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“Yikes, I don’t think I’ve heard of that place.”
“It’s one of the old casinos. She’s been there since it opened. After my dad left, we moved from Milwaukee to Las Vegas to be closer to my grandmother, who had moved there a few years before. Then my dad moved so he could see me.”
“Why’d they get a divorce? Not that it matters.”
“Same old story you get whenever there’s cheating. He wasn’t happy, so he found someone who could meet his needs.”
“I wonder if you and I have any issues because of our parents’ infidelity,” Oliver said. “I know it’s one of my motivations to take it slow with you.”
“It’s probably why I don’t have a boyfriend. Trust issues and all that.”
“Well, you know I’m not going to cheat. I wouldn’t cheat on Joanne and she hated me.”
Gallows humor but they laughed. “She cheated on me, actually.”
“So you were with one girl all those years. Any desire to play the field before you settle down?”
“I’m settled down,” he said, grinning at her. “And I played the football field, and look what that got me.”
“Oh, there’s the exit to my mother’s neighborhood,” she said, sitting up straight. “I haven’t been here in a while. Prepare yourself.”
He didn’t comment, not knowing exactly what she meant, but when she directed him through the maze of streets and pointed to Helen Adams’s driveway, he understood.
“Let’s not take the suitcases in just yet,” she said.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m having second thoughts. But we can play it by ear.”
The house was a nineteen fifties bungalow with faded aluminum siding, one curling piece about to fall off. A porch cover in danger of collapsing had wild roses crawling up the side supports, the red blooms belying the middle of winter. A broken concrete pathway snaked up a weedy but freshly cut lawn.
Well-tended flower beds on either side of crumbling stone steps were in full bloom, a bevy of lychnis, echinacea, black-eyed Susans and flowering sage mixed up a heady scent as they passed up the steps. Oliver stopped to smell the garden. It would be the only positive of the visit.
“Watch yourself on these steps,” she mumbled. “I sent her money to fix these things, but I’m sure a slot machine saw it all.”
The door opened and a tiny woman with a hairdo fresh from the beauty parlor cried out when she saw Wendy. While she hugged her, one red-nailed hand clutching a cigarette, she eyed Oliver.
“Oh my God, so this is the baller.”
“Ma, don’t call him that,” Wendy said, taking a deep breath.
“Earle is just waitin’ to bend your ear.”
“Is he here?” Wendy asked, frowning.
“He just left for the liquor store. Come on in,” Helen said and then noticed Sadie. “Oh no, you brought the dog!”
“You know what happened the last time I left her in a kennel. I couldn’t take the chance.”
“Earle might not like it. He’s not fond of dogs.”
Wendy and Oliver exchanged glances, but Wendy bit her tongue.
“You must be crazy wearing those hot clothes.”
“It was snowing when we left Michigan,” Wendy said, glancing down at her sweater.
“My daughter took a job in that state knowing it would be cold in the wintertime.”
