Millicent’s eyes narrowed and she studied Caprice with a shrewd smile. “Maybe you just didn’t look under the surface. For one thing, she was a perfectionist, and critical of anyone else who wasn’t.”
Yes, Louise had been particular. Yes, she’d wanted Rachel to do things a certain way . . . and Chet, too. But was that so unusual? She demanded much of others, but she demanded much of herself.
“She was a perfectionist,” Caprice agreed, wanting Millicent to go on because listening in this situation would be wiser than talking.
“She wanted things her way, and she didn’t trust easily either.”
That remark puzzled Caprice. “How do you know that?”
“Their grand love story. Everyone in Kismet knows how she fell in love with Chet. But what they don’t know is that it took Louise a long time until she trusted him. Months. He wanted to get married long before she did.”
Caprice didn’t know if Millicent was spinning a tale or had real knowledge to back it up. “A lack of trust shouldn’t lead to murder.”
“Maybe not, but I believe if she’d been able to trust more, she would have been less critical and would have made fewer enemies.”
“Who do you think were her enemies?”
Millicent lowered her voice. “There were women at Country Squire and in the Garden Club whom she pushed around when she wanted her own way. But I think you could even look closer to home than that. Certainly you know about the housekeeper she let go after ten years.”
Caprice hadn’t paid attention to any gossip around Pearl’s departure, but now she wondered about it more since her history with the Downings had come up again.
Because Millicent seemed to know the whole story, Caprice asked, “Why did she let Pearl go?” She wanted to see if the story Rachel told and the one Millicent had heard matched up.
“I heard the woman had become too cocky, that she started changing the menu without Louise’s permission, that she was taking liberties and inviting friends over, and using Louise’s own living room when she did. So Louise let her go, with severance, of course. But Pearl wasn’t happy. I think she thought she’d be there the rest of her life. She made threats. To prevent anything detrimental from happening, Chet gave Pearl a settlement, and Pearl slunk away. If you really want to know the scoop, you should talk to Louise’s manicurist about Pearl at the Nail Yard, and to Louise’s best friend, too.”
An odd expression must have crossed Caprice’s face because she was definitely taken aback by the idea that somebody else, besides her mom, was Louise’s best friend.
Keeping her tone even, she asked, “Who do you think her best friend is?”
“Oh, that’s easy. Her best friend was Gail Schwartz, the manager of that headhunter agency.”
Caprice knew Gail slightly. They’d worked together on a few church projects. Gail was also a member of the Chamber of Commerce and the Organization of Women for a Better Kismet that Caprice also belonged to. She was an entrepreneur herself. In her early fifties, she’d been running her headhunter agency for about fifteen years.
“Tell me why you think Gail is Louise’s best friend.” Caprice tried not to sound defensive.
Millicent could see right away why Caprice was surprised at the idea of Gail being Louise’s best friend. Close to her shoulder now, Millicent said, “I understand that you think your mom and Louise were best friends. But the fact is, Gail and Louise ran and played in the same circles. They knew what money was and how to use it. Your mom, on the other hand—”
Millicent didn’t have to elaborate. Francesca De Luca was simply a high school teacher who’d known Louise before she married Chet. She’d connected with Louise on a personal level and they had a history. But it was true that other than that, they didn’t have much in life in common.
Caprice realized how hurt her mom would be by that idea.
“Can we build a snowman?” Timmy asked the adults in general as the De Lucas gathered in the living room where logs crackled and blazed in the fireplace.
Lady had run to Caprice to welcome her. Caprice had dropped off Lady here before going to pick up Timmy and Megan, thinking her mom could use the comfort of a furry friend.
“Aren’t you tired after ice skating?” Caprice’s dad asked them as he rocked Bella’s baby back and forth in his arms.
“No!” Megan and Timmy answered at once.
“It will soon be time for dinner,” their grandfather told them.
“Not for another hour,” Nana said, brushing her thumb across the infant’s forehead.
