True. And she’d been lugging a large enough load for the last couple of years.
“What’s the latest with the neighbor?” asked Gracie. “Any more neighborly chats?”
“Not since he brought Darling back from pooping on his property.”
“There’s a conversation starter.”
“It wasn’t much of one. He’s got someone anyway. Although it doesn’t look like they get along,” Zona added.
“Were you over there eavesdropping?” teased Gracie.
“Actually, I was over there to apologize for Darling and wound up hearing a major fight. Obviously, I decided it wasn’t a good time.”
“Is she still there?” Gracie asked.
“She left, but it looks like she returned, so I guess they made up. Anyway, who wants a man who yells?”
“Someone who yells back?”
“There was plenty of that going on. I can’t judge though. I did my share of yelling at Gary. And Luke.”
“Who both deserved it. Too bad about this guy though,” Gracie said. “That whole boy-next-door thing could have been fun.”
“Fun and men have not exactly gone hand in hand in my life,” Zona said.
“I know. But don’t give up.”
“Too late.”
“Don’t talk like that. You have half your life left. You don’t want to live it alone.”
“Alone is emotionally and financially safer,” said Zona as she and Darling rounded a corner and started down a new block.
Mr. Eggerton was out watering his lawn and waved at her. She said goodbye to Gracie and stopped to chat about his roses. He was such an innocuous old guy. Why couldn’t a nice little Mr. Eggerton live next door to them? Why did they have to end up with trouble in blue jeans?
She and Darling were just coming back up their front walk when the truck with the Better Builders logo pulled into his driveway next to the red PT Cruiser. She was determined to keep her distance, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t be polite.She started to give him a friendly wave, but Alec James was not looking her direction. She noted the clenched jaw and the fast stride as he walked to his front door. The man was in no mood to be friendly. He yanked open the door and disappeared inside, slamming it after him.
Something had put Alec James in a foul mood and he probably wasn’t calling, “Honey, I’m home.” Poor Miss PT Cruiser, having to deal with such a mercurial temperament. It made the man look like a modern-day Jekyll and Hyde.
Now she could be narrating aDeathlineepisode, for crying out loud.There was something about him, we knew it. It practically buzzed like a downed power line.
There was more to that buzz than anger. She felt the current when she looked at him. The man reeked of pheromones. It was a good thing she was done with men.
Even if she wasn’t, she wouldn’t want to start anything with this one. No one in her right mind reached out and touched a downed power line.
Miss PT Cruiser, the fool, could have him and whatever baggage he brought with him. Zona had dealt with enough baggage to last a lifetime.
An image of Luke, explaining that he couldn’t help falling for another woman, telling her he needed someone who understood him, floated into her mind like a ghost from the past. It put other ghosts on parade. She saw herself trying to explain to Bree that Daddy wasn’t going to be living with them anymore. Saw her daughter crying.
The parade continued, showing Gary hurrying into another room to take abusinesscall. Him calling her from the store to say he’d be home late. “Trouble with the books. I’ve got to straighten things out here.” There’d been trouble with the books all right. On those nights he’d come home late, smelling like smoke. His new accountant smoked. Right. It turned out that so did his poker buddies. Gary had been a cheater, just likeLuke. The only difference was that Gary had cheated on Zona with Lady Luck instead of a flesh-and-blood woman.
More images drifted past. Her daughter’s shocked expression when she delivered the news that the college money was gone. Her sitting in the divorce lawyer’s office, stoical and numb. Finally, there she was leaving what she’d thought would be her forever home.
She was practically growling as she let herself back in the house.
Stop already, she told herself. She had a home, and even though her savings were gone she still had her job. And she had good people left in her life, people who would always be there for her and not betray her. So what if her love life was dead and buried. She was finally safe, and safety trumped love any day. And her daughter was right, not scarred.
Once inside, Zona dug out a frozen pizza and put together a tossed salad with the last of the greens and the half tomato left in the fridge. It would be time to go to the grocery store the next day.
