скачать книгу бесплатно
“I most certainly do mind,” the woman said. “This is not a hotel.”
“It’s big enough to be a hotel,” Winnie said. “I hear this place even has an elevator and swimming pool. Would it be okay if I brought some of the brothers over for a weenie roast and pool party?”
Esmerelda stared in horror. She turned to Marilee. “Don’t think for one minute I don’t know what’s going on here. You’re simply trying to embarrass me for making a fuss over the candelabra. Well, it won’t work. I did my duty by donating it to your charity, it’s not my fault you weren’t there to hand it over at the drawing. I can only hope you’ve come to your senses and will see that it is delivered safely to the woman who won it.”
“I don’t want your dumb old candelabra,” Marilee said. “We’ll find another prize.”
“What do you mean, you don’t want it? Do you have any idea what it’s worth?”
“I know what it’s not worth, Mrs. Cunningham. It’s not worth being called a thief.” Esmerelda looked away. “But that’s not why I’m here. Winnie needs a place to stay,” she repeated.
“Is this a sleeper sofa?” Winnie asked. “I’d hate to sleep on this expensive fabric, what with my bladder problem.”
Esmerelda looked as though she was about to have a seizure. “Dudley, come here this instant!” she called out loudly. The butler seemed to appear from nowhere. “Please escort these women from my home. And carry that candelabra to their car.” She turned to Marilee. “My business with you is finished. I’ve done my part.”
“Forget the candelabra, Dudley,” Marilee said. “And we are more than capable of showing ourselves out.” She and Winnie started for the door.
“You wait just a darned minute, young lady!” Esmerelda said. “You are not leaving this house without that candelabra. I insist! I’m not about to have my friends think I went back on my word.” She drew herself up proudly. “I’m retiring to my bedroom now. I don’t want to hear another word about it.” She left in a huff.
Marilee looked at the butler. “I’ll bet she’s a peach to work for.”
Dudley chuckled as he followed them out the door, carrying the candelabra.
Marilee pulled into her driveway twenty minutes later and found Clara and Ruby planting mums in the old cast-iron pot out front. “We thought it would cheer you up,” Clara said as Marilee and Winnie climbed from the car.
Marilee was touched by her friends’ thoughtfulness. “Thank you.”
“How did things go with Esmerelda?” Ruby asked.
“The woman needs a beating with a big stick,” Winnie said. “Imagine her not wanting to take me in. And here I am with child. I’m telling you, she can go from zero to bitch in two seconds flat.”
Marilee laughed as she pulled the candelabra from her back seat. “Naturally, she insisted we take the candelabra after all. She doesn’t want to look bad to her friends.”
“What friends?” Winnie muttered.
“Did she apologize for what she said about you?” Ruby asked.
“What do you think?” Marilee presented the candelabra to Clara. “I trust you’ll see that this gets into the right hands.”
“Yes, of course.” She put it in her car.
“By the way, my next-door neighbor happens to be partners with Bobby Benson, and he has offered to take a look at Blessing Home. If he agrees to patch the roof, we’ll have to come up with the money.”
“How do we know he won’t walk off the job like Bobby?” Ruby asked. “And how much is he thinking of charging us?” As committee treasurer, she was tightfisted when it came to doling out money.
“He’s going to let me know,” Marilee said. “I think that with the benefit luncheon and cookbook sales we should be able to cover it.”
“There’s a lot more to be done,” Clara said. “We’re going to have to put our heads together and come up with more moneymaking schemes.”
Ruby looked thoughtful. “How about a white elephant sale?”
“That might work,” Clara said. “What do you think, Marilee?”
Marilee sighed. “Maybe.”
“Have you lost interest in this project?” Clara asked.
Marilee was beginning to wish she’d never gotten involved, but she couldn’t let them down again. “Of course not. It’s just—”
“She’s got a lot on her mind,” Ruby said. “And rightfully so. Honey, Clara and I need to take on more responsibility, what with all that’s happened. And we need to get our other volunteers off their behinds.”
Clara gave a harrumph. “What volunteers? They’ve all dropped out.”
“Let me see what Mr. Brewer has to say, once he takes a look at the place,” Marilee told them.
Winnie started for the house, and then paused. “I have a four-thirty appointment at the clinic tomorrow. I go every three weeks for my prenatal exam.”
“I can drive you,” Marilee said.
Clara smiled at Winnie. “Are you all settled in, dear?”
