Roxie nodded and rolled her shoulders. “I know, pathetic, isn’t it? But I’m glad you are getting known for your catering. You do an excellent job.”
“Thank you. So what will you two lovely ladies have this morning?”
They gave her their orders and moved to their table under the painting. They could hear the buzz of conversation and laughter from the back room.
“The Business Women are meeting back there,” Anne replied when they asked. “They’ve opted to have their monthly meeting here.”
“Good.”
“We set up a coffee table with rolls and whatever they ask for, in advance, of course.”
“You are getting more and more business. I am thrilled for you.” Roxie nodded. “Are you doing lunch groups too?”
“I will if a group wants to. Why?”
“Thinking of the Realtors meeting, but there might be too many.”
Anne set their drinks and orange rolls in front of them and took the coffee carafe to another table.
“Hey, Roxie, how was your ice cream date last night?” a woman called from a couple of tables away.
“Fine, they have good ice cream.” Roxie flinched inside. Here it came.
MJ tipped her head forward to look at her over her glasses. “So that’s where you went last night.”
“Nate wanted to take Loren out for ice cream so we went along. Before you ask, ‘we’ is his dad and me.”
“Really? A date?”
“Hardly, we went for ice cream.”
“And had dinner at his house on Sunday, after Loren and Nate went bicycling?”
Roxie leaned forward. “Nate is really interested in Loren. I think seriously interested.”
“Really? You mean…?”
“Oh, I hope so. I want her to be in a good relationship so bad.” She was bursting to tell MJ the whole story but not here, where others might overhear.
“Face it, Roxie, you just want her to be happy.”
“I know, how well I know. Not that she isn’t now but…” She heaved a sigh. “I know we all want the best for our kids and life is so short.”
“Not to them it isn’t.”
“I know, didn’t used to be to me either, but losing Fred so abruptly really brought home to me that we never know how much time we get here on earth. You’d have thought I figured it out when Greg passed away so young, so perhaps this just exacerbated the knowledge. I mean, what if something happens to me sooner rather than later? It can, you know. After all, look at Fred.”
“My word, but isn’t this a bit morbid for such a glorious Tuesday morning? Not like you, not at all.” MJ paused to savor the orange roll.
“Well, you asked, so there you have it.” Leaning back in her chair, Roxie continued to nod her head.
“I guess.” MJ wiped her fingers on her napkin. “My, but those rolls are good. Think I’ll take one home for Daryl. He’s been grumpy lately. This will fix it.”
“Grumpy? I can’t picture Daryl grumpy.”
“He hit a snag on some project, and his car needs new shocks, and his favorite TV show was canceled. You know, a pile of little things. And I haven’t been a bucket of cheer myself.”
“Your car needs shocks too?”
MJ smiled briefly. “Late spring is the busiest time where I used to work as we geared up for summer. Ten-hour days making the business sing when it’s practically tone deaf. So many things ended, for Daryl and me both. But are our lives finished? Productively, I mean. I sometimes wonder if I’m just another UFO.” She suddenly sat up straighter. “Enough of this. I’m being just as morbid as you were. You showing any houses today?”
“This afternoon. I think I found the perfect one for them. Now we’ll see if they agree.” She pushed back her chair. “Come on.” Well, got around that one. Whatever made her not want to tell MJ about Rich? After all, she was her best friend. They told each other most everything. And a horrible thought struck her. Was she jealous? She thought about last night, when MJ bounced right over to greet Rich and Nate when they came in. She greeted everyone—why did this bother Roxie so much? Possibly it was because MJ so easily took command of a situation without even trying to. What if…? Oh, that was silly!
Out the door they gave the dogs their crunchy treats and headed back home, grateful for the shade trees lining the streets. “You going to work on your crewel project today?”
MJ nodded. “Hope so. You know that drive to finish something once you get in the mood? Well, I have a bad case of it, and it is all the fault of our UFO group. Whoever dreamed it would affect me this much? Daryl hasn’t left his shop other than for meals, and I’m sure if I volunteered to bring his out there, he’d agree.”
“See, all kinds of good things happening.”
MJ agreed. “All because you heard about it and we started one. Goes to show we have no idea what works and what doesn’t. And you?”
“Might be able to find time after the showing. Depends on whether they want to make an offer or not. See ya.” Roxie let Sir Charles free in the backyard so he could drink from the faucet, his favorite waterer. Stopping for a moment on the deck, she looked over her backyard. It might be relatively small but now that the flowers were starting to bloom, it grew lovelier every day. The geranium pots on the deck, the planters attached to the deck railing, the cherry tree about to burst into a glory of pink blossoms. One thing for sure, when the snow finally melted and spring came to Wisconsin, everything grew so fast, you could almost measure it. Her thoughts flew to the stunning place they had visited on Sunday. Like out of a magazine. Juno the cat called her to stop mooning on the deck and let her out. The indignity of being left in the house when the Dog wasn’t was difficult to ignore.
