Page 13 of Merry Murder Season
We watched Deek run up the parking lot, then across the road and up the hill. Emma looked at me expectantly. “No, we’ll let Uncle Deek do the running. We’ll walk up the hill.”
She huffed and I knew I hadn’t lived up to her expectations. Even mydog was judgy.
Beth and Amanda parked at the house just before five. Beth hugged me as I came out to greet them. “We left the grump at the rental. He’s watching golf or something stupid. Let’s go to Lille’s for dinner. Jim’s ordering pizza delivery.”
“Is he still mad about you joining the book club?” I waved them inside and went to let Emma outbefore we left.
“He’s mad about everything,” Amanda said as she sat down at the table. “I’ve tried to explain that women want to have a life outside of the home.”
“That’s not unreasonable.” I sat down at the table. The door was open so Emma would come back whenshe was ready.
“Tell that to my son.” Amanda patted Beth’s hand. “Don’t fret. Just stand your ground. He’ll cave sooner or later.”
“I’m not sure that’s true,” Beth said as she tapped her fingers on the book I’d lent her. “Anyway, I loved the book. Then I started on next week’s book,Memories of the Lost. It feels like my life lately.”
“I read anything by that author.” I stood to close the door after Emma came in. “Anyway, I’m ready. Should we go get food? We probably shouldn’t talk about the book until the club meeting or we’ll have it analyzed and done.”
“Tell us about the members. You said Carrie, the waitress, started the club?” Amanda stood and gathered her things while I locked up the house.
I’d been waiting for them, so there wasn’t a lot to do. Greg knew I was going, but I put a note on the fridge, just in case he forgot. He had a lot on his mind right now. “Yes, she had the original idea for it a few months ago when I was looking for something to do with all my free time. I’d finished my degree and the wedding was over. So there wasn’t much to deal with except the bookstore and whatever vacations Greg and I had coming up. But I’ve been surprised that my days are still full. Anyway, Carrie suggested the book club and I got it up and running. The Cove Connection is what the club’s called. Cute, right?”
“I love it. I wish I had a bookstore near me. I have to go into Omaha to find an independent,” Beth said. She sighed then. “And if Jim doesn’t get his mind straight, I might just move there to a little condo and become an official single cat lady.”
“It would serve him right and he’d be miserable without you.” Amanda pulled Beth closer as they walked. “So you, Carrie, and this Chris? Whoelse attends?”
I was a little thrown by the quick change of subject, but I realized Amanda was trying to steer Beth away from talking about Jim or thinking of a future without him. “It varies. A lot of my staff show up. Some of the writers fromDeek’s groups may show up, depending on the book choice. We read a little bit of everything. I’ll put you both on the club’s newsletter list. Carrie writes it once a month and it lists out all the future books we have planned. That way if you want to get it from the library or listen to it on audio, you can.”
Lille had a new girl working tonight, and from the look Lille gave me when she seated us, she thought it was my fault. She was probably taking Carrie’s old shift on Tuesdays so Carrie could do the book club. Carrie had been trying to change up her hours since she moved in with Doc Ames, the local funeral director and county coroner. She said she was working on having a normal life for a while. But anything that changed any little thing in Lille’s world was usually blamed on me. This time, shemight be right.
“You can sit over here,” she said as she threw the menus down. “Oh, and Dom told me to tell you thank you for inviting us to dinner.It was lovely.”
She stomped off, jerking a thumb our way when she passed the new waitress. She had a name tag that said Janet, but I was sure that wasn’t her name. Lille didn’t buy new ones until the employee had been at the restaurant for more than a month. Sometimes longer. She had a lot of turnover.
“Well, she could curdle milk with that tone,” Amanda said as she studied her menu. “I think it almost burned her tongue tosay thank you.”
“Lille and I have a complicated relationship.” I knew what I was having. Fish-and-chips. I hadn’t had it for over a week. Or at least since before Thanksgiving. “I’m not sure why, but she hates me. I thought maybe she was part of Team Sherry when I got here, but nowI don’t know.”
“No one can hate you,” Beth started, then laughed. “Except my betrothed and now this woman. You tend to bring out strong emotions in some people.”
Not Janet brought us glasses of water and smiled. “What can I get for you all tonight?”
* * *
The book club was getting ready to start when the door opened and Dominic Reedy stepped in with another man. Each had a copy of the book we’d just read. They were both dressed in leather biker jackets, but Dominic wore a black button-down shirt. The other man had an old T-shirt with the wordsStay Wildover a picture of a mountain. They both wore jeans and biker boots.
Dom smiled at us.“Are we late?”
“No, we haven’t started yet.” Carrie smiled and pointed to some chairs at the side. “Come on in.”
I met Carrie’s wide-eyed gaze with a shrug. “So, Dom, some of us know you, but who’s your friend?”
“This is Gunter. He’s our sergeant at arms for the club. He also thinks he’s my bodyguard, so I told him if he was coming to the book club, he had to read the book and participate.” Dom held up his copy. “Did anyone else think this was going to be a time travel book?”
As the evening progressed, Dom kept us laughing and Gunter had some insightful comments about the character development. Both men were a nice addition to the club. I watched Deek as he did the closing tasks. He was listening and watching the group closely. I wondered what his take on the new additions was, especially with their auras. Maybe like the bad boy heroes in the romance books that were so popular, these two men were justmisunderstood.
Deek met my gaze then and shook his head. I hoped he was just reading the room and not my thoughts. But you never knew what you’d findin South Cove.
As we closed up, Dom paused to talk to me. “Thanks for coming tonight. We don’t get a lot of men attending the club. At least men who aren’t writing their own books.”
