Page 76 of Sycamore Circle

He frowned. “No, ma’am.”

“So you don’t want to leave Joy right now because you’re making headway and getting to know her daughter?”

“I don’t. But it isn’t because of what you think. Someone is bothering Joy. Someone is sending her creepy notes.”

“To her house?”

“Yeah. First she was getting texts, but it’s gotten worse. Joy’s worried sick and who can blame her?”

“Not me.”

“I helped her talk to a detective today.” Thinking about how upset Joy had been, he added, “I don’t know if the detective is going to be able to help much, though. Joy didn’t want to give him a lot of details about who could be messing with her. She seems reluctant to name people who she’s close to.”

“Trusting takes time, but I’d wager that distrusting does too.”

He hadn’t thought about it that way. “Momma, how come you’re getting so smart?”

“Because I had to put up with you. And Eric, Carrie, and Janie.” She chuckled. “Carrie wasn’t easy on her best day.”

No, she sure hadn’t been. “Janie and I used to say that she was born in a bad mood.” Eric had always been a pill, too, but Momma rarely talked about Eric to Bo. Eric was sure that Bo was just one step up from pond scum. “So, uh, what have you been doing?”

“I’ve got my hands full with Vacation Bible School.”

He’d attended that every year and knew it was almost as busy and chaotic as a three-ring circus. “You’re not in charge of it again, are you?” Three years ago, she’d gotten sick from all the stress.

“No, but the fella who is seems to think that he’s too busy to do much. He keeps telling me not to worry about things but I know for a fact he hasn’t gotten anything organized. If he’s not careful, we’re going to have three hundred children wandering around unsupervised.”

“Uh-oh. You need to give him what for.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. I’ve also been seeing someone myself. As a matter of fact.”

He sat up so sharply that he almost spilled his beer. “Who? Do I know him?”

“You do. It’s Sean Davis.”

It took a minute to place him. When he did, he was glad he’d put his cup down. The Davises lived in the house across from them. Lauren Davis had been his fifth-grade teacher. She’d died a couple years back. So he wasn’t faulting Sean for dating. He wasn’t even faulting his mother for dating. But the two of them? “I didn’t think Sean was that old.”

“Uhm.”

“Sorry, Momma. I’m not saying that you are. But he’s got to be quite a few years younger.”

“He’s forty-eight to my fifty-two, Sam. Neither of us would call ourselves old. I’m a little surprised to hear you say that.”

He’d just been put firmly in his place. “I apologize.”

“You don’t have anything else to say now?”

He knew that fighting tone in his mother’s voice like the back of his hand. “No, ma’am. I don’t think that would be a good idea.”

She chuckled. “Perhaps not. Relationships are tricky, aren’t they? One moment everything’s the same and then, bam, you start seeing a person differently. I used to think it was a matter of putting on rose-colored glasses, but maybe it’s a matter of taking them off.”

“Maybe so.” He, of course, had been taken in by Joy from the moment he heard her voice. He thought she was gorgeous but he was pretty sure that he would have found her gorgeous no matter what her looks were. After all, he was living proof that good packaging didn’t necessarily mean there was a good person inside.

“Sam, you know what? The highway runs in both directions. Would you like me to come up to see you? I’ll see if Carrie or Janie want to come along. We’ll stay just for the weekend. Not long. It’s been a while. I could see your house. Maybe even say hello to this lady who’s caught your heart.”

“I’d love to see you, Momma.”

“My goodness! You sound serious.”

---