Page 19 of A Soldier's Return

“How are things with the ex-husband?” Rosa asked. “Any updates after your frustration the other day?”

“No. I haven’t heard from him.”

At Sonia’s questioning look, she explained the situation with Cody to the other woman.

“Who was that...good-looking guy I saw you with...yesterday?”

So much for keeping Eli out of her head for five minutes. She fought down a sigh. “That’s my new boss. Dr. Sanderson’s son, Eli.”

“Oh! That’s Eli! Wendell...said he might be coming home.”

Melissa hadn’t realized her neighbor was such good friends with the elder Dr. Sanderson. As far as she knew, Sonia had only visited Dr. Sanderson once since she had been working there. It made sense, though, since he was the best doctor in town.

“If he’s that cute, maybe I need to schedule a physical or something,” Rosa teased.

“I think... I might be due for a follow-up appointment too,” Sonia said.

It was the first joke she had ever heard the other woman make. Rosa looked just as surprised, then grinned. “Maybe we should just drop by the clinic this week to take Melissa out to lunch. We can check him out then.”

“Good idea,” Sonia said with what could almost be considered a smile.

“You’re both terrible. Here. Have some more shortcake.”

The conversation drifted to Rosa’s work managing her aunt Anna’s gift store in town and then to Sonia’s plans for the garden.

“This was fun,” Rosa said a short time later, stifling a yawn. “But I have to run down to Lincoln City first thing tomorrow to pick up some pottery from one of our suppliers. I had better get to bed.”

“Same here,” Sonia said. “Thank you for the dessert...and the...conversation.”

She rose in her wobbly way.

“It was fun,” Melissa said. “We should get together more often. Maybe you two could come for pizza night on Friday. Skye would love hosting a dinner party.”

Sonia took on that secretive look she had sometimes. “I won’t be here this weekend. But maybe the week after that.”

Where do you go?she wanted to ask her secretive neighbor.And why are you so sad when you return?

“I’ll be gone, too,” Rosa said with regret in her eyes. “Fiona and I are going hiking with some friends next weekend.”

“No problem. We’ll do it another time. Maybe the week after that, then. Put it on your calendars.”

“Done,” Rosa said with a smile.

“I’ll have to look at my...schedule,” Sonia said.

She said goodbye to them both, then made her slow way out of the screened porch and to the entryway that led upstairs to her own apartment.

“I hate watching her make that climb,” Melissa said. “Why wouldn’t she take the ground-floor apartment? It would be so much easier.”

“I do not think that one wants the easy,” Rosa said, her Spanish accent more pronounced. She stood up, and her dog rose, as well.

“And you don’t know anything more about her...issues?” Melissa asked.

“No. She has been in town longer than I have, about four years. Anna said she showed up in town one day and started coming into the gift shop, mainly to pet Conan. That was the dog my aunt and Sage inherited from Abigail, who left them the house. Fiona’s sire. One day she asked if Anna knew of any place in town she could rent, and it happened the apartment she lives in now was available. My aunt said she knew of one but it was on the second floor of an old house, and Sonia said it would be perfect. She has been here ever since.”

One day Melissa wanted to get to the bottom of Sonia’s mystery, though she knew it really wasn’t any of her business.

After she said goodbye to Rosa and her dog, she straightened the kitchen, prepped a few things for breakfast in the morning, then headed to her solitary bedroom.

---