“For the time being. But I only plan on hanging around for a couple of days. My girlfriend just rented one of those luxury apartments in town, and she’s having a fit for me to move in with her. Soon as she gets an extra bed, I’m outta here.” She headed for the house without another word.
“She’s not going anywhere,” Marilee told her friends as they shot her a questioning look.
“How’s the job hunting?” Ruby asked, changing the subject.
“I have an appointment with Irby Denton at the funeral home tomorrow.”
“Oh my,” Clara said. “You’re going to work at a funeral home?”
“Irby has to hire me first,” Marilee pointed out.
Both women stared back at her. Finally, Ruby smiled. “Hey, I think that’s great! What exactly would you be doing there? If he hires you, I mean?”
“He needs a receptionist. It’s an entry-level position, but I have to start somewhere.”
“Oh my,” Clara repeated.
Ruby looked at the woman. “Clara, why do you keep saying that?”
Clara stared at Marilee. “Ruby doesn’t know your secret, does she?” Clara whispered.
“What secret?” Ruby asked, glancing from one to the other.
Marilee shrugged. “It’s no big deal. Besides, I need this job. I just discovered Grady took a chunk of money out of our savings account.”
“You need a good lawyer,” Clara said.
“I’ve already made an appointment. Tate Radford says he can have me divorced in ninety days on grounds of adultery.”
“Well, they don’t come any better than Tate,” Clara said, “but he’s not cheap.”
“I want somebody good, in case I end up with a custody battle on my hands,” Marilee replied.
Clara reached for her hand and squeezed it. “Are you okay?”
Marilee offered what she hoped was a brave smile. “Better than I was. I’m not going to recover overnight and I still think of Josh constantly, but I’m definitely better.”
Ruby stamped her foot on the ground. “Somebody better tell me about this secret or I’m going to throw a fit right here in Marilee’s front yard.”
“Oh, good grief!” Clara said. She stepped closer to Ruby. “Marilee is terrified of dead people. She has a phobia.”
Ruby’s eyes grew wide as saucers as she regarded Marilee. “No kidding?”
Marilee shot Clara a disgruntled look. “I’m not terrified of anything.” Other than the future, she reminded herself.
“Marilee Abernathy, I watched you almost pass out when Sara Banks asked you to remove her husband’s wedding ring from his finger at his funeral,” Clara said. She looked at Ruby. “Marilee had a full-blown panic attack out in the parking lot. I almost had to bring out my smelling salts.”
“I just don’t like touching dead people,” Marilee said. “I hardly think that’s going to be a problem if I’m working at the front desk.”
“I’ve touched plenty of dead people,” Ruby told her proudly. “Irby sometimes calls me to do hair and makeup when his wife can’t do it. Dead people can’t hurt you, Marilee.”
Clara looked doubtful. “Irby is never going to hire you if he finds out.”
“He’s not going to find out,” Marilee replied. She looked long and hard at her friends. “Is he?”
Both women pretended to zip their lips, lock them shut and throw away the keys. Marilee smiled prettily. “Thank you.”
“What if you have to help him embalm somebody?” Ruby whispered.
“I’m not going to go near the embalming room. You have to go to a special school for that.” Both women looked skeptical. “You have to admit I’m perfect for the job. I’ve been comforting the bereaved for years. It’s what I do best.”
“You are perfect for the job,” Clara said. “As long as you don’t go near any dead people.”
THE FOLLOWING MORNING, MARILEE watched Josh step from the bus at the high school. He was alone, his back bowed, head down. His posture said it all. He didn’t fit in, never had. He paid a heavy price for being a minister’s son with a weight problem. He’d never had a girlfriend, never attended a school dance or social gathering, but if he were invited, Marilee was certain he wouldn’t go because he felt like an outcast. Marilee suffered as much as he did over it, but she kept quiet because Josh would have been embarrassed for her to know. But she knew. Mothers always knew. The only friends Josh had attended Chickpea Baptist, and she doubted he was spending much time there these days.
“Josh,” she called out, waving at him in the crowd.
He took one look at her and turned in the opposite direction.
Her heart sank. “Josh, wait!” She pushed through the throng of students, never letting her eyes off his blond head. She caught up with him outside the gym. “Josh, please wait!”
He turned and glared at her as kids shuffled past, tossing curious looks in their direction. “What are you doing here?” he demanded.
