Page 97 of The Seven Rings
“Just like that?”
“Jones went at her before. I say she knew he’d do it again, and maybe get more than a piece of her ugly dress.”
“Well. Good dog, Jones.”
“Yeah, he is.”
She sliced a bagel as Trey came in.
“I’m up for toasting bagels. That’s as far as my breakfast skills go this morning.”
“I’ll take it.
“So.” He got coffee, then sat beside Owen. “Got another theory going.”
“About Dobbs? I need another hit of coffee first.”
With fresh coffee, Owen continued to eat as Trey laid it out.
“Huh. Makes a weird kind of sense when you twist it around. You break the curse with the rings, okay, but you don’t stop Dobbs from doing the same damn thing all over.”
“It’s depressing.” Sonya set the toasted bagel in front of Trey, popped in another. “And annoying.”
“But when you think of it, it rolls. And now that you thought of it, and it’s rolling, we just have to figure out how.”
“How what?” Cleo asked as she came in. As she, too, headed for coffee, Owen gestured to Trey. “Run it again for the late sleeper.”
“Eight-forty-whatever on a Saturday morning is not late sleeping. What are we figuring out?”
“Dobbs,” Sonya said.
“Oh, her.” Cleo drank some coffee. “All right, brain will engage. Let’s hear it.”
As she listened, Cleo got out another Toaster Strudel. By the time Trey finished, she sat with it, and nodded.
“That’s absolutely right, and it’s so obvious now that you’ve said it, I feel stupid not thinking it all the way through before.”
“I’ve thought about that. Why would it show me all it has—and Owen, too—if I’m not supposed to finish it? End it?”
“Very good point.” Unlike Owen, Cleo used a knife and fork on her pastry. “We’ll have to depend on that. And since we’re startingbefore what’s my crack of dawn, we should be able to finish going through the attic and start on the ballroom.
“And I’ve been working on the menu for the barbecue.”
“What’s wrong with burgers and dogs?”
Sonya leaned over, gave Owen a light punch on the arm. “That’s what I said!”
“Trust me.” Cleo pointed at the tablet. “You’ll like it.”
Through Saturday, they filled another box of mementos, shifted more furniture, then took a break with a sunset sail.
Cleo and Sonya spent part of Sunday afternoon at the hotel’s ballroom for Anna’s baby shower.
In anticipation of a girl, the room shined in pink and white with baby block balloons, centerpieces of pink and white rosebuds over cloths of white lace.
An arch of more balloons and flowers rose over the mommy-to-be chair.
They enjoyed the female energy—as Cleo called it. Pink champagne and pink lemonade flowed before, during, and after a lovely lunch finished with pink-frosted cupcakes.
