Althea shrugged. “Lester has his VFW friends and his card group. I tried playing bridge, but those women are not my people.” Still frowning, she said, “They expected me to make it possible for them to reserve the entire community center for their game.” Another snort followed. “Like they should be able to inconvenience the rest of the community. Too uppity for my tastes.”
“That does seem like a pretty self-important take.”
“I’ll say.” Althea made a noise of disgust. “They only wanted me to play with them for what they thought I could do for them.”
“I promise we don’t want anything from you,” Paige said. “Except your presence and your input on the book.” She found a good spot and parked, then turned off the engine and looked at Althea. “I get people like that, too, who want to be friends because of what they think I can do for them. Not to the extent you do, I’m sure. But in a smaller way, I understand it. Maybe that’s part of why I reached out to you. I felt a kinship.”
Althea smiled. “I bet that model woman knows, too.”
“Blaise. Yes, I’m sure she does. We have a good group. I know you’ve only met Essie so far, but you’ll like them all, I think.”
“Essie is nice. And a good cook. But she strikes me as a bit of a pushover.”
“I think that’s just a…a way of softening herself. She was the principal of a middle school for alongtime.”
Althea’s brows rose. “That so? You might be right then. Probably tougher than she looks.” She reached for the door handle but didn’t open the door. “Are you coming in?”
“I was planning on it. I want to say hi to Lester and talk to Maude before she heads out.”
“Good.” Althea still didn’t make a move to get out. “My sons don’t like Lester. They don’t think I should have married him. That he’s out for my money.” She laughed bitterly. “My sons are the ones with the money. I just live on their good graces. They’re fools. Lester’s a good man. He’s good company and we have fun together.”
“You and Essie have more in common than you think. Her stepdaughter has the same opinion of her. And I have no doubt about Lester.” Paige smiled.
Althea nodded. “Come on, then. I need to see that husband of mine.”
They went in together, moving at Althea’s pace, which wasn’t that slow but it was slower than Paige usually went. She liked to walk fast. It kept a lot of men from joining her when she didn’t want them to.
They went through hospital security and straight to Lester’s room.
Maude was sitting next to his bed, her iPad in her hands. She looked up when they came in. “Lester, you have visitors.”
“Maude,” Paige began. “This is Althea, Lester’s wife.”
“Nice to meet you,” Maude said, getting to her feet.
“You, too. Thank you for sitting with him.” Althea went directly to Lester’s side. “How are you?”
“Good. Did you get some rest?” he asked.
“I did. Has the doctor been by?”
“He was,” Lester said. “Said I need a valve replaced. And they want to give me a pacemaker.”
Maude gathered her things and joined Paige, giving Althea and Lester some privacy. “Are you taking over?”
Paige shook her head. “Althea’s going to stay now.”
“Okay.” Maude glanced back at them. “He’s a seriously cool guy. I could hang out with him all day.”
“You kind of did.”
Maude laughed. “I don’t mind. He sort of reminds me of my grandpa, if he were still alive. It was nice.”
Paige wanted to hug Maude. She’d underestimated the younger woman. “Thank you for doing this.”
“Anytime. I mean that.” She adjusted the strap of her tote. “I’ll say goodbye to Lester, then head out. What time tomorrow?”
Paige shook her head. “If he’s having a valve replacement and a pacemaker, I’m guessing he’ll be in ICU for a bit. No visitors there. Althea might need us, though. I’ll send out a text later.”