“Oh, give it a rest.” Roxie scooped up the fluffy critter and cuddled her under her chin. “You know, you’re getting heavy. Maybe we better put you on a diet.” She let the cat down, slid the screen door closed, tried to ignore Sir Charles’s whine, gave it up, let him in, and now closed and locked the door. Not so much as she was concerned about someone breaking in but because she did not want her animals outside when she was gone. To her amazement, one of them had learned to open the screen door.
The buyers’ appointment that afternoon went smoothly. She took the couple through the house again, as they requested, answered more questions, pointed out some things she might have missed before, and waited patiently, a skill she had developed over the years. People do not like to be rushed. When they turned to her with wide smiles, she knew it was a go.
“So, you would like to make an offer.”
“We would.” The woman pulled a list from her shoulder bag and handed it to Roxie. “These we would like them to leave, these to fix, and whatever price we come to an agreement on, we will pay half down. As you know, we are already approved. Oh, and it all depends on the inspection.”
“Of course.” Roxie already knew the inspection was clear but the formalities had to be gone through for the bank’s sake. She read the list and smiled. The washer and dryer were really recent additions since the owners had remodeled the house in the last three years. “So what is your offer?”
They named an amount twenty thousand under the asking price, but with half down, they might get away with it. “You realize we are in a sellers’ market right now?”
They nodded. They were moving here from out of state and wanted to close ASAP.
Roxie asked, “Anything on here a deal breaker?”
The woman looked to her husband, who shrugged.
“All right then, I will get your offer to them and we should have a counteroffer by tomorrow.”
“Unless they accept everything and…” The woman looked hopeful.
“True. Do you have any other questions?”
“Not that I can think of.”
“She’ll come up with more in the middle of the night.” The husband gave a slight shake of his head.
“Well, write them down. Sorry, I don’t take middle-of-the-night-question calls.�
�� Roxie grinned at both of them. “But I am up at six a.m.” She caught the nudge he gave his wife and turned to escort them out of the house. “I’ll get back to you as soon as I hear anything.”
Back home, she filled out all the paperwork and e-mailed the proposal to the owners, who were visiting one of their kids in Ohio to see a new grandbaby and looking for a new home there. The response came back so quickly, she didn’t have time to go pour herself some iced tea.
Their response:
Thank you. We have found a house here and put it on contingency so the sooner we can sign the papers, the better. We will leave for home in the morning and get to packing. So, yes, we accept the offer. I hope they will love that house like we have.
Roxie reread the response. Not only did this promise to be close to the fastest turnaround she had ever done, but she had just brokered a blessing to two families. And since she handled this for both the seller and the buyer, this promised to be a lucrative sale. This called for a celebration. A picture of Rich licking his cone of rocky road ice cream last night danced into her head. “What?”
Sir Charles rose and came to put his head on her thigh, feathery tail wagging. He stared up at her as if asking if she was all right.
She stroked his head and fluffed his ears. “It’s okay, big boy. I’m just surprised, that’s all. Why would I think of Rich at the same time as celebrating? It isn’t like he’s a deep friend or anything. Just a nice guy who happens to be the dad of the young man who is making Loren try new things and have a good time.” She leaned her cheek against the top of his head. “You and I and Juno just might be getting ready to live here by ourselves. Now, that will take some adjusting.”
Sir Charles reared up and put his front feet on her lap, staring at her all the while. She hugged him and got her cheek washed for her efforts.
“You are such a good dog, you know that?” She rubbed his chest and under his chin. “I bet you want to go outside.”
He dropped to his feet and headed for the door.
Downstairs she slid open the screen door to let both animals outside, then put ice in a glass and filled it with raspberry-flavored lemonade. She stared into the refrigerator. “What are we going to have for supper?” Nothing looked appealing. Same with the freezer.
She called Loren as she took her glass out to the deck. “Hey, you have any preferences for supper?”
“Fried chicken. Want me to stop and get dinner?”
“Oh, bless you, yes. Remember a pint of coleslaw. I have great news when you get here.”
“Mother, you know how I hate it when you do that. Oops, I gotta go. See you in an hour or so.”
Roxie chuckled to herself. Even Loren’s voice sounded more chipper lately. She moved over to the chaise lounge and sank into its comfort. This might be a good time to work on her project. She watched two male hummingbirds duking it out over the feeder. “Come on, guys, get along. See how much energy you waste?” They flew off and a female came and perched to drink in comfort. “Good for you. Smart woman.” She left the drink on the table between the two loungers and headed to get her bag. If MJ could get hooked on finishing, perhaps it could happen to her too. Wait, you better go get that paperwork together. That’s much more important right now. Sometimes she wanted to strangle that self-righteous, bossy voice in her head. She left her bag and climbed the stairs to her office. She was deep in the well of paperwork when her phone chimed again. She toyed with letting it go to voice mail, but when she glanced at the screen, Rich’s name came up. A little wiggle of pleasure crept up her spine. He had a nice deep telephone voice.
After the greetings, he continued, “There’s a movie in town I’ve been wanting to see, and no, it is not a shoot-’em-up action adventure.”
“Good thing.”
“Figured you’d think that.” He gave her the title. “Have you heard of it?”
“Sorry, I don’t watch a lot of TV so I don’t see the trailers and advertising.”