Sitting beside Nana, Nikki asked Caprice, “Aren’t you going to mix up pepperoni bread?”
“That will take about five minutes,” Caprice explained. All she had to do was collect all the ingredients, mix, turn the dough into a bread pan, and shove it into the oven.
Just then, the front door opened again, and Vince, Grant, and Patches burst inside.
“I brought someone along who needs a good meal,” Vince teased. “And his dog. I figured Lady would be here.”
Grant shook his head. “For some reason, he thinks I’m like him and I don’t cook. But I’ve got to admit, a meal here is a great bribe so I don’t beat him too badly at one-on-one in basketball the next time. He assured me Patches was welcome, too—” As soon as he released Patches from his leash, the pup scampered to Lady.
Timmy ran over to Vince. “Do you want to build a snowman with me, Uncle Vince?”
Megan crossed to Grant. “Can you build one with me?”
Caprice’s dad got into the act. “That sounds like a fine idea, and I’ll judge which one’s the best.”
“What does the winner get?” Timmy asked, already competitive.
This time her father answered, “How about a ride around the yard on your uncle Vince’s old sled?”
That seemed to please both Megan and Timmy, and they went to grab their coats.
“I’ll watch Benny so you and Joe can join the fun,” Caprice’s dad told Bella.
“Building a snowman could be fun,” Bella admitted and turned to Joe.
He said, “I’ll get our coats.”
“I’ll watch the pups,” Nana offered. “You won’t want to leash them while you’re building a snowman or take the chance they’ll run into the street unleashed.” She patted her hip as Caprice and Grant did, said, “Come,” and the dogs bounded after her into the library.
“I’ll go pull out the bread pan,” Caprice’s mom offered, heading to the kitchen.
Before Caprice could also escape to the kitchen to mix up the pepperoni cheddar bread, Grant caught her elbow and leaned close. “How’s your mom holding up?”
She glanced toward the kitchen. “I’m not sure. I’m hoping a meal and some company will help. She’s trying to act like nothing’s wrong, but we all know something is. Losing Louise was like losing a little piece of her heart.”
Grant was silent for a moment, then asked, “Are you going to join in the snowman making?”
She cocked her head and looked him straight in the eye. “I think you ought to make a snowwoman.”
He raised his hands in a stop gesture while shaking his head. “Oh, no. I’m not going there. We’ll just see what Megan wants to do with it. If she wants to put a fancy hat on its head, that’s fine.”
“I’ll see if I can find an old one in Mom’s closet before I come out.”
“Don’t you have to watch the bread?”
“It will be fine with a timer. Mom or Nana can tell when it’s done. I have a feeling Nikki will be in the thick of it with you and Vince.”
Suddenly Megan popped back inside and asked, “Grant, are you coming?”
“I sure am. Let’s show your brother and his uncle what we can do.”
When the snowman brigade left the house, Caprice went into the kitchen.
After another glance at her mom who was standing at the window looking out, Caprice gathered ingredients from the refrigerator—shredded cheddar cheese, a pack of turkey pepperoni, mi
lk, and five eggs—and lined them all up on the counter near the mixer. Next, she reached for the bread pan. This really was an easy recipe. In no time at all, she’d popped the batter-filled pan into the oven.
As she closed the oven door, her mom moved to the counter and poked the pot roast that was cooking in a large Crock-Pot. “An hour will do it,” she said. More softly she added, “We often had pot roast when Chet and Louise came to dinner.”
Caprice went to her mom and stood beside her, then wrapped her arm around her waist. She didn’t know whether to go into this now or not, but it might be a good time.
“I saw Millicent Corsi at the ice skating rink.”
Her mom turned to her. “Millicent is a gossip.”
In a town the size of Kismet, there were a lot of gossips, and a lot of gossip centers, like the Koffee Klatch, the Cupcake House, even the local drugstore. Where anyone gathered regularly, people talked. But her mother was right about Millicent Corsi. She liked to be in the know and spread the news. After all, the Garden Club and the country club were two more of those gossip centers.
