Page 101 of Dirty Laundry (Down and Dirty)

That was another thing Carine hadn’t meant to say aloud.

The quip earned her a scolding smirk from Fran.

Oh, God.

Stifling a grimace, Carine massaged the bridge of her nose and tried to regulate her breathing. She was going to leave there and have two little old ladies thinking she was some sort of addlebrained deviant, and they wouldn’t have been wrong.

“Heidi’s not the sort who’ll argue with you,” Mrs. Murray said. “Never was.”

“I know,” Carine said.

Mrs. Murray gave Fran’s elbow a bump with her own. “When she was little, before Becky and James made her quit doing it, folks would talk and talk and talk to her, and she’d just stare at them and not say anything. Had the whole church thinking she was deaf. Didn’t think folks were worth her time. I figured it out and had to tell everyone she was just shy.”

Carine could picture a tiny pigtailed Heidi wearing patent leather shoes and a dress with pearl buttons. Tiny Heidi scowled at the congregants as though her life depended on putting every single person in the nave in their respective places.

“I’m real fond of that girl,” Fran said.

Mrs. Murray snorted. “That girl’s forty-three and will become a grandma at forty-four.”

“Well, compared to me, she’s a girl. I can’t even remember forty-three or how many times I was it.”

“Personally, I’d like to make it to forty-three without Heidi ever giving me that look she gave the people at her church,” Carine said absently.

Mrs. Murray shrugged. “If she hasn’t yet, she probably won’t. But you know that, don’t you?”

The comment had been more of a statement than a query, but Carine responded anyway with, “I thought I did.”

Fran tipped herself slowly back onto her feet and planted her cane securely in front of her. “Rat-faced daughter-in-law works the night shift. Need to call and give her a piece of my mind before she heads out. Don’t make any plans without me.”

Mrs. Murray gave the pocket of Fran’s faded housedress a playful tug. “How long you gonna be gone this time? I want to go feed the ducks. They get mad when we skip a day.”

“Ten minutes. Fifteen if I have to figure out that voicemail thing again.”

As Fran departed, Mrs. Murray turned her focus to Carine. “You waiting on advice or what?”

“If you have any to give, I’ll listen. I don’t have a plan so much as a grudge to feed. Petty kindergarten stuff. Following her from one errand to the next and informing everyone she encounters that she’s my girlfriend since I’m apparently more comfortable by the idea of me being out than she is.”

The soft laugh that tumbled out of Mrs. Murray somehow managed to be both villainous and cartoony. There were shades of Heidi in the villain part. “Oh, I’d like to see if she breaks character with all that.”

“She won’t. She’ll dig in even more, but I’ll certainly feel better.”

“You like cinnamon rolls, Carine?”

“Cinnamon rolls?” Carine reflexively scrunched her face at the rapid change of topic but quickly fixed it. “Sometimes. Why?”

“I’ll make you some the very first Saturday morning after I’ve escaped this joint.”

“What’d I do to deserve that?”

“You’re fun. That’s all.” Mrs. Murray settled back against the hard chair and giggled again. “You tickle me.”

“You should tell my mother that. She still thinks she went wrong somewhere in raising me.”

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