“That was it?”
“That guy didn’t say another word. He backed away from the counter, tripped over a chair, and left.” Ellie captured the last morsel of Olivia’s brownie and downed it.
Their waitress, a tired woman who looked to be in her seventies, appeared at their table and retrieved the empty dessert plate. Without asking, she filled their coffee cups. “You girls want another brownie?” Her eyes strayed to a crumb on Ellie’s chin. “Maybe two?”
“No, thank you, Ida,” Ellie said. “Olivia is watching her figure.”
Ida’s gaze shifted to Olivia, looked her up and down, and shrugged.
After Ida shuffled off to the kitchen, Olivia said, “I gather you two know each other.”
“My goodness, yes,” Ellie said. “Ida used to babysit me when I was little.”
“I don’t remember her.”
“Her husband had a stroke in his forties. She took care of him for decades afterwards until he finally died a few years ago. Right after the funeral, she rented out her house, collected his life insurance, and went on cruises until her money ran out. That’s when she came home and went to work. She’s in my Wild Widows group.”
“Your what ?”
“Yes, there really is such a group, and I am one of the founding members.”
“But you married again.”
“I’m still a widow, I know what it’s like, and you never forget the friends who stand by you when you are no longer part of a couple. Our mission is to demonstrate that life goes on and can even be great again, whether or not we remarry.” Ellie reached across the table and patted Olivia’s hand. “Divorced women could do with a group like ours.”
“Mother . . .”
“I’m only saying, it’s a fun group. We asked Clarisse to join several times, but she always refused. Politely, of course. Which brings us back to Clarisse and Jasmine.” Ellie pushed aside her half-drunk coffee and reached for her macramé bag. “You thought I’d gone off on a hopeless tangent, didn’t you? Unfortunately, my timing was off, so I’ll have to talk fast. My papermaking class starts in fifteen minutes. Jasmine was, as you can now see, an extraordinary young woman. She was secretive about her origins, but she had gifts and great charm, when she chose to use them. Clarisse thought she had promise and was delighted when both her sons became friends with her. Rumor has it she dated Hugh Chamberlain, at least for a while. By all accounts, Clarisse was thrilled. So much so, in fact, that when Jasmine began to date Lucas Ashford, Clarisse quashed the relationship. She told Lucas that Jasmine was out of his league and off limits.”
“I can’t believe—”
“Believe it,” Ellie said quietly. “Clarisse could be remarkably single-minded when it came to her family. When she decided Jasmine should marry Hugh, Tammy Deacons was, as they say, toast, and she never regained Clarisse’s approval. Even though I suspect Hugh genuinely loves her now. Jasmine and Hugh were off-again, on-again for a long time, until Jasmine packed up and left town. No one knew why. Maybe she simply felt it was time to move on.
“Anyway, gotta run, sweetie. The store is still closed on Mondays, right? Then here’s an idea: come to the house about eleven on Monday for brunch. I’ll cook all your favorites, and you can talk to Allan about Clarisse and the boys. He still has a fair amount of contact with Hugh and Edward, and he’s quite good at observing people. For a man, that is.”
Ellie slid off her chair, which was, like all furniture, too big for her tiny frame. She gave Olivia a quick kiss on the cheek and turned to leave. After a couple steps, she stopped with her back to Olivia. She tilted her head to the side, as if she’d thought of something.
“Mom?”
Ellie pivoted around. “It’s nothing really,” she said. “I remembered a question I’ve been meaning to ask you. Are Maddie and Lucas seeing each other? If it’s still hush-hush, you don’t have to tell me, but I noticed a few looks between them the other day, when I was in the store, and I’ve been hearing rumors that Maddie . . . well, that she fixed the cookie contest this morning so Lucas would win a private baking lesson with her. So I wondered. . . .”
“The answers are: yes, they are seeing each other, and no, it isn’t a secret, since they practically shouted it through the entire event this morning. And yes, I’m pretty sure Maddie fixed the contest. We will have a serious chat about that before the next event. Do please spread the word that it will never, ever happen again.”
“Of course, Livie dear, don’t give it another thought. Most folks seem to have found it more amusing than irritating. This time, anyway.” Ellie’s normally sunny features gathered into a small frown. “Lucas and Maddie,” she said, almost to herself. “That is interesting. I wonder. . . .”
“What, Mom, what do you wonder?” Remembering her own concerns about the relationship, Olivia felt a ping of anxiety.
At that moment, the call of a wood thrush announced four o’clock from the restaurant’s Audubon clock. “Now I really will be late,” Ellie said. She raced for the door on her small but well-exercised legs.
“Mom, wait, what did you mean about the relationship being ‘interesting’? What kind of interesting?”
“Don’t fuss, Livie,” Ellie called over her shoulder. “We’ll talk Monday morning.” The door snapped shut behind her.
Chapter Six
When her cell phone rang, Olivia let it go to voice mail. She was running through what her mother had told her about Jasmine. The mysterious woman certainly had an effect on the Chamberlain family. And what about Lucas? Was he in love with Jasmine, too, and did he hate Clarisse for keeping them apart? Olivia needed to know more for Clarisse’s sake and for Maddie’s. One thing she was sure of, the upcoming lunch at Tammy’s was going to be interesting.
She was stretched out on her living room sofa with Spunky nestled on her stomach and the Animal Planet channel on mute. At eight o’clock on a Saturday evening, it was the best she could find, and Spunky seemed intrigued by a show about a golden retriever being taught to fetch a beer for his owner. Olivia believed such education should be encouraged.
The phone went silent for about twenty seconds, then began ringing again. She’d left it, along with her unopened mail, on a small table in the hallway, midway between the front door and the living room entrance. She let it go to voice mail a second time. Almost at once, it began ringing for the third time.
Olivia felt a twinge of apprehension. Maybe something had happened to her mother . . . or Jason or Allan. Maddie might be stranded somewhere, trying to reach her. She moved Spunky to the sofa and trotted toward the insistent sound. In her haste to answer before the call went to voice mail, she didn’t check her caller ID.
“Hello?”
There was a pause at the other end. Then a tentative, “Livie? I’m at the front door, but the doorbell doesn’t seem to work, and you never gave me your new phone number.”
“Ryan? What are you doing here? I mean, it’s eight o’clock on a Saturday night, why aren’t you in Baltimore?” What she meant was, why wasn’t her ex-husband out with the soon-to-be new Mrs. Dr. Ryan Nathaniel Jeffries? She’d heard at once from friends when, four months after their divorce, Ryan became engaged to a wealthy Baltimore socialite. Not that she cared, but given how hard he’d begged her to stay, he had certainly recovered in record time.
“Can’t I stop by when I’m passing through?” Ryan’s tone was a familiar blend of cajoling authoritarianism.
“It’s late, Ryan. I’m tired.”
“I remember when we used to sit up until two or three, watching old movies.”
“You sat up. I conked out on the sofa.” Olivia didn’t like her own tone, either. She sounded harsh, resentful, which was, she knew, a reaction to the sadness she still felt. She also knew that Ryan would not give up easily.