The subject Caprice wanted to broach was delicate, and she wasn’t exactly sure how to go about it. “Did you consider Louise your best friend?”
Her mother thought about that. “She was a good friend, and an old friend. Other women in my life have come and gone, but she was a constant. Why?”
“I just wondered.”
Her mom narrowed her eyes. “Did Millicent say something about my friendship with Louise?”
She wanted to be truthful with her mother, but she didn’t want to be hurtful. “Did Louise ever talk to you about Gail Schwartz?”
Her mother considered her question. “Louise and Gail were on the boards of several fund-raisers together. They also played golf and lunched at the Country Squire. Now and then they asked me to join them for lunch, but I rarely could. Sometimes in the summer it worked out. Why do you ask?”
“Millicent made a comment about them being best friends. I thought you were Louise’s best friend.”
“I thought I was, too,” her mom said, looking a little hurt. “But over the past five years or so”—she shrugged—“Louise and Gail did seem to do a lot more together than Louise and I did. But she and Chet seemed to keep to themselves more, too, and didn’t come over to dinner as often when I invited them. Everyone’s so busy nowadays. Too busy for long dinners and old friendships. There was a time when we talked on the phone a few times a week. That was replaced with e-mails, and over the past year, texting. Now I’m wondering if we both just didn’t drop the ball on our friendship.”
Caprice capped her mom’s shoulder with her hand. “You could only be the kind of friend to Louise that Louise would let you be. You can’t force friendship, just like you can’t force love. I don’t think a text will really tell you what’s in somebody’s heart.”
How could you really know what was in a person’s heart unless he or she told you?
Automatically Grant came to mind. Because he’d saved her life? Possibly. That night last summer, he’d really seemed to care. Yet he wouldn’t tell her what he felt. He wouldn’t make a stand. Heck, he wouldn’t even ask her to go with him to the Valentine’s Day dance.
Maybe she should push a little if she wanted to know Grant better. Yet if she had to push, would anything about their friendship be right?
Caprice’s mom sighed. “I need to make a salad, then check on your father. Handling a newborn isn’t as easy as it seems. He might have forgotten that. And if you want to be part of this snowman building, you’d better get outside or they’ll be finished. If Grant and Vince are competing, they’ll be men on a mission.”
“I think I’ll find a hat in the closet upstairs. The last time I looked, you had an old straw one you use for gardening. Do you mind if I use that?”
“I don’t mind. It’s getting a little dilapidated. Whose team is it for?”
“Team Grant,” Caprice said with a wink.
“Of course,” her mother responded with a knowing look.
Ten minutes later, hat in hand, Caprice stepped out the door onto the side porch. She’d no sooner reached one of the brown rope-style pillars that supported the porch when she heard Bella and Joe arguing. That wasn’t an unusual occurrence, but since last summer, they’d argued less.
Joe was saying, “It’s too soon for you to go back to work.”
Bella kicked the clump of snow at her foot. “I’m in the house all day with the baby. You’re at work. Of course you can handle it all better at night. Maybe if I was at work all day, I could handle it all better at night.”
“And who’s going to take care of Benny? If we have to pay through the nose for daycare, you might as well not work.”
“I found someone who’s reasonable through a network at church. Her kids are teenagers now and she loves babies.”
“Has anyone done a background check?”
Suspecting this argument wasn’t going to go anywhere soon, Caprice quietly stepped away from the pillar and went down the porch steps, hoping to reach Vince and Timmy before Bella and Joe had even known she’d passed by. But her boots must have clicked on a patch of bare pavement, and Joe swung around her way.
She gave him an I-didn’t-hear-anything expression and was going to keep walking when he beckoned to her.
“Caprice, come here, would you?”
Uh oh. She really didn’t want to get into the middle of this. “I have to warn Vince that Grant’s team is going to use a hat.”
