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“Men,” she muttered. She made her way up the driveway back to the house, stopping briefly to pat her little VW bug on the hood. “I’ll never take you for granted again,” she said. Four days without a car had taught her a valuable lesson. She went in through the garage and into the kitchen to find Mimi up to her elbows in cupcakes.
“God, it smells awesome in here.”
“My Bunco group is manning the refreshment stand tonight. Half the proceeds go to the non-profit organization of our choice.” Mimi’s eyes glittered. “Which, coincidentally, happens to be me. I’ve decided to run for mayor and campaigns don’t come cheap. Not even in little ol’ Whispering Bay.”
Before Mimi could stop her, Allie grabbed a cupcake off the cooling rack. “That’s the best news I’ve had all week.”
“Zeke doesn’t think so, but yeah, I’m pretty excited.”
Allie picked up a spoon and dipped it into a vat of vanilla icing and smeared it on top of her cupcake, then licked off what was left on the spoon. “What does Zeke know?”
“He hasn’t said so directly, but I think he thinks the city will fall apart if I’m at the helm. Plus, if I do get the job, I’d sort of be his boss.”
Allie nearly choked on the icing. “Ha! No wonder he’s going ballistic.”
Mimi picked up a cooled cupcake and began icing it. “What did he say? And tell me the truth.”
Uh-oh. Allie hadn’t meant to rain on Mimi’s parade. Especially not when her sister-in-law needed her support. “Who cares what my dumbass brother thinks? I think it’s great. The kids will, too. And Zeke will come around. You’ll see.”
“You think so?”
“Of course!” Allie decided to change the subject. “Roger Van Cleave is a pretty cool old guy.”
“You saw his photographs?” Mimi smiled like she’d known a secret that Allie was just now discovering.
“Why didn’t you tell me he worked for Life magazine?”
“I didn’t think about it. I mean, all those Gray Flamingoes are pretty interesting if you ask me.”
Allie laid down her spoon. “Mimi, after Buela died, what happened to all her stuff?” Just two weeks after Buela’s death, Allie had gone off to college, dazed and heartbroken. Mimi had taken on the sorrowful task of closing up the little house Allie shared with Buela. Allie had returned home to Whispering Bay for Thanksgiving break to find that Mimi and Zeke had made a place for her in their own home.
“You mean photos, things like that?” Mimi frowned. “You’ve seen them. They’re all over the walls. Plus, I have a few dozen albums in the den closet. You’re welcome to any of them, you know.”
“Thanks. But I mean…the other stuff? Her furniture, things like that?”
“I think most of her furniture went to Good Will and to the church bazaar. I kept a few things, though, like her china and her wedding dress. It’s very cool, you know. Very retro. It would fit you perfectly.”
Buela’s wedding dress would fit her? Allie had never even entertained the idea. Of course, in order to wear a wedding dress you had to have a groom first.
“Why do you suddenly want to know about Buela’s things?”
“I don’t know. Seeing Roger’s house, all his knickknacks, stuff from his trips, it made me a little nostalgic, I guess.” She studied her sister-in-law carefully and said, “He gave me some insight into who might be Concerned Citizen.”
Was it a figment of Allie’s imagination or did Mimi’s cheeks go pi
nk? “He did?”
“Roger thinks Concerned Citizen had a sneakier reason to write me that email. He thinks maybe someone wanted to delay the demolition. Or maybe…someone just wanted me here in town.”
“Leave it to those Gray Flamingoes to turn this whole thing into some conspiracy theory.” Mimi raised an iced cupcake in the air to inspect it. “Do you think I’m putting too much icing on these?”
“There’s no such thing as too much icing.”
“Agreed.” She placed the cupcake back on the tray and looked up to find Allie staring at her. “What? You don’t think I wrote that email, do you?”
“You didn’t? I mean, you seem pretty happy to have me back home.”
“Why on earth would I write your editor an anonymous email when I could just speed dial you and tell you I needed you?”
