She rolled her eyes at her grandmother. “I just thought, maybe if I asked you again, something different might rattle around in your head.”
Nan chuckled. “All kinds of things are rattling around in my head,” she said, “but none about a little boy named Isaac.”
“What about anybody else here? Could you ask them?”
“Sure, I can definitely do that,” Nan said, with a beaming smile. “Anything to help out with one of your latest escapades.”
“Well, let’s hope it’s not an escapade,” she said. “Let’s hope that it’s nothing.”
“But you do want to find out more about this little boy, right?”
“I want to know that he’s okay, at least,” Doreen said. “I hate to think of anybody like that suffering.”
Immediately Nan nodded. “And you’re such a sweetheart to be so concerned.”
Doreen shrugged. “I don’t know about that, but he struck a chord in my heart somehow.”
“Exactly, and that’s what people do,” she said. “And once you start to care, it’s hard to not care.”
Doreen leaned forward and said, “Precisely why I don’t care very often. A lot of pain can follow.”
“Well, you know all about that from your marriage.”
At that Doreen winced, but the topic reminded her, so she launched into a recital of what had happened with Mack’s brother.
Nan listened, fascinated. “Wow,” she said, “so he really thinks he can do something?”
Doreen nodded but said, “I’m a little doubtful though.”
“Don’t be. Maybe you’ve actually found somebody who’ll help.”
“Maybe,” she said, “and I have to trust Mack. He hasn’t let me down yet.”
“You’re very blessed to have that friendship,” Nan murmured. “He has been so good to you.”
“He has been very good to me, even though he drives me crazy.”
Nan grinned at her. “That’s just part of having a relationship.”
“Not that kind of relationship,” she warned.
“If you say so, dear,” Nan said, but she had that secret smile in her voice that made Doreen eye her sideways. “Don’t worry about it,” Nan said. “If it’s meant to be, it’ll happen on its own.”
“I’m not ready,” she said, “and may never be.”
“I know, and I’m so sorry I didn’t realize your marriage and your husband had been that hard on you.”
“Only because I hate to even talk about it. It was very hard to discuss even the little bit that I had to with Nick, especially with Mack sitting there too. I would never want to go to court, where I had to actually stand up to my ex and to fight somebody like my former divorce lawyer or just to answer questions publicly about the mess that was my marriage.”
“No,” Nan murmured. “Nobody wants to do that. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to it.”
“Let’s hope,” she muttered. Soon afterward she stood and said, “It’s time for me to head home. I’ve got to make sure I get to bed early tonight,” she said slowly, twisting her neck. “That darn headache is starting to come back.”
Immediately Nan was concerned. “You run along, dearie,” she said, as she packed up a little baggie of chocolate chip cookies. “Here. Have these for breakfast.”
She looked at her grandmother and smiled. “There’s a certain amount of freedom in being able to have cookies as my breakfast,” she muttered. “Intellectually I do know that it’s not what I should be having, but my heart says it wants it.”
“A little cookie or two will never hurt,” Nan said, shaking a finger at her. “Don’t get so fanatical that you forget about the joys in life. And cookies count as one of those joys.”
She gave Nan a horrified look. “They better,” she said. “They’ve always counted pretty highly in my world.” At that, she burst out laughing, then leaned over, gave her grandmother a big hug, and said, “I’ll see you tomorrow. Or at least we’ll talk.”
Calling the animals to her side, Mugs, who didn’t seem to leave her alone very much these days, hurried over, and Goliath moved at his typical pace, but Thaddeus sat on the table and just looked up at her.
“What’s the matter, baby?” Doreen asked. “Are you tired?” She scooped him up, and he hopped onto her arm willingly enough, but she sensed something was wrong.
“He does seem off, doesn’t he?” Nan said softly.
“Yes,” she said. “I’m a little worried about him.”
“Of course you are. Remember what I said about relationships and love?”
“I know it’ll be awfully hard when it’s time for these guys to go.”
“It’s hard when anybody’s turn comes around, and it happens to the best of us.” At the odd look on Nan’s face, Doreen sat down with a hard plunk. “Nan, are you healthy?” she demanded.
Nan looked at her in surprise. “Oh my, yes, dear. I’m perfectly healthy,” she said. “Don’t you worry about me.”
“Well, of course I’ll worry about you,” she said in exasperation. “You’re all I’ve got.”
“True,” she said, “but I was thinking about all the people here at Rosemoor. We’ve just lost Rosie and several others. There’s just been so many of them.”
“I know,” she said, “and I’m so sorry for any part I played in that.”
“You didn’t kill them, my dear, and, in most cases, they either committed suicide or were taken by disease.”
“Well, not the other ones who were murdered,” she said.
“Yes, but you didn’t murder them, dear. So again, it’s not your fault.”
“But sometimes, you know, it feels like it is.”
“That’s just no way to look at it,” Nan said, looking concerned.
“Maybe not, but it’s still one of those things that you have to stop and think about and wonder at the way things worked out.”
“True, but it’s not your fault regardless, and you’ve got to remember that.”
She smiled, tucked Thaddeus up on her shoulder, and said, “I’ll try. Love you, Nan. Come on, guys. We’ve got to walk the long way around.”
And she headed over a block, the river was just high enough that she didn’t want to end up getting soaking wet again. Besides, one of these days she would get carried right down to the lake, and it would be one heck of a job getting back home again. Walking slowly and now feeling the fatigue settle in as it hadn’t all day, she slowly made her way back toward the house. By the time she got there, she was really quite sore and tired. As she started up the driveway, Richard opened his door and called out.
“Are you okay?”
She looked at her neighbor in surprise. “Sure, I’m okay,” she said. “Why do you ask?”
He frowned. “I heard you got hurt.”
She smiled at him. “Oh, I did,” she said. “I got attacked at the cemetery.”