“Oh, that’s Rosalita. She’s a great white shark I’m tracking.” Liddy went behind the counter.
“I guess that’s as good a way as any to pass the time if you’re not busy.” Johanna looked around. “And since I’m your only customer, I guess you’re not.”
She put the cookbook on the counter and handed Liddy her credit card. After the card was returned to her, Johanna began to flip through the pages of the book.
“Ooh! Lamb Is for Lovers—I wonder if Tuck likes lamb. And Kiss Me, Kale—that looks interesting and healthy.” She made her way through the book, oohing and aahing while Liddy rang up the sale. “Oh, some of these are naughty,” she exclaimed. “I’ll have to mark this one with a sticky note.”
“Would you like me to bag you?”
“Excuse me?” Johanna’s left eyebrow rose.
“Bag the book.” Liddy smiled. “Or would you like to take it as is?”
“I’ll take it as is. If anyone’s looking for me, I’ll be in the parking lot next door, planning my menu. Oh, this is going to be fun!” Johanna dropped her credit card into her wallet, plunked the wallet into her bag, grabbed the cookbook from the counter, and headed out. “Wish me luck,” she called back to Liddy.
“Right. Break a leg,” Liddy muttered.
Over the next two hours, several customers—some longtime town residents and two women Liddy didn’t recognize—came in to shop. Still stewing over Johanna’s blatant pursuit of Tuck, she had to force a cheeriness she didn’t feel. She thought she’d covered her foul mood, but when Emma stopped in later in the morning, she took one look at Liddy and asked, “What?”
“Don’t ask,” Liddy grumbled.
“I just did. What’s going on?” Emma leaned over the counter.
“You remember Johanna Deasey from our class?” Liddy lowered her voice so as to not be overheard by the customers browsing the new-release table.
“Sure. Short, petite, brown hair. Annoying. Obnoxious. She married Ed Hall from the class behind us.” Emma paused. “Didn’t he die last year?”
“It was sometime before our reunion last September. I remember because Johanna wore black to every reunion event and constantly talked about how hard things were for her because Ed died without any warning, so she didn’t know where to bury him.”
“The cad. How dare he be so insensitive.” Emma rolled her eyes. “Where did she bury him?”
“She had him cremated.”
“Well, if that’s what he wanted—”
“He didn’t. He told Jerry Bach, and Jerry told me Ed was terrified of fire.”
“Well, I guess . . .” Emma paused, then shook her head. “I don’t know what to say. I know you can get a little thrown off balance when your husband dies.”
“Oh, you’re too damned nice, Emma. Would you please just one time agree with me without making excuses for someone who’s on my shit list?”
“Well, I already called her annoying and obnoxious, but okay. What did she do to land on your list this early in the day?”
“She came in and bought a cookbook.”
“I can see where that might set you off. She bought a book from you? The very nerve.”
Liddy sighed deeply, then led Emma to the cookbook section. She found the title Johanna had bought and held up the cover. “This one.”
Emma took the book, read the title, and began to page through it. “Hmmm. Steak with a Side of Spice. Daring Duchess Potatoes. Ooh La LaSagna. Cute. Lick My Ladyfingers. Oh, gag—no thank you. Sex with Your Sushi? Ah . . . raw fish and sex? Not so sure about that one, either. Oh, look at this, Cream My Brûlée.” Emma laughed. “Well, that’s pretty blatant.” She held up the accompanying photo for Liddy. “It does look quite yummy, though, with the Razzle Dazzle Raspberry drizzle, doesn’t it?” She took one look at Liddy’s face and closed the book. “What?”
“Johanna came in here looking specifically for that book. She said she heard about it on the radio, and wanted to check it out because she’s planning a seduction dinner for this weekend.”
“So who’s the lucky guy, and why do you care?” Emma tilted Liddy’s face toward her own. “And why are you so pissed off?”
Liddy blew out a long breath. “It’s Tuck. She’s planning on seducing Tuck. She went through this whole thing about how he’d been crazy about her in high school and had wanted to go to the junior prom with her, which we both know is a crock, because Tuck was already out of school by then and was off somewhere with the army.”
“Right. He joined up right after graduation, since he wasn’t going to college, and he left town before the end of the summer. But the rest of it? Uh-uh. So what was the point of her telling you she and Tuck had this big romance going back then, since we do know it’s not true?”
Liddy shrugged. “She made it sound like he’d been the one for her all along, and she shouldn’t have let him go, and now she plans to reclaim him. Or something along those lines.”
“And I repeat: Why do you care, and why are you pissed off?”
Liddy felt Emma studying her face and figured she was watching her body language as well.
“Oh. I get it,” Emma said softly. “You . . .”
“Had dinner with Tuck last night. At my house. He sort of invited himself.” Liddy related how the dinner had come about. “And I think we’re going to do it again. But I probably won’t be making Daring Duchess Potatoes and serving Steak with a Side of Spice.”
Emma laughed at Liddy’s cranky tone. “It sounds to me like you’re doing just fine with beef stew.” She rubbed Liddy’s shoulders. “So you and Tuck . . . ?”
“I don’t know. He’s been a good friend for a long time, but lately it seems as if he’s becoming a little more. I’m not sure where, if anyplace, this might go, but I do know I want to find out, and I don’t want Johanna or anyone else getting there before I do. You should have seen the way she was practically drooling over him this morning.”
“Liddy, I don’t think you have anything to worry about.”
“She’s had work on her face and her boobs, and she’s thirty pounds thinner than me.”
“She’s also five inches shorter than you. If she weighed the same amount, she’d look like a beach ball.”
“One could only hope.”
“Is this where I pay for my books?” A woman approached the counter.
“Yes, it sure is. Did you find everything you were looking for?” Liddy slipped back into her bookseller role.
“I’m around if you need me for anything.” Emma excused herself and waved a quick goodbye as she left the shop.
“I found this”—the woman held up a book of poetry by a local poet, Graham Christy—“but I was also looking for a novel. I don’t know the name, but the cover is blue, and it has a sort of sunburst on it. It’s a new book, and I guess you’d call it general fiction.”
“I know exactly the book.” Liddy stepped from behind the counter and went directly to where the book was shelved spine out. She handed it to the customer. “Is this the one?”