“I’m fine, Mrs. Canaday. I’ll just feed and change the baby and hope he sleeps for a while so I can have a nap, too.”
“Excellent. I’m expecting Freddie back from the police station any time, and we’re scheduled to go out and find him a new truck. Then I’ll be home and fix dinner. Does creamed chicken and biscuits sound good to you?”
Jenny paused in her fumbled unbuttoning of her blouse and smiled gratefully. “You’re so good to me, too. Creamed chicken sounds heavenly.” Tears formed in the corners of her eyes. “I’ll pay you back one day. I promise.”
Felicity hugged both her and the baby. “You take care of this child and bring him up right, and that will be all the payback I’ll ever need.” She patted her briskly, afraid that if she didn’t, she’d dissolve into a maudlin scene. There simply wasn’t time for that.
“You have my cell phone number if you need me, and I’ll let Jason know you’re here alone. He’s keeping an eye on things in general for me.” She eyed Lazarus, who had stationed himself beside Jenny’s rocker. He watched the baby with luminous eyes, his ears forward. The sound of his purring was soothing and reassuring.
“I think you’re going to have help keeping things in order.” She reached down to pet the cat, and his head pushed back against her hand as the purring increased in volume. “Good boy, Lazarus.”
With that, she left the room and hurried downstairs. “Dear me. I could use a sandwich myself. I should just have time.”
As seemed to be happening more and more often, her plans were sidetracked. The movement she noticed outside the kitchen window turned out to be Jason on his way to the back door. She hurried to let him in, saying, “I’m about to make myself a ham salad sandwich. I made sure to stock up on quick things, because of all the comings and goings here.”
He grinned and said, “I knew you were going to be going back out, and I figured I needed to get here to be on hand in case Jenny needs anything. The sandwich sounds great, but I better go up and let her know I’ll be down here.”
“She’s feeding the baby, and might be a little uncomfortable if you popped in, Jason.” I certainly would, Felicity thought. “Just call out to her through the door and come back. The food will be ready.”
She looked at her watch as she pulled a loaf of bread out of the bread drawer. Surely Freddie and Detective Maguire would get their business taken care of as quickly as possible. “I’d better make several sandwiches. He’ll be hungry and in a hurry when he gets here. Besides, I want to have a talk with him about that half-brother of his.”
She busied herself at the counter while he was gone.
Jason came back from his errand with a smile on his face. “Lazarus was in the hall, guarding the door. He would scarcely let me close enough to knock and say hello.” His grin widened. “He actually growled at me.”
Felicity sighed. One more thing to test her patience. “Well, I’ll just have to have a talk with him about that. He’s besotted with that baby. One more thing to do after I have my little chat with Freddie.”
He patted her shoulder as he passed by. “I have a feeling Freddie already has your intentions figured out, Felicity. Just let things develop.”
Felicity’s hands moved rapidly across the counter, spreading mayonnaise on wheat bread and dropping clumps of ham salad on every other slice. “I don’t see how you can say that, Jason. You scarcely know him.”
He picked up the first sandwich she sliced and bit into it. He chewed thoughtfully, swallowed, then said, “No, but I know people. Trust me. He has you figured out.”
With a sigh, Felicity turned to the refrigerator and removed a tall bottle of grape juice. “Do you want some of this?”
“I’d rather have a beer, but since I’m mommy-sitting, I’d better stick with that.” He took the bottle from her and opened a cupboard door. “You, too?”
“Please.” She finished the sandwiches and stacked them on a plate, which she set on the small kitchen table. She was having difficulty keeping her eyes away from the clock over the stove. “Freddie should be back by now.”
Jason seated himself across from her. “Relax and eat. Do I have to remind you that you’re not responsible for everything? Or do you want me to go get my father. The Admiral will give you orders, you know.”
Felicity bit into a sandwich and tried to settle into her chair. “You’re right. It’s just that so much has been going on, and I feel pulled in so many directions.”
Chimes echoed through the house, and she leaped to her feet. “That’s Freddie. I forgot to give him a key.”
Jason gently pushed her back into her chair. “I’ll let him in. Didn’t I just tell you you didn’t have to do everything?”
She sighed and tried to concentrate on her sandwich. By the sound of his greeting, Freddie was in great spirits, but then nothing seemed to take away his cheerful outlook on life. Not even being hit over the head and suffering amnesia. Felicity wished she could maintain her equilibrium when things weren’t going her way, but no matter how hard she tried, she found herself fighting to make everything turn out to her satisfaction.
The door swung open. “By George, she’s drinking grape juice! I guess I’ll just have to make do with nonalcoholic drinks until I get back home.” Freddie reached down and took a sandwich and propped himself against the sink while Jason filled a glass for him. “That detective surely made me jump through a lot of hoops until the matter was arranged to my satisfaction. I’ll make short work of lunch, and we can head out, Felicity. I’d like to get this done so I can get on the road first thing in the morning.”
Chapter Eighteen
“What do you mean first thing tomorrow?” Felicity demanded. “We haven’t yet had a chance to get to know each other under normal circumstances.” She could hardly believe what he’d said.
Freddie shrugged as if he were embarrassed. “I hadn’t bothered to look at a calendar until I was at the police station. I have to be back at Stanford in less than a week for planning meetings for summer quarter. Did I tell you I was interim head of the English department? I agreed to take the post because the last one died suddenly, and they weren’t prepared to do a search at the time.”
Accepting his decision as unchangeable, Felicity told herself not to become upset. Freddie was almost a carbon copy of her late husband. All of his tasks were compartmentalized, and when he moved from one thing to another he did it abruptly, never thinking of how it affected others.
