“Tea, please,” Maggie said. She looked at me. “Hot chocolate?” she asked.
I nodded.
Nic gave us each a menu. “I’ll be right back,” he said with a smile.
I slipped off my jacket and got up to hang it on one of the hooks on the end wall. “What are you having?” I asked as I sat down again.
“The special is a polenta bowl with roasted vegetables.”
“That sounds good.” Everything on Eric’s menu was good. He was a great cook and since his wife, Susan, also worked for me at the library I often got an advance taste of new additions to the menu.
Nic came back then with my hot chocolate and Maggie’s tea. They talked for a moment about an issue she was having with one of her cameras and then he headed to the kitchen with our order.
Maggie began the little ritual she did with her tea. She reminded me of the way Owen insisted on checking his food before he ate it.
“I called Roma,” she said, lifting the lid of the pot of hot water and dropping in the tea bag. “She said it’s okay to take John out there tomorrow.”
“That’s great.” I took a sip of my hot chocolate, topped with a couple of the Jam Lady’s homemade marshmallows. It was chocolaty and not too sweet with a hint of vanilla from the marshmallows. In other words, perfect.
“Hey, is Dani about my height, a little bit thinner with long blond hair?” Maggie asked.
“Uh-huh,” I said. “Did you meet her?”
She opened the lid of the little pot again and poked the tea bag with a spoon. “No, but I just saw someone I guessed was her with Marcus heading into the bar at the hotel.”
“When?” I asked swallowing hard against the lump that was suddenly stuck in my throat.
“When I was walking to the studio,” Maggie said. “Three hours ago I guess.” Then she looked at me. “Wait, you don’t think that . . .” She let the end of the sentence trail away.
No I didn’t, I realized. I trusted Marcus and I wasn’t going to be jealous and suspicious. “No,” I said aloud. I hesitated. “But something happened earlier, when Marcus and I had breakfast with his friends. Did John mention Travis to you?”
She peered into the little pot for the third time before finally pouring her tea. “The environmental engineer?”
I nodded. “Uh-huh. When they were all in school together Travis and Dani were a couple.”
“I take it they’re not a couple anymore.”
“No.” Nic came back then with our polenta bowls. Once the steaming dishes were in front of us and he’d gone to take someone else’s order I told Maggie what had happened at breakfast. I knew I could count on her to be discreet.
“So he’s still angry after all this time?”
“Very,” I said.
She reached for her tea. “It’s painful to hold on to that bitterness for such a long time.”
That was Maggie, always taking the compassionate viewpoint. She was unrelentingly kind.
“You know, it doesn’t really sound like the kind of thing Marcus would do,” she said.
“That was my thought,” I said, chasing a mushroom around the side of my bowl with a spoon. “But why would you admit to sleeping with your best friend’s girlfriend if you didn’t?”
“The only reason I can think of is you wanted to hurt him, and I know that’s not Marcus.”
* * *
We finished supper and Maggie went back to her studio while I headed back to the library. It was quieter than usual and Owen and I were on our way home by eight fifteen. Over the summer and early fall I’d been experimenting with the library’s closing hours.
Owen disappeared—not literally—down the stairs headed for his basement lair as soon as we were in the house. I hung up my things and made a cup of hot chocolate. The one I’d had at Eric’s had left me craving more of the Jam Lady’s homemade marshmallows.
I took my cup and wandered into the living room. Hercules was curled up in the big chair. He at least looked guilty.
“That’s not your chair,” I said. To my amusement instead of jumping down he moved over as though he was inviting me to join him. So I did.
Once I was sitting down with my feet up on the footstool Hercules climbed onto my lap and eyed my mug, whiskers twitching.
“Marshmallows are not cat food,” I said.
“Mrr,” he grumbled.
I swiped my little finger in the creamy vanilla foam and held it out to him. “Do not tell Roma I did this,” I warned. “Or your brother.”
The moment the words were out there was an indignant meow from the kitchen doorway. Owen was standing there, glaring in my direction.
“How do you do that?” I asked.
The little tabby stalked over in high indignation, jumped onto the footstool and looked pointedly at the cup. I swiped another finger through the melted marshmallow and held out my hand so Owen could have a taste. That meant jostling Hercules just a little, which got me an annoyed look from him as well. Finally everyone, including me, had tasted the marshmallows and, in the case of the boys, licked the stickies off their whiskers. Hercules stretched out on my lap. Owen sprawled across the footstool with his head on my legs. And I told them about Maggie seeing Marcus with Dani.
Neither one of them seemed the slightest bit interested. I realized that I didn’t really want to talk to them. I wanted to talk to Marcus. I put one hand on Hercules so he wouldn’t be disturbed and reached over for the phone with the other.
Marcus answered on the fourth ring. “Hi,” he said. “I was just going to call you.”
“I was going to come out for a few minutes, if that’s okay,” I said. I could tell by their ears that both cats were interested now.
“It’s more than okay,” he said. “Are you leaving right now?”
I smiled. “As soon as I get the cats off of me and put on some shoes.”
“I’ll see you soon, then,” he said.
Hercules sat up of his own volition, murped at me and jumped down to the floor. Owen, being a little contrary, rolled onto his back and looked at me. I picked him up and set him down on the floor next to the footstool, where he rolled on his back again, paws moving lazily in the air as though he was doing a very low-energy workout.
I leaned down and stroked the top of his head. “You’re very goofy,” I told him.
* * *
Marcus was waiting on the back deck when I walked around the side of his house. He looked tired. I could see lines around his mouth and his hair was mussed as though he’d been pulling his hands back through it, which is what he did when he was stressed.
He wrapped me in a hug. “I’m glad you’re here.”
I stretched up on tiptoes so I could kiss him. “Me too,” I said.
He gestured at the swing and we sat down, his arm around my shoulders. “I’m sorry about dinner,” he said.
“I got your message,” I said, thinking how good he always smelled. Sitting so close, it was easy to get distracted.
“I had a meeting with the prosecuting attorney that ended up being rescheduled at the last minute.” He paused and cleared his throat. “And I talked to Dani again.”
“Is she okay?” I asked.
He exhaled, his breath stirring my hair. “She’s upset about Travis and a little embarrassed that you found out about the two of us that way, but she’s okay.”
We rocked slowly back and forth in silence.
“It was Dani who made the oatmeal with the plaster of Paris, not you, wasn’t it?” I said.
He laughed softly in the darkness. “How did you know?”
I laid my head against his shoulder. “Because you’re more careful than that and I don’t think that’s a quality that’s just happened since you graduated.”
He kissed the top of my head.
“And I was watching Dani,” I continued. “She was embarrassed. I could see it in her face.”
“I came out of the tent and she was sitting on a rock next to the camp stove holding this big pot of oatmeal, which was more like a big pot of concrete.”