Page 156 of Save the Date
“I tried, but you don’t explain nothin’ to Sylvia Bradley. She wants you to call her. I think she’s gonna try and talk you into giving her a new roof for the rest of the house.”
“Not happening,” Jack said succinctly. “Hey, I’m headed over to the Exchange to grab a bite. You wanna meet me?”
“Awww, man. Wish I could. We’ve got our first childbirth class at the hospital tonight.”
“Okay, no problem. Listen, in the morning, I’m gonna get the HVAC guy to walk through Jones Street with me, to see when we can get started on that.”
“Oh. So… Cara went ahead and moved out?”
“Yeah. Probably for the best. You know what a pain in the ass it is to rehab a building when somebody’s living there. Anyway, good luck tonight. I hope you do better with childbirth class than you did with high-school algebra. Cuz I amnothelping out with that homework.”
“Smart-ass,” Ryan growled.
***
Jack sat in a booth by the window. The tables around him were filled with groups, families with young kids, gray-haired couples there for the early-bird specials, and groups of office workers stopping in for happy hour after work.
He drank a beer and ate half a plate of wings before deciding he was tired of avoiding his own home. Zoey had managed to find his spare key. By God, he would go back to Macon Street right now, and if she was there, he would kick her ass to the street. And then he would go to Home Depot and buy a new lockset and install it himself.
65
“I forgot the coffeepot,” Cara said.
Bert dumped the last box of dishes on the dining-room table. Which was sitting in the middle of the large open space that would allegedly someday be Cara’s living quarters.
“Forget about it,” he said, collapsing onto one of the chairs. “We’ve still got to get your bed set up, and anyway, there’s no telling where your dishes or pantry stuff are. I’ll go over to Back in the Day in the morning and get us coffee and muffins.”
“No more takeout coffee,” Cara said stubbornly. “Our overhead here is going to be killer. We’ve got to start economizing. And that means no more five-dollar lattes. I’ll just run over to Jones Street and get the coffeepot. I think the pantry stuff, with the coffee and the sugar, are in that box there.” She pointed to a large carton on the floor. “If you’ll start unpacking that, I’ll take Poppy with me, and we’ll bring back pizza for dinner.
“Come on, Poppy,” Cara called. “Let’s go, girl.”
The dog came running and happily allowed herself to be loaded into the front seat of the pink Bloom van for the short ride back to their old home.
***
Cara let herself in the front door and felt the gloom descend on her, like a heavy wool blanket. She wouldn’t allow herself to look at the barren walls, at the swept-clean floor. Get the coffeepot and get out, she told herself.
Poppy raced down the hall. She stopped in front of the back door, glancing back expectantly at Cara, and pawed at the door.
“Okay,” Cara said with a sigh. “One more try. Maybe that squirrel will get careless, and you’ll get lucky.” She opened the door and Poppy was out like a shot.
She went back to the kitchenette and unplugged the coffeemaker.
“Hey!” a woman’s voice called from the front of the shop. She banged on the glass window. “Hey, are you in there?”
Cara poked her head out of the kitchen nook. A willowy blonde stood on the sidewalk, peering in through the window.
She opened the door. “Can I help you?” Over the woman’s shoulder she spied a yellow VW bug parked in the loading zone. A familiar fluffy white dog’s head hung out the open passenger window.
“Rowlf!” Shaz barked a greeting.
Zoey was a stunner, even with her long blond hair pinned carelessly atop her head. She wore a tight-fitting turquoise tank top that showed off impressive cleavage and a span of flat, tanned abdomen above low-slung white denim shorts. She had dancer’s legs, long and toned, if just the slightest bit bowlegged, and she stood at least four inches taller than Cara, making her feel like a dwarf. A dowdy, depressed dwarf.
Zoey was studying Cara, too, and not bothering to pretend otherwise. “So you’re the new girlfriend,” she said, her lips flickering amusement. “Sorry for the intrusion, but I just had to check you out for myself before I leave.”
Cara was looking at the VW. The backseat was loaded with boxes, and there was a bike on a rack strapped to the rear bumper.
“You’re leaving town?” she asked. Stupid question.