Joe stared blankly at the two partially assembled snowpersons. “I want your opinion on this,” he said firmly.
She had no choice but to cross to the couple and enter the conversation. Maybe the cold wind would convince them this discussion was better if held inside . . . or later.
“Are you sure you want my opinion? I know nothing about marriage, remember?”
“Maybe not,” he conceded, “but I’ve seen the way you look at Benny. I’ve seen how you hold him, and how you walk him, and how you burp him. So just answer one question for me. If he were yours, could you leave him this soon?”
Caprice shook her head vigorously. “Joe, that’s not fair. Bella isn’t thinking about herself, or Benny. She’s thinking about all of you. She’s thinking about the extra money, especially if you’re considering buying a house. Right, Bee?”
“Of course, that’s what I’m thinking about. I’ve already told him that. This babysitter would be reasonable, and I’d still have money that we can sock away, or use toward a mortgage.”
Joe’s expression was set. He still wasn’t buying it. Caprice looked at Bella and knew she had to support her sister. That’s what sisters were for. So she considered a tactful way to do it. Tact was all important with these two.
She studied Bella again. “You want to go to work.”
She changed her focus to Joe. “You want her to stay home. I understand both of you. But working isn’t like making a marriage succeed. I mean, it’s not all or nothing. Why can’t Bella talk to Roz about working part-time for now? Maybe she can increase her hours as Benny gets older. Maybe she could work a good part of a Saturday and you can watch the kids, instead of taking Benny to a babysitter. I don’t know. That’s for the two of you to work out. But isn’t this like everything else? Wouldn’t compromise be best?”
They were both quiet. She took that opportunity to say, “You two mull that over while I take a look at these snowpersons.”
After telling Vince that he and Timmy would have to do something spectacular to compete with her straw hat, she let her boots sink into the snow as she clomped through it to Grant and Megan. Their snowperson was smaller than Vince’s, but it seemed to have a little more character. It actually had arms on the sides. With this hat, they could win this challenge.
Megan showed Caprice a handful of stones she’d picked up somewhere in the yard. “These are for the eyes and mouth.”
“You’ll have to ask Gram for a carrot for her nose.”
> “I’ll go in right now,” Megan said, and ran up the walk to the porch steps.
Caprice called, “Wipe your feet before you go in.” Turning to Grant, she asked, “Are you having fun out here?”
“Playing with kids is always a life-altering experience.” From the look in Grant’s eyes, he was serious.
“I suppose so. You look at life differently when you’re with kids.”
He never talked about the child he’d lost, and she’d never pushed that button. Standing out here in the snow with the wind kicking up wasn’t the right time to do it, either.
He stared at the house—Caprice’s childhood home. “I want to start looking at houses soon. It could take a while to find something I’ll like.”
A house that didn’t remind him of a house he’d once shared with a wife and child?
“That could take a while,” she agreed.
“You have a fireplace. Your mom and dad have two. Do I want a fireplace or don’t I?”
His question surprised her. He was thinking about details already.
“I like my fireplace. Dad keeps telling me I should put a wood-burning unit in it to make it more efficient. But that’s not the same thing at all. And he hasn’t done that, either. When I light a fire, even the animals feel mellow. So, yes, if I bought a house, I’d want a fireplace. Not a gas fireplace, but a real fireplace.”
Grant cocked his head, and the breeze tousled his black hair. “I had a feeling you’d say that. I’ve been looking at photos online, just sort of deciding how big a house I want and neighborhoods where I might want to look.”
“Wouldn’t you miss Donna if you moved from your town house?”
Uh oh. What imp made her ask that question? A jealous one maybe. No, she shouldn’t be jealous of Grant’s divorced neighbor. He’d said they were just friends, hadn’t he?
Grant’s lips quirked up in almost a smile. “Friends stay in touch no matter where they live.”
Caprice thought about Seth’s last rushed e-mail. Had their romance changed into simple friendship? Did he think about her as much as she thought about him? Or tried not to think about him?
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