“Exactly,” Nan crowed. “So don’t sell yourself short. You are measuring everything by money, which is easy to do when you are as broke as you are, but remember. There are other measurements, like kindness, generosity, being true to self, allowing others to be true to themselves. So you have plenty you could, and you already do give Mack, and it’s not always about money. Now, that said, how long will you make the poor man wait?”
Doreen snorted. “You just told me that I should wait until I’m ready.”
“You should wait until you’re sure that’s what you want,” she replied carefully. “But that’s a different story than making him wait.” Doreen stared at her grandmother in complete confusion. Nan tilted her head, smiled, and continued. “You know that words would go a long way for him.”
“So would a lot of other things.” She gave Nan an eye roll. “I’m not ready for that either.”
“And you don’t have to be,” Nan agreed. “But you know where you’re heading.”
“I know where we’re heading,” she noted cautiously. “At the moment, that doesn’t mean that I am ready to be heading anywhere faster.”
“Has he pushed you?”
“No, of course not.” Then she sighed. “He’s actually been very patient.”
“And there’s a reason for that.”
Doreen stared at Nan, frowning.
“Because he cares,” she stated gently.
At that, Doreen slowly nodded. “It would appear so.”
“And you’re still being so cautious about it.” Nan chuckled. “We’re talking about Mack here, not Jack the Ripper.”
Doreen shrugged. “I’m not divorced yet. And that marriage was enough to scare me off of relationships completely.”
“That doesn’t surprise me.” Nan shook her head, her grimace evident. “Your ex was quite a pain in the butt.”
“Yeah, and he still is,” she muttered.
“Have you heard from him recently?”
“No, thank heavens,” she blurted out. “But that doesn’t mean he isn’t out there, waiting for an opportunity to get back into my life.”
At that, Nan stared at her, her jaw dropping. “You wouldn’t let him, would you?”
“No, no, no. Of course not,” she stated and frowned. “But that doesn’t mean that I don’t feel like he’s hounding me somewhat.”
“Well, that’s scary,” Nan admitted. “Even hearing that is very disconcerting. He’s not a nice man.”
“Ya think? No, I absolutely am not letting him back in my life,” she muttered. “But that doesn’t mean that he won’t try something.” Doreen sighed, frowned, then faced her grandmother. “After all, you just said he might stop me from getting anything from Robin’s will. And, since we know how he is about money and not wanting to let it go, if he loses that fight, then he might think a proper plan B would be to hook up with me to live off Robin’s money. … Or worse.”
“Don’t go there. I know you deal with too many cold cases to not have it color your thinking too.” Nan sat back, studying her granddaughter. “Sounds like you need to have a talk with Mack about bigger issues than just your relationship.”
“And what am I supposed to say?” she asked. “I mean, Mack already looks after me in many, many ways. He’s overly protective now. If I talk to him about this, these concerns about my ex—and they are just suspicions, not facts, not evidence, and you know how Mack feels about that—yet he could truly go overboard, sleeping in his truck outside my house, just to catch my ex in the act of stalking or whatever.”
“Sure.” Nan reached over and poured tea into Doreen’s still half-full cup that she’d forgotten about that. “I do worry about him though.”
“About my ex?” Doreen asked.
Nan rolled her eyes. “No, of course not. He can go take a long walk off a short bridge, and the sooner, the better, as far as I’m concerned.” She snorted. “I mean, Robin was bad news, but she tried to do the right thing at the end. Now if your not-yet-ex-husband would kick the bucket, it would make a lot of things really nice right now.”
“I won’t say it wouldn’t because it would certainly make my life a lot easier in terms of getting a divorce,” Doreen agreed, “but you also know that, just because it could make my life easier, doesn’t mean I’ll sit here and hold my breath that something untoward would happen to him.”
“He does have a lot of nasty people in his world. Maybe one of them will do you a favor.”
She chuckled. “Good thing nobody can hear us because, if he drops dead, and somebody heard this conversation, you know everybody would point the finger at me.”
“Sweetheart,” Nan drawled and gave her granddaughter a droll look, “you’re the double-crossed and betrayed spouse. The public would blame you anyway.” And, with that eye-opening thought, Nan picked up her tea and asked, “Now, what’s your latest case?”
“I don’t have one,” she replied.
Nan looked at her over the edge of her teacup. “Really? Why don’t I believe you?”
“No, really I don’t,” she confirmed, “but Mack does, and that’s what I’m hoping he’ll talk to me about when he gets back.”
“Tell me more.”
She nodded. “Well, it’s partly why I didn’t see you over the weekend.” She explained about their beach outing.
“Oh, I once went skinny-dipping at Sarsons.”
“Nan!”
“I was young too, dear. So tell me more.”
“Mack gave me a paddleboarding session. I’m not athletic at all.” And then she continued with the embarrassing details, Nan laughing quietly at her antics. Doreen grinned. “Honestly, I was terrible out there.”
“You might have been terrible out there, my dear,” she grinned, patting Doreen’s hand, “but you went out there, and you tried something new, and that is worth so much.”
“You’re a great cheerleader,” Doreen noted. “Honestly, it was pretty sad.”
Nan laughed. “I bet it would have been a hugely fun time with Mack regardless. And I’m so happy you went out to enjoy the beach. It’s a beautiful area of town.”
“It is, indeed,” Doreen muttered. “Anyway, we found this half-buried carton of rat poison in one of the gardens at that park,” she explained. “And I don’t know if it had any effect on the pansies, but something had killed the pansies around the box. I called Mack over because of the pansies, not even seeing the box, but I did note the white powder scattered about. While Mack was looking closer at the bed, he found the box. He called someone at the office to make sure that somebody came and got it.”
Doreen stared off in the distance. “But you know what? I went there this morning to check to make sure the box was gone. And it was, although I don’t know who picked it up.” She frowned thoughtfully. “Something else to ask Mack.”
“And what difference does it make?” Nan asked curiously.