“It’s getting good reviews. I thought to go on Friday—are you interested?”
She glanced at her desk calendar. “Seven o’clock showing?”
“Yep. I thought we could catch a bite to eat at the Fond du Flavor first.”
“Okay, sounds good to me.” She sucked in a deep breath to slow her heart back down. This is a real date. I’ve not gone on a date for years.
His chuckle made her smile back. “I’ll pick you up at five fifteen or so. Good, now that that’s out of the way, how’s your day going?”
“I sold a house today.”
“That’s great! Good for you. So what are you going to do to celebrate?”
“I was just wondering the same thing, deep in all the paperwork right now. Since I listed the house too, that means a lot of it.”
“Nate said you are one of the top Realtors in Fond du Lac.”
“Well, I don’t know about that, but I’ve been at this for a long time, so I know the ropes and am well known.”
“I tried to talk Nate into buying a house, but he said he’s not ready for that yet. This house is pretty big since he moved out.”
“Are you in your car?”
“Yep, left a bit early tonight. I’m going to work on one of my UFOs. It’s not one I can take to the meeting. I started to build a storage unit in the boathouse last summer, so I’ll see how far I can get.”
“You too? MJ is pushing like crazy to get hers done. I was going to work on mine but the guilts got me and I came up here to work.”
“Well, you know the old saying, all work and no play…”
“I know but these folks are so anxious to get this settled. Well, actually, both seller and buyer are. One is moving out of the area and the other moving in.”
“Good for you. Good talking with you, see you on Friday.”
“Yes, I’m looking forward to it. Thank you.” They clicked off and she stared at her cell phone. “I have a movie date.” She heard Sir Charles bark at the door. “Coming.” She slid open the screen door and Juno entered with tail straight in the air. “Oh, knock it off, your highness, you haven’t been waiting that long. Good boy, Sir Charles, I know, I know, supper time.” She poured water over his kibble and made him sit and wait until she told him it was okay. The cat sniffed her dish, glared at Roxie, and crouched down to eat her wet food. The kibble was always up on the dryer for her.
She should go back upstairs and finish that paperwork. Later. “Don’t you know we are supposed to be celebrating? I sold a house so I can buy your food, be grateful.” She poured herself another glass of iced tea and went out to sit on the deck again, this time with the newspaper to catch up on the news, as always starting with the comics. She used to do the crossword puzzle every day but that was in the morning and now she and MJ walked instead.
When she heard the garage door go up, she folded the paper and went in to set out serving spoons, plates, and napkins. They’d dish up their plates in here and eat out on the deck.
Loren held up the bags so Sir Charles couldn’t sniff them. “Here, please take these. I’ve got more to get out of the car.”
Roxie inhaled the yummy fragrance as she opened the containers and put in serving spoons.
“We put out a sale table today at the library so I picked up some for us. Here’s some of Louise Penny, and a couple of new mystery writers I thought you might like. After all, at twenty-five cents a book, we can’t exactly go wrong.”
“Oh, good.”
Loren crossed to the sink to wash her hands.
“So how was your day?”
“Fine, now what great news do you have?”
“I sold that house. The sellers didn’t even blink at the offer. They were so pleased because they have found a house near their kids so they are hoping both places close quickly. And the buyers love the house and now they’re going home to start packing too. Glad it’s them and not me.”
“That’s great, Mom. Sort of like double dipping, isn’t it?”
“Yup. Was trying to de
cide what we will do this time.” They had a tradition that she used some of the money from each sale to do an extra project around the house or yard. The rug was the last splurge.
They dished up their plates and took them out to the table. Sir Charles lay down between their chairs, always in the hope they might drop something.
“Guess who called today?” Loren said.
“Nate.”
“Uh-huh. Asked if we could meet for lunch tomorrow.”
“So where are you going?”
Loren shrugged. “It has to be someplace fast.”
“Annie’s?”
“I thought of that. More chicken? I’ll get it. Anything else?”
“Bring the coleslaw out here, please. I brought some of Addy’s cookies home last night. When I paid her for them, she was surprised. I told her she needs to think about that, filling orders and charging a decent price. She learned that from Ginny. You know Ginny, she’d give away everything. She never lets me pay for the eggs.”
Should she tell Loren about her movie date for Friday? Why wouldn’t she? Why did her date, an actual movie date, feel so private, a secret to savor, not share? She thought about that little tingle of pleasure she felt when Rich walked in last night. And here she was acting like an eighth grader with her first crush. Roxie, Roxie, whatever is the matter with you?
Chapter Seventeen
I can sleep in here, really I can.
Ginny forced her hands to release from the doorframe, one finger at a time. Addy had gone downstairs to sleep like she always did. Ginny made the excuse that she just wasn’t ready to go to bed yet. So she sat in the living room and forced herself to pick up her knitting. It always helped her relax. She said she could knit in her sleep, just like she could transplant seedlings in her sleep.
She turned the gentle classical music station on so she could just hear it, something that usually helped her drift off. After dropping two stitches, she laid the knitting down and rubbed her eyes. Head back against the headrest on her recliner, her scratchy eyes drifted closed. The music played on.
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