Page 28 of A Cozy Christmas Blizzard
“They’re hiding,” she said curtly. “All three of them.” She ran water into the glass pot and then poured it in the coffeemaker.
Katherine wondered why the cats were in a snit but didn’t have the energy to ask.
“You haven’t answered my question,” LaVonne said as the coffee started to drip. She placed two mugs on the counter.
“Which one?” K.O. fell into a kitchen chair, rested her arms on the table and leaned her head on them.
“Last night,” LaVonne said. “Where were you?”
“Wynn and I were out—”
“Allnight?”
“You’re beginning to sound like my mother,” K.O. protested.
LaVonne straightened her shoulders. “Katherine, you hardly know the man.”
“I didn’t sleep with him, if that’s what you think.” She raised her head long enough to speak and then laid it down on her arms again. “We went out to dinner with some friends of mine after the Figgy Pudding contest.”
“It must’ve been a very late dinner.” LaVonne sounded as if she didn’t quite believe her.
“We walked around for a while afterward and went out for a drink. The time got away from us. I didn’t get home until one.”
“I was up at one and you weren’t home,” LaVonne said in a challenging tone. She poured the first cup of coffee and took it herself.
“Maybe it was after two, then,” K.O. said. She’d completely lost track of time, which was easy to do. Wynn was so charming and he seemed so interested in her and her friends.
Vickie’s husband, John, was a plumbing contractor. Despite Wynn’s college degrees and celebrity status, he’d fit in well with her friends. He’d asked intelligent questions, listened and shared anecdotes about himself that had them all laughing. John even invited Wynn to play poker with him and his friends after the holidays. Wynn had accepted the invitation.
Halfway through the meal Vickie had announced that she had to use the ladies’ room. The look she shot K.O. said she should join her, which K.O. did.
“That’s really Wynn Jeffries?” she asked, holding K.O.’s elbow as they made their way around tables and through the restaurant.
“Yes, it’s really him.”
“Does he know about the bookstore?”
K.O. nodded reluctantly. “He does now.”
“You didn’t tell him, did you?”
“Unfortunately, he found out all on his own.”
Vickie pushed open the door to the ladies’ as K.O. described the scene from the bookstore. “No way,” her friend moaned, then promptly sank down on a plush chair in the outer room.
K.O.’s face grew red all over again. “It was embarrassing, to say the least.”
“Was Wynn upset?”
What could he say? “He didn’t let on if he was.” In fact, once they’d left the store, Wynn seemed to find the incident highly amusing. Had their roles been reversed, she didn’t know how she would’ve felt.
“He didn’t blow up at you or anything?” Vickie had given her a confused look. “This is the guy you think should be banned from practicing as a psychologist?”
“Well, that might’ve been a bit strong,” she’d said, reconsidering her earlier comment.
Vickie just shook her head.
“He rode the merry-go-round with me,” K.O. said aloud, deciding that had gone a long way toward redeeming him in her eyes. When she glanced up, she realized she was talking to LaVonne.
