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“Were you ever married, Mike?”
“A confirmed bachelor. How does crab au gratin sound for dinner?”
“Delicious. Was Parker?”
“Married? No.”
“Women?”
He removed a package of frozen crabmeat from the freezer and set it on the countertop before turning to her. “What do you think?”
She lowered her eyes and traced the wood grain in the tabletop with her fingertip. “Of course there have been women.”
“More than a few, fewer than many. Nothing lasting. Never serious.”
She nodded. He went back to assembling the ingredients for his recipe.
“Parker shared with me how you rescued him from the pit, so to speak.”
When he turned back to her, she saw that this revelation had surprised him. But he recovered and said, “He gives me more credit than I deserve. All I did was tell him things he already knew.”
“Like?”
“I told him that he was on a sure path of self-destruction. However, I pointed out to him what a slow path he’d taken. I asked why he was dilly-dallying. I told him that if he truly wanted to be dead, he could have found a way to take himself out.”
“Good psychology.”
He shrugged modestly. “The main thing is, it worked.” He indicated the manuscript pages she had carried in with her from the guest house. “Do you like the latest installment?”
“I’ve been rereading the chapter about Mary Catherine’s miscarriage. Todd is beginning to reveal himself as the villain.”
“Interesting,” Mike murmured. “That you think of him as the villain.”
“Aren’t I supposed to?”
“I believe that’s Parker’s intention, yes.”
“Do you read everything he writes?”
“Only what he asks me to.”
“Which is?”
He grinned at her as he reached into the cabinet for a casserole dish. “Everything he writes.”
“I’m sure he values your opinion.”
Mike scoffed at that. “He thinks the only opinion that counts is his.”
“It’s more the feedback than the opinion that he wants. I’ve learned by working with writers that they like having a sounding board. Even if the sounding board never talks back, they need someone to listen to them as they process thoughts and ideas. You perform a valuable service to Parker—beyond the obvious.”
He didn’t carry the conversation toward the “obvious” services he performed for Parker. Instead he asked if any of her associates at Matherly Press had read the manuscript.
“To honor Parker’s request for anonymity, I’m keeping it under wraps. I did share it with my father, though. He’s as positive about it as I am.”
“Nobody else?”
“No.”
