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April stood with one hand resting gracefully on the back of a bentwood chair, the other curled around a phone. She wore yesterday’s ripped jeans with a garnet baby doll top, silver earrings, and sage green snake charmer flats. “You were supposed be here at seven, Sanjay.” She nodded at Blue and gestured toward the coffeepot. “Then you’ll have to get another truck. These countertops need to be installed by the end of the day so the painters can get in here.”
Dean wandered in. His expression revealed nothing as he made his way to the doughnut box, but when he reached the table, the sunbeam dancing off his hair caught April’s, and Blue was struck with the crazy notion that God had created a special spotlight just to follow these two golden creatures around.
“We’re not holding up the installation,” April said. “You’d better be here in an hour.” She switched to another call, transferring the phone from her right ear to her left. “Oh, hi.” She lowered her voice and turned away from them. “I’ll call you back in ten minutes. Where are you?”
Dean drifted toward the breakfast nook windows and gazed out at the backyard. Blue found herself hoping he was trying to come to terms with April’s imminent demise.
April made another call. “Dave, it’s Susan O’Hara. Sanjay’s going to be late.”
The electrician who’d been wiring the dining room chandelier ambled in. “Susan, come look at this.”
She made a wait-a-minute gesture as she finished up her conversation, then flipped her phone shut. “What’s up?”
“I ran into more old wiring in the dining room.” The electrician’s eyes were all over her. “It’s going to have to be replaced.”
“Let me see.” She followed him out.
Blue dumped a teaspoon of sugar in her coffee and went over to examine the stove. “You’d be so screwed right now if she weren’t here.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right.” Dean passed over the powdered doughnuts and took the only glazed doughnut left in the box, exactly the one she’d had her eye on.
A power drill screeched. “This kitchen is incredible,” she said.
“It’s okay, I guess.”
“Okay?” She ran her thumb across the words O’Keefe & Merritt on the front panel of the stove and threw out a lure. “I could spend the whole day in here baking. Homemade bread, a fruit cobbler…”
“You really can cook?”
“Of course I can cook.” The white enamel stove was a passport to another era. Maybe it could also be her passport to temporary security.
But he’d lost interest in food. “Don’t you own anything pink?”
She looked down at her bike shorts and camouflage T-shirt. “What’s wrong with this?”
“Nothing, if you’re planning to invade Cuba.”
She shrugged. “I’m not into clothes.”
“Now there’s a surprise.”
She pretended to think it over. “If you really want to see me in pink, I guess I could borrow something from you.”
His smile wasn’t all that friendly, but if she didn’t keep challenging him, he’d start confusing her with one of his sexual handmaidens.
April returned to the kitchen and closed her phone. She addressed Dean with cool formality. “The driver’s on his way with the wagon. Why don’t you check around outside and decide where you want it?”
“I’m sure you have a suggestion.”
“It’s your house.”
He regarded her stonily. “Give me a hint.”
“The wagon doesn’t have a toilet or running water, so don’t put it too far away.” She called into the hallway over her shoulder. “Cody, is the plumber’s truck out there yet? I have to talk to him.”
“Just pulled up,” Cody called back.
“What kind of wagon?” Blue asked as April disappeared.
