AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh, double ugh. Why did you wait to tell me?”
“I wanted to give him a chance to tell you. It made sense that if he was getting married, that might change the plan to let you have his business. I wanted to see if he said anything more to you about it.”
“Well, he did not. Are you okay if I confront him on Tuesday?”
“No, go for it. I’m ready to take him on if he accuses me of invading his privacy.”
“Hmmm. So! Long Peterson Detective Agency?”
“Oh, I’m not sure about that. How long do you think it would take before it was shortened to Long Peter? No.”
She giggled. “I see your point.”
“No, I think Laura Long Private Investigation sounds perfect.”
Resting her head against the back of the couch, she smiled a slow smile. “I like that, too.”
“You’ve already got your license. You can work from home for a while. Give it some thought.”
“I will do that. Thank you, Will. I love you.”
“And I love you.”
***
In the kitchen of their tiny bungalow, Beverly Johnson made a fresh pot of coffee, preparing for a long sit-down with daughter Rene, who had just moved back home after a summer at the beach with that lawyer.
“I wondered if he was going to propose for your birthday.”
“He doesn’t even know when my birthday is, Ma. He never asked, and I didn’t tell him. So no, no proposal. That would have been worse. He warned me from the beginning that he was close friends with Pam, but they’re sleeping together.”
“She’s too old for him.”
“Evidently not. Anyway, I’m not going to sit around today and feel sorry for myself. I love you, but I have to find an apartment. I can’t be thirty-seven, living with Mom.”
“You can if I say so,” Beverly replied. “I was happy you were involved with him because he was close to Pam. I had hoped some of that wealth would come your way.”
“Mother, I told you from the beginning that you weren’t going to see any of Jack’s money coming through me. If you want to pursue that, you need to strike up a friendship with Pam yourself.”
“I generally don’t care for friendships with other women,” Beverly said. “Pam seems kind of shallow, too. What would we talk about?”
“I’m not sure. Jack, I guess.”
“I’ll think about it. It sounded like all she does is exercise, and you know I’m not doing that.”
After having coffee, Rene kissed her mother goodbye and left to go to apartment complex open houses being held on the holiday. It was a perfect fall day, too, with the color change approaching its peak. Although ideally she’d be with someone doing the fall thing, apple cider mill, kite flying at the beach, and apartment hunting, she liked her own company, and it would be fine doing those things alone. She saw a sign outside the drugstore in Babylon that they had kites for sale, so she’d stop there first.
It was kismet; there was no parking out in front, so she drove around to the back lot and pulled in next to a VW Bug. The driver got out at the same time she did.
“Dr. Gage?”
“Nurse Johnson?”
Laughing, she pointed to his car. “I’m surprised.”
“I barely fit. It’s my granddaughter’s car. We traded for the holiday weekend.”
“Gotcha.” She noticed he was casually dressed with khaki shorts and a faded University of Pennsylvania sweatshirt. “I’m here for a kite. Today is kite day at the beach.”
