Page 77 of Hello, Summer
“I’m gonna get Mama settled in the car,” Skelly said. “Here, Conley. I’ll take Opie and put him back there with her.” He put the wriggling terrier under his arm and led his mother back to the Subaru.
“He’s embarrassed,” Conley told Toddie once he was out of earshot. “I’m afraid I should admit to you that I dragged them out here today under false pretenses.”
Toddie cocked her head. “Oh? How’s that?”
“Well, I’m currently working at theBeacon. Temporarily. And the thing is, I’m working on a story about your ex-husband. About his death, I mean.”
Toddie’s smile faded.
Conley rushed on. “I’m sorry for your loss. It must have been a terrible shock for your family.”
“My family?” Her voice grew frosty. “If you’re looking for a story about my ex-husband, you’d best contact his wife. Symmes and I parted ways more than thirty years ago.”
“Vanessa—I mean, Mrs. Robinette—submitted an obituary for theBeacon,and the thing is, it only lists her and her son as the congressman’s survivors. There’s no mention of you, which I guess isn’t unheard of, or the children you had with the congressman.”
Toddie’s lips clamped tightly. “That’s not surprising,” she said finally. She looked away and then back at the Subaru. “I’m sorry you made the trip here for nothing, Sarah.”
“I was wondering,” Conley said, rushing now. “It’s just that in my research, I saw that the congressman deeded this farm over to you only a week before his accident. And I found that unusual—”
“I don’t have anything else to say to you about this matter. Thank you for bringing June to see me today. But if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got dogs to train and a farm to run.”
“That was incredibly awkward,” Conley said as they drove away from the farmhouse.
“What did she say?” Skelly asked.
“Basically, she said, ‘Here’s your hat, what’s your hurry?’” Conley turned in her seat and saw that Miss June was already dozing, with Opie draped contentedly across her lap.
“The good news is that Toddie’s been out of touch for so long, she probably doesn’t have your grandmother’s phone number,” Skelly pointed out.
“I guess I need to apologize to you again,” Conley said, sighing.
“Not to me,” he said.
She leaned her head against the window and closed her eyes for a moment, but sat up straight after she remembered a question that had been bothering her since that morning. “Skelly, do you know what’s going on between Grayson and Tony?”
He kept his eyes on the road and was slow to answer.
“What do you mean?”
“Whenever somebody answers a question with a question, I start thinking they have something to hide,” Conley said. “I mean, my sister has been sleeping in the office. Basically living there. Are they separated? Did she run Tony off?”
“Ask her,” Skelly said.
She rolled her eyes. “You know Grayson. She’s so… uptight. Tight-lipped. And we’ve never really talked about family stuff.”
“Not at all? Like, well, like about your mom?”
“Nope.”
“Do you ever open up to her about what’s going on in your life? Does she know you broke up with your live-in boyfriend before you came back home?”
“Whose side are you on here?”
“I don’t take sides. I’m neutral,” he said.
“That’s bullshit,” she said under her breath.
A few more miles of pastures and farmland rolled past before he spoke up again.
