s my line. What are you doing here? Do you have any idea how worried I was?”
“I wanted to surprise you with your favorite bagel. How’d you find me anyway?”
“Sheer luck,” someone else said, and my attention veered to the man at her side.
I bit back a delighted smile. Jimmy Vais. How perfect. Although, as I looked again at my granddaughter, I concluded she and I would have to have a long talk about how to dress to catch a man. Those sweats were far from flattering. I didn’t want to think about what her hastily-brushed hair and lack of makeup conveyed to him. For heaven’s sake, she wasn’t even trying!
“We were passing by, and I saw my van in the parking lot,” she said with an impatient edge to her tone. Someone clearly did not get enough sleep.
“I’m sorry,” I told her. “I thought I’d be back before you got up.”
“You might have made it, if you hadn’t left those furry demons of yours loose.”
Furry...? My babies? Oh, dear. I realized what must have happened. In my attempt to slip out of the house unheard, I’d closed my bedroom door gently, and the latch probably didn’t fully catch. A few well-placed paw pulls, and my babies had escaped to sound the alarm about my escape.
“You promised you wouldn’t get into any trouble,” she added and had the audacity to wag a finger at me.
Beside me, Lou snorted his humor, and I selfishly used him for my own purposes, turning him to face the newcomers.
“Bon-Bon, you remember Mr. Rugerman, don’t you?”
As expected, my granddaughter reverted to the polite child my son and daughter-in-law raised. “Hello, Mr. Rugerman. Nice to see you again.”
“You’re a grown woman, Siobhan,” he said in his usual gregarious nature. “Call me Lou. And it’s good to see you, too.” He reached a hand toward Jimmy. “Jimmy Vais. I didn’t know you were in town. What brings you back here?”
“A work project,” Jimmy grumbled, shaking Lou’s hand with no enthusiasm.
The young man’s glower could scare off an ogre. I would seriously have to talk to Siobhan about how to handle a brooding man. Maybe slip into her room when she wasn’t around and go through her wardrobe.
“Lou!” Annie called from the other side of the counter. “Your order’s up.”
“Excuse me.” At last, he let go of my hand. “Don’t leave ‘til I have a chance to talk to you,” he told me.
“I can’t,” I reminded him. “You have my breakfast.”
His ruddy cheeks went red. “Right.”
Meanwhile, I fixed a smile on my face for Siobhan. “Now that you know I’m safe and your van is in good hands, you and Jimmy should head on back to the house. I’ll be along in a few minutes with breakfast.”
As Lou returned with two paper bags in his hands, my granddaughter returned my smile with one of so little warmth the chill froze my spine. “Actually, I’ve inconvenienced Jimmy enough, and he has errands to run here in town. So if you’d be kind enough to hand over my keys, I’ll head home and you can either come with me or take the ride with Mr. Rugerman.”
“I’d be happy to take you home,” Lou offered and leaned low to whisper. “That way, I can get you to agree to dinner with me tonight.”
“Oh, I couldn’t,” I demurred.
“You made a promise forty years ago, Thea, and it’s time I collect on it.”
Promise? What promise? His eyes took on an intensity that made me jumpier than water on a hot griddle, and I grabbed one of the bags he held, hoping it was the one with the bagels and cream cheese. Otherwise, Siobhan and I would be splitting a ham, egg, and cheese sandwich for breakfast. “I don’t want to inconvenience you. Surely, you’re on your way to the docks. My house is in the opposite direction.”
He grinned. “That’s the luxury of being the boss. I can show up late if I want to.”
“There,” Siobhan crowed and held out her hand, palm up. “We’re all set. Jimmy, thanks so much for your help. Nana, my keys please.”
Well, shoot. I thought this was going to be a fun outing. I dug into my coat pocket and pulled out the requested keys, wondering where and when I’d lost this particular battle. When I got home, I thought, I’d not only go through her wardrobe, I’d burn all the sweats I found.