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“She’s telling the truth,” Maggie said, having witnessed it.
“Okay, gotcha.”
“Why were you single when Maggie here moved in?” Katrina asked Justin.
“I was waitin’ for her, I guess. I knew the minute I saw Maggie again that she was the one.”
“Aw,” the women chorused.
“Well, you two don’t have to worry about me today. All I want to do is get my book, put my bathing suit on, and sit by the water and relax. You go ahead and go about your business. You don’t have to entertain me. I’m about to change my luck with men.”
“Ah! The fisherman?”
“Yep. He’s married, but according to Maggie’s friend Gus, the wife has been sleeping with Annie Casson’s father-in-law for the past year.”
“Alfonso? No way,” Justin said, disgusted. “I never heard a word about it.”
“That’s a bit of gossip that just missed you,” Maggie said. “Annie must know.”
“I don’t think so,” Katrina said. “Annie would have said something to me. She told me all about the alcoholic mother-in-law and the sister-in-law who is shacking up with the other vet in town. It sounds like the kids aren’t talking about their dad.”
“They must know,” Maggie said. “Steve and Alfonso are joined at the hip.”
“What else did Gus say?” Justin asked, holding his coffee cup as Katrina poured.
“He said Alfonso has been seen going inside Alphé’s house at lunchtime several times a week for over a year. It’s so disrespectful. That’s the man’s house. Gus said Alphé bought it long before he ever got married, so it’s really his house.”
“You think you know someone because you see him once in a while throughout life, but that’s hardly enough,” Justin replied.
“You have to live with someone. I should know. But Russ really showed his true colors before we ever got married, and I chose to be in denial.”
“You would know,” Katrina said. “You never really know someone until you live with them.”
Steve Casson and his sister, Kelly, suspected their father was having an affair with someone, but the sensual Lola Beaumont never crossed their mind as a possible partner for their approaching-old-age dad.
“I think Daddy’s messing around,” Kelly confided in Steve. “Did you notice how clean-shaven he always is lately? And he lost weight and spiffed up his clothes, less Tractor Supply, more Rubensteins.”
“Who’d screw Dad? I say you’re imagining it.”
“Can you spy on him?”
“I’ll try, but usually if he’s out of the store, I’m in, and so on.”
“Okay, let me know when he leaves the store, and I’ll be sure to follow him if I’m in town.”
It had just so happened that the next day, Kelly was in town to grocery shop when Steve sent her a text.
Dad’s on the move! Just left the store[referring to Casson’s Hardware].
She answered right away.Perfect! I was just going into Spencer’s.
Changing her plans to snoop, she peeked around the corner to see her father walking out of his hardware store and getting into his car. She ran to her car, keeping an eye on his direction. He was going straight north on Main.
In seconds, she was a block behind him, watching his car turn onto a side street. Slowly approaching, she stopped at the corner and watched him pull in front of a sage green shotgun house, get out, and walk the few steps to the front entrance, which was opened by a beautiful woman in a white V-necked T-shirt, skintight blue jeans and stilettos. Lola Beaumont.
Stunned, Kelly didn’t bother turning down the street. She made a U-turn to return to Main Street to do her grocery shopping. Calling the hardware store instead of sending a text to Steve’s cell, she didn’t want a record of their conversation, just in case.
“I can’t believe what I just saw,” she mumbled into the phone. “It’s Lola Beaumont.”