Dear Oliver. She’d learned to live with the characteristic, and it was a good thing. They’d had a wonderful life together, in spite of his idiosyncrasies. She handed Freddie a plate holding a second sandwich. “Then you’d better eat quickly. We have an appointment at the car dealer in less than an hour.”
* * *
Miles Ferguson never missed a chance to suggest that Felicity upgrade from her old Buick, but in spite of his attempts to sell her something newer and flashier, she had remained firm. She was adept at fending off his salesmanship, and she found Freddie was just as good at it as she was. After Freddie described the simple pickup truck – one without huge tires and the ability to seat six people in the cab with comfort – Ferguson countered with, “Are you sure you won’t let me talk you into something more powerful?”
“If I wanted something more powerful, I’d have said so,” Freddie said firmly, his smile taking the sting out of his words. “That little black number I spotted back in the corner of the lot caught my eye on the way in.”
Felicity bit back a smile as the agency owner’s features creased in a wry grin. He shoved his hands into his pockets and shook his head. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were paying for this yourself. Surely you can talk Mrs. Canaday into buying you something with a bit more pizzaz to it.”
The look Freddie cast Felicity was filled with surprise. “Did you still think you were buying me a new truck? You ought to know I wouldn’t accept that from you.”
“Now Freddie, I know how expensive it is to live in
California, and the way you lost your old truck was so unexpected that you can’t be prepared to take this on. Oliver would have wanted me to take care of it.”
His roar of laughter echoed throughout the glass showroom, causing other customers to stop their negotiations and stare at the grizzled old man as he wiped tears from his eyes. He gestured to Miles to leave them alone for a minute and stepped closer.
“Felicity, I can’t believe you lived with Oliver all those years and never figured out how close he and I were. You know that little formula he left behind? The one you said you’d destroyed, but that you had memorized for emergencies?”
Felicity looked around nervously. No one but close family knew about Oliver’s method of manipulating the stock market. “Freddie, I don’t think this is the place to talk about that. Let’s buy the truck, and we can discuss it when we get back home.”
Freddie leaned close to her and said softly, “All right, but you ought to know one thing. Oliver shared it with me. That’s one of the reasons my half-brother conked me. I refused to tell him how I made money.” He patted Felicity’s arm. “Don’t tell any of the widows you know what a ‘warm’ bachelor I am. Why, I could buy this whole agency if I had a mind to.”
For some reason, Felicity found herself swallowing laughter. Then she gave up and began to giggle. “Oh dear. I guess I’ve been cherishing that secret for so long that I never imagined anyone else knew about it.” She reached into her purse for a handkerchief and wiped tears from her eyes. “It’s so good to know I’m not the only one enjoying Oliver’s formula for prosperity.”
“I’m surprised he never told you. Whatever, let’s get this business over with.” He pulled the sandwich bag that Dan Truxler had used to store the stolen credit cards and personal information from his inner pocket and made a selection. Then he waggled a card between his fingers and said, “I called the credit card people from the police station and made sure this works. That’s one of the reasons my visit there took me so long.”
He gestured toward Miles and headed toward the owner’s office.
* * *
Half an hour later, Felicity pulled into her garage, leaving room for Freddie and his new truck in the parking space along the alley. He followed her into the house and headed for the stairs. “I’m just going to sort out whatever I still want from all the clothing that rascal stole from me. I can pick up anything I need later.”
“Throw what you want in the mud room and I’ll wash it for you. There’s an empty duffel bag in the closet upstairs,” she told him. “I thought you might want it.”
Felicity was close on his trail. She hurried to Jenny’s room and peeked in the door. The baby was asleep in its crib and Jenny was sprawled across the bed, looking as if she’d fallen over from exhaustion. She quietly backed away and eased the door closed behind her.
Freddie beckoned her to his room. Lazarus had arranged himself across the pillow on the bed and eyed them suspiciously. “I think I’m leaving you in good hands, Felicity. That cat has had his eye on me ever since I got out of the hospital, and that fellow two houses down and his son seem to think you need an armed guard.”
She felt the color rise in her cheeks. “Nonsense. Lazarus likes you or he wouldn’t come within ten feet of you. He probably is torn between giving you attention and protecting the baby. As for Andrew and Jason, we’ve been friends for many years.”
“Be that as it may, you may need them tomorrow, when Truxler is released from the jail. I refused to press charges, and he’ll be going to a rehab center a hundred miles away ... at my expense. You and your friend Kate will be safer that way, and I can’t afford the time to stay here and appear in court, but he’s slippery. He may be back.”
Felicity had hoped Freddie wouldn’t press charges, but she’d wondered what would become of Freddie’s half-brother. She should have expected such generous arrangements. “You’re a good man. Oliver would be proud of you.”
“No, Felicity, Oliver would be proud of you.” Freddie emptied the sacks of clothing he’d brought from Kate’s on the bed. “But don’t get too comfortable with all your projects here. I might decide to come back next year and stir things up a bit.”
She hurried over and hugged him. “We’ll look forward to it.” One thing she knew for sure. Life was never dull, and the promise of Freddie’s return made sure of it. She was a happy woman.
Copyright © 2018 by Justine Wittich
Originally published by Belgrave House (9781947812123)
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
No portion of this book may be reprinted in whole or in part, by printing, faxing, E-mail, copying electronically or by any other means without permission of the publisher. For more information, contact Belgrave House, 190 Belgrave Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94117-4228
http://www.BelgraveHouse.com
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This is a work of fiction. All names in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to any person living or dead is coincidental.
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