“What about Elton?” She’d not heard about the little visit Revonda Gail and I’d had this morning at Elton’s house.
I gave her the quick version and how we were going to meet at the bakery.
“I can’t go to the bakery.” Iris sounded very vague.
“Why not?” I asked. “You busy that late?”
Bobby, Mac, and Grady walked up. And by the look on Iris’s face, I could see her going down that Bobby Peters path. . . again.
“No,” I gasped.
“I agreed to watch television with him tonight in exchange for him to come here.”
“Oh, Iris. No. Not again.” I groaned, unable to go into any more details about it because now they were standing next to us.
“Rowena is having a good time.” Mac put his arms out to take Clara from Iris.
“Poor baby is going to get sores from us passing her around so much.” Iris’s shoulders rose up to her ears as she inhaled a happy sigh and dropped when she exhaled. Her head tilted to the side, and a smile was on her face.
“Nah. You can never be too loved.” Bobby Peters put his two cents in.
I glared at him, and Iris cleared her throat. Her subtle way of telling me she saw me.
“Look who’s here.” Mac twisted Clara around to see my parents driving up. “Your granny and granddaddy.” Mac took Clara and started off to their car.
It was precious how much Clara made my parents giddy with delight. I loved it when they became grandparents to my child, but this was a whole different level of joy they had with Clara.
“Now’s your big moment to shine.” I clapped my hands together and rocked back on the heels of my shoes, directing my attention to Bobby Peters. “My dad’s here, so you can get his account of where you were at the other night when Piddy, the woman you slept with—” I was going to continue, but Grady, of all people, wasn’t going to have it.
“Mom,” Grady scolded me. His brows formed a V. “That’s not how I treat Aunt Iris’s guest. He was my uncle at one time. I guess he’d still be considered an uncle.”
“You were a baby when he cheated on Iris. He never was an uncle. . .” I was going to give him a good tongue-lashing, but once again, Grady stopped me.
“I’m sorry. She’s having some hormonal issues lately.” Grady surprised me. “You’ll have to forgive her.”
Bobby and Iris both laughed so hard. Iris mentioned how Grady was right, and Bobby continued to laugh like I wasn’t even there.
“Fine.” I threw my hands up and headed to the farmhouse, where Mac had followed my parents after they took Clara inside.
Rowena didn’t get too far from me. She took off running toward the old farmhouse when she saw me walking up on the porch. She darted inside after I opened the door.
“It’s not too chilly out there,” I overheard Julia saying to my mom. I figured Mom had told Julia it was too cold for Clara to be outside.
“She’s going to catch a cold.” My mom was relentless during the colder months about the weather giving a cold when we all knew that’s not how a real cold was spread.
Instead of arguing, Julia just worked around the kitchen. I did my normal activity of setting the table.
“We are missing a place setting.” Julia was silently counting the plates. “We need one for Bobby.”
“Oh, I figured I’d put him in the barn,” I said, half joking, mostly not.
“Where are your manners?” Mom didn’t like how I was acting. “And you just went to church this morning.”
“Forgive me,” I said sarcastically and grabbed another plate to put in front of the empty space on the table that was reserved for Bobby.
“Yep. He sure was.” My dad’s voice trailed into the kitchen when they walked through the front door.
We all looked up. Julia had had the entire farmhouse redone to make it an open concept by having the contractor take out all the walls.
“We were talking about him coming to the condo and taking down a few walls like he did here.” My dad must’ve been recounting what he and Bobby Peters had talked about when someone was killing Piddy.
“He did your remodel here?” I asked and wondered why I never even thought about who’d done it before.
“Yes.” Julia nodded.
“How did I not know this?” I asked.
“You were busy with snooping around with the sheriff.” My mom was full of compliments today.
I shot her the stink eye.
“What?” she asked and kept bouncing Clara on her knee.
Julia continued to put food on the table while everyone began to sit down. The conversation was still going from my dad.
“But you’re right,” he told Bobby. “Vivian Tillett said we can’t tear down anything. I told Barb we should move.”
“I told you we weren’t. We are just fine where we are.” She got up and put Clara in her high chair. “Besides, sometimes we need a few walls between us.”
I smiled.
“We can mark Bobby off the list.” Iris had a huge grin on her face.
“You aren’t falling for him again, are you?” I whispered and passed the green beans down.
“You always say everyone deserves a second chance.” She was using my words against me.
“He’s not a cat with nine lives, Iris,” I whispered again.
“I don’t know. He’s even cuter in his older age, don’t you think?” She and Bobby looked at each other from across the table. Both of them giggled like little kids.
Mac kicked me from underneath the table, and when I looked at him, he gave me the hard-eyed stare that told me to behave.
It was hard to behave when I could clearly see my best friend was being suckered once again by Bobby Peters’s charm.
Serves her right if she’d not learned her lesson by now.
The only good thing that did come out of this supper was that Bobby Peters was no longer on our suspect list, which made me put Stella Jane and possibly Lucy Drake to the top, even though Sara Rammond had made me question just who the character that I thought was Lucy in Beyond Boundaries really was.
Chapter 16
“Now that you’re not going to your little investigation group tonight, are you sure you don’t want a nightcap?” Mac asked after I told him Rowena and I were ready to go home.
“I’m sure.” I was even more sure after we’d passed by the diner on our way home and I noticed the lights were on in the apartment, which meant Stella Jane was still in town.
The General Store lights were still on, too, which made me think Gill’s summer hours of staying open until ten o’clock were still in effect. During the winter months, he did close up around eight or nine because everyone was already snuggled in for the night. But during the summer, people still liked to walk around and go in for a soda from his fountain shop or just a scoop of vanilla or chocolate ice cream, the only two flavors he offered.
No doubt about it. Tonight was one of the chillier nights, and soon winter would be here. My mind wandered back to the diner. Stella was up, and I sure did want to talk to her.
If I didn’t go there now, I might not ever get the chance to ask her the questions that were burning in my head.