“Just please don’t act like it,” Zona said. “No pouting.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.”
“You know, this isn’t going to be so bad,” Zona said as she and Darling accompanied Louise to her bedroom to change. “Martin’s going to spoil you rotten and you and Gilda are going to have fun talking about murderers.”
Louise did half smile at that. “Yes, I think we are. I’m not sure she and Darling are going to become friends though.”
“Darling has enough friends,” said Zona, and Louise chuckled.
Then she sobered. “Did you see how he got out?”
“Yes, he dug under the fence. I’ve filled in the hole.”
“Good. We don’t want him getting loose again.”
“Our new neighbor sure doesn’t. Darling left a present over there and he stepped in it this morning.”
“He did? How do you know?”
“I was about to go out and heard his reaction.”
“It could have been some other dog.”
“Could have, but I doubt it.”
“Should you go over and apologize?”
“I tried while you and Martin were visiting, but it wasn’t a good time.”
“Oh?”
“I told you he’s got someone. She drives a red PT Cruiser. They were fighting. I went to the door to explain about Darling getting loose and I could hear them inside, screaming at each other.”
“Oh, dear. You’re right. It wasn’t a good time,” Louise said. “I hate it when men yell. Your father never yelled.”
Neither had either of Zona’s husbands. She’d always been the one doing the yelling, though she didn’t mention that to her mother.
“I’ll catch up with him at some point,” she said.
“But keep your distance when you do. It sounds like he’s got a temper.”
“So now you’re saying our neighbor is dangerous.”
“Probably not. But maybe it’s just as well he’s with someone. You don’t need a man with a short fuse. They can become abusive, and you’ve already put up with enough.”
She sure had. Alec James was a fine-looking specimen, but good-looking men were a little like walnuts. The shell might look fine, but that didn’t mean you wouldn’t find something rotten inside once you broke it open. Anyway, she was done with men and done with love. Both had brought her enough pain to last a lifetime.
She helped Louise settle in for the night, then got Darling’s leash and took him for a walk. The red PT Cruiser was still parked in the driveway next door, so things must have settled down between Alec James and that woman. Either that or he’d barked her into submission, and she was currently huddled in a corner, whimpering.
“Oh, stop,” Zona told herself.
She was living in a normal boring neighborhood. Scenarios like the ones that played out on true crime programs were fewand far between. People fought all the time and even yelled, then made up. For all she knew, her neighbors were over there having make-up sex at that very moment.
But their interaction had sounded so... intense.
She’d done some intense arguing herself. Yelling didn’t mean a thing.
Why was it so quiet over there now?
