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Theo looked at Mac, unsure what to do next.
“Would you like something to eat?” Nancy asked. “I brought pie—apple and blueberry.”
“That sounds lovely,” Theo said in an attempt to ease the awkwardness. If eating pie was what it took…
Nancy smiled triumphantly at Mac. “See, darling, there’s no reason to be in a temper. Shall we use the kitchen?”
And so Theo sat at the antique oak table in Mac’s kitchen and ate Nancy’s apple and blueberry pie with the Etheridges. It was as much like a family meal as any other. Nancy dished out wedges of pie with whipped cream, Mac took care of drinks and extracted cheese and crackers out of the refrigerator. The familial bickering became almost friendly. For this, Theo was particularly glad, unable to forget entirely that at least one of Mac’s brothers had a gun. The knowledge was always there. She wondered if she’d ever get used to it.
They hadn’t finished eating when a truck pulled up to the house. Mac’s brothers went outside to transfer its cargo into their pickups.
“What’s in the sacks?” Theo whispered as she and Mac watched the proceedings through the window. Sam and Caleb were heaving large canvas sacks from one vehicle to another, frozen breath a visible flag of their exertions.
“Cement.”
“That’s a lot of cement.”
“They’re extending the bunkers on the Ponderosa, I believe.”
“Why didn’t they have it delivered there?”
“They don’t want anyone to know what they’re doing, so they have it delivered to me, and transfer it themselves.” Mac sighed. “I’d better help them. The sooner they finish, the sooner they can all leave.” He removed his jacket.
“It’s freezing outside,” she reminded him as he hung the jacket on the back of a chair.
“I’ll warm up soon enough,” he said ruefully. “Will you be all right if I…?”
Theo waved off the query. “Go help them. I’m sure your mother won’t shoot me…” She paused. “Will she?”
He laughed. “Just don’t talk politics, and you should be fairly safe.”
Theo lingered by the window. She could hear Nancy in the kitchen. Clearing up after pie perhaps. She should help…or at least offer to do so. Theo breathed deeply. No politics.
When she walked back into the kitchen she found Nancy emptying all the kitchen cupboards. “Just thought I’d wipe them out while I was here,” she said from inside a cupboard. “That woman who cleans for Cormac is slapdash at best. Lord! Nothing is in its rightful place… Who on earth stores the teacups with the dinner plates?”
“Can I do anything to help?” Theo asked.
“Sure, sweetie. Perhaps if you were to wash up the lunch dishes. I cannot bear dishes in the sink!”
Theo opened the dishwasher door and proceeded to stack it.
“Tell me, dear, why are you and your brother living with Cormac?”
“Gus’s house is…undergoing repairs.”
“Oh…what happened to it?”
Theo swallowed. Nancy Etheridge was pretending to be engrossed in cleaning the back of one of the lower cupboards. Only her protruding bottom half was still visible. From that angle Theo could clearly see the holster on the erstwhile church auxiliary president’s hip. It was a strange way to have a conversation. “Gus’s house is pretty old. There were all sorts of things that needed doing.”
“So you’re not in hiding?”
For a moment Theo wasn’t sure what to say… Actually, it was much longer than a moment. She was still not sure how to respond when she finally asked, “Did Mac say I was in hiding?”
“Cormac, bless him, doesn’t tell me anything…which is why I have to ask.” Nancy climbed out of the cupboard so she could face Theo. “It’s his job I suppose…uncovering secrets, keeping some, exposing others. Strange way to make a living, if you ask me.”
“You don’t approve of his job?” Theo grabbed the opportunity to divert the conversation.
“I’m afraid Cormac doesn’t much care about my approval.” Tiny lines of irritation appeared on the bridge of her nose. “It’s not really a necessary job, is it?”
