He grinned and one eyebrow went up. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
* * *
“C’mon in,” Maggie called when I knocked on her apartment door that evening. I’d stopped at the house to change and had left two very disgruntled cats at home.
The aroma of sausage and oregano met me on the stairs. Maggie was at the stove. And Roma was sitting on the sofa.
“Hi,” I said. She got to her feet and wrapped me in a hug. “I didn’t know I was going to get to see you, too.”
“I can’t say no to Maggie’s pizza,” Roma said. “And I wanted to make sure that you were okay. I’m sorry I was gone when all this was going on.”
“I’m all right,” I said. “There wasn’t anything you could have done and truthfully, some days I was glad to just spend some time with Lucy and the other cats.”
“What about Marcus? Is he okay?” I could see the concern on her face.
“He is. In fact, he made breakfast for me.”
Roma and Maggie exchanged a look and grinned. “Ooooo,” they exclaimed like a couple of fourteen-year-olds.
“Don’t start,” I warned.
Roma immediately clasped her hands primly in front of herself and tried not to look Maggie in the eye. Maggie pressed her lips together and attempted to be serious but it didn’t exactly work. I could see the laughter in her green eyes.
It was so good to spend time with them. Somehow, just being in the same room with them made everything I’d been worried about seem a little less, well, worrisome.
“What can I do, Mags?” I asked. There was flour in her hair and on her hands and a dab of sauce on her chin. And as usual when she made pizza there wasn’t a bare bit of counter space in the kitchen.
“Sit and talk to Roma,” Maggie said, turning back to the cast-iron skillet on the stove.
“We can clean up later,” Roma said, quietly settling onto one corner of the couch.
“I heard you.” Maggie frowned down at the contents of the pan.
“We know.” Roma smiled. It was good to see her smile. I knew how much she missed Eddie. I’d tried very hard to support her decision even though I wished she’d change her mind and say yes to his proposal, but after close to five months I was afraid that might never happen.
I sat next to her on the sofa. “How are you?” I asked. “I know Eddie’s moved into his new place.”
She nodded. “I told him to go back to Minneapolis, to go home.” The way she felt about him was written in every line on her face, just the same way it was with him. “He said as long as I was here this was home.”
“You haven’t changed your mind.” I didn’t phrase it as a question because I already knew the answer.
Roma shook her head. “Nothing’s changed.” She moved to shift the pillow behind her. I noticed that once again she was wearing the antique rose gold locket Eddie had bought her. Maybe there was hope for the two of them after all.
“Syd’s coming in a couple of weeks,” Roma said. “She has three days off school and she’s going to spend a night with me.”
“I’m glad you still get to see her.”
“That’s her mom as much as it is Eddie.” She gave me a half smile. “She’s really trying to get us back together. Syd, I mean. She told me this breakup could scar her for life and affect her ability to have a healthy relationship when she’s an adult.”
I smiled. “What did you say to her?”
Roma sighed softly. “I told her it was complicated. She said that was what adults said whenever they were doing something stupid.”
“She loves her dad and she loves you, too,” I said.
“And I love her. I’m so glad I still get to be part of her life.” She looked away for a moment and then her eyes met mine again. “Do you think it’s selfish of me to stay in Syd’s life? Is it going to be too awkward when Eddie meets someone else?”
“You don’t have a selfish bone in your body,” Maggie interjected. She was at the sink. I had no idea what she was doing. Not dishes, because it seemed like every surface in the small kitchen was covered with dirty ones. “And it’s not like there’s so much love in the world that there isn’t enough room for a little more,” she added.
I nodded. “What Maggie said. It’s not selfish. It’s loving.” I reached over and gave Roma’s arm a squeeze. I didn’t say that I didn’t think Eddie was going to meet someone else. When Roma had decided she couldn’t marry Eddie because she was older than he was, she’d told Maggie and me she didn’t want us to feel we had to take sides. I’d promised her that we’d do our best not to, but if it came down to that we were one hundred percent on hers.
Roma leaned sideways to see what Maggie was doing in the kitchen. “Could we please do something?” she asked.
Maggie opened the oven door, slid the pizza inside and then poked her head in to check something.
“I guess it’s not too early to set the table,” she said, her voice echoing a little from inside the oven. She pulled her head out and brushed off the front of the denim apron she was wearing.
Roma was already getting the placemats. I got up and started clearing off the table.
“These are nice,” Roma said, holding up the woven placemats. “Where did you get them?”
Maggie turned to look at her and smiled. “They are nice, aren’t they? You know the big barn, Hollister’s, about a mile past you?”
Roma nodded.
“That’s where I got them. Brady was with me and he bought an old Lime Ricky bottle.”
“You mean the place with the American flag weathervane?” I said, wondering why there were chocolate chips on the table if we were having pizza. “I thought they were a vegetable stand.”
“They are,” Maggie said. “They have the best corn and potatoes. Oh, and honey. But then the barn is like a flea market, plus Gerald—he’s the father—always has a few old vehicles for sale. People use them mostly for off-roading.”
“I almost forgot,” Roma said as she folded napkins to put at each place. “Did you talk to Oren?”
“He thinks Ira might have gone to Florida.” I moved over to the sink and began running some hot water so I could wipe the table and the counter.
Maggie opened the dishwasher and started putting spoons in the utensil rack. “You mean Ira who’s been living out by the lake?”
I nodded, adding soap to the hot water in the sink. Even though Maggie had a dishwasher I knew she didn’t put her good glasses in it and I could see four of them in various places around the kitchen. “There’s no sign of him out at the lake. Or anywhere else for that matter.”
“Kath, you don’t think Ira had anything to do with the death of Marcus’s friend, do you?” She turned and peeked at the pizza through the oven window. For Maggie, pizza-making was as much an art as collage or painting.
“I don’t know,” I said. “Not deliberately, but maybe by accident.”
Mags shook her head emphatically. “Ira doesn’t have that kind of energy.”
Roma gave me a look. Maggie was a very spiritual person. I’d heard her make that kind of comment about someone before. And in my experience she was usually pretty accurate in her assessment of people.
“Should I set a place for Brady?” Roma asked.
I rinsed my cloth and went to wipe the table for her. She smiled a thank-you.
Maggie had picked up a plastic spatula and was scraping at some bits of dough dried to the granite countertop. “He has a meeting. He’ll be here later.”
Roma finished setting the table and helped Maggie scrape dishes and load the dishwasher. I washed all the glasses and Maggie’s big saucepot, and the kitchen was pretty much cleaned up by the time the oven timer beeped.
Maggie reached for her oven mitts and peered through the window in the oven door. “They look like they’re done,” she said. She tipped her head in the direction of the counter by the sink. “Kath, would you grab the platter for me?”
The pizza was delicious as always—sausage, mushrooms, tomatoes and chewy mozzarella on a thick crust with just a hint of olive oil and a dusting of cornmeal on the bottom. As good as the pizza I’d had at the hotel with Simon had been, this was better. The resolution I’d made to just have one slice was very quickly broken.