His face was red. Marilee knew he didn’t like drawing attention to himself, preferring anonymity to being noticed and risking ridicule. She often wondered why kids were so cruel. And to think she’d considered ending her life, when Josh was so completely alone in the world. “I need to talk to you, honey.”
“I have class.”
“Just give me five minutes, Josh. I don’t think that’s asking too much.”
His eyes blazed. “Don’t you get it, Mom? I don’t want to talk to you. I want to be left alone.”
His look wrenched her heart. “I don’t deserve this, Josh.”
But he was already gone, lost among the crowd. Marilee stood there, frozen, feeling as though all the air had been sucked from her lungs. She couldn’t breathe, and for a moment she thought she’d be sick. Her eyes smarted as she staggered toward her car. She was only vaguely aware of the stares she received from some of the students. Don’t cry, she told herself. Don’t even think about it right now. The last thing she needed to do was arrive at her interview with swollen eyes.
She would cry later in the privacy of her room. In fact, she looked forward to it.
DENTON FUNERAL HOME was less than a mile from town, a massive, two-story colonial that housed the business in the basement and first floor, while the second floor served as an apartment for the family. When Irby Denton greeted Marilee on the wide porch, where ferns shuddered in the mid-September breeze, she saw that he’d changed very little since high school.
His hair was still fire-engine red, but his hairline had receded, and the laugh lines that bracketed his mouth were deeper. He wore the same mischievous look that had labeled him class clown and prankster as far back as kindergarten, where he’d swallowed one of Mrs. Finch’s goldfish, sending the young teacher into a frenzy and causing one girl to throw up on her new Mary Janes. His parents had been promptly summoned to the school, and he was given a three-day suspension. Upon his return, his desk was placed at the front of the class, near Mrs. Finch, who was perturbed that he’d botched her alphabetical seating arrangements.
“Marilee, you look as pretty as you did the day they crowned you homecoming queen,” Irby said, giving her a bear hug that she half feared would crack a rib. His wife, Debbie, stood beside him. They’d married right after graduation, and Marilee still recalled how the tongues had wagged when Debbie gave birth only eight months after their wedding night. Debbie’s mother had declared to family and friends that the child was premature, despite the fact the newborn had weighed more than eight pounds. The couple had gone on to have a total of four children, ranging from eighteen months to sixteen years old.
“You look wonderful,” Debbie said, a toddler propped on one hip. “You’re going to have to give me your beauty secrets.”
Marilee wondered if they were simply trying to soothe her wounded ego, now that Grady had publicly humiliated her. “Thank you. I don’t believe I’ve met the latest addition to the Denton family.”
Debbie looked proud. “This is Ben, named after Irby’s grandfather. We call him Bennie.”
“Nice to meet you, Bennie.” She tried to shake his hand playfully, but he pulled away and buried his face against Debbie’s breasts.
“He’s shy,” Debbie said. “And a little spoiled.”
“Come on in the house,” Irby said. “Would you like a cup of coffee?”
Marilee followed, stepping over a toy car as she went. “No, thanks.”
Irby picked up the toy and handed it to his wife. “Honey, you’re going to have to tell David to keep his toys upstairs. I can’t have folks tripping over them when they come through the door.”
Debbie nodded wearily. “I’ve tried, Irby, believe me.”
He nodded sympathetically. “I know.” He looked at Marilee. “It’s not easy, a big family like ours living upstairs like we do, but it’s cheaper this way. We have the space, mind you, but the kids still wander downstairs from time to time. Debbie, would you watch the phones while I chat with Marilee for a bit?”
“Of course.”
Irby led Marilee through the reception area, passing several closed doors that she knew from experience were parlors designed for relatives to view their loved ones before burial. Antiques in dire need of polishing adorned the rooms.
“Here we are,” Irby said once they’d reached a paneled office. The furniture looked as though it had come from a garage sale. A computer sat on a battered credenza, the screen saver a scrolling marquee that read, People Are Dying to Come Here. “Have a seat, Marilee.”
“Thank you.” Marilee sat down and was met with what sounded like a giant fart. She leaped from the chair, and then frowned at the sight of a whoopee cushion. “Irby Denton, won’t you ever grow up!”
He looked surprised. “I swear I didn’t do it,” he said, rounding the desk and grabbing the cushion. He tossed it aside. “David, our ten-year-old, is obviously up to his old tricks.”
“And where do you suppose he learned them?” Marilee said, hands on hips.
Irby shrugged as though he hadn’t a clue. “I’ll tell you, the boy has no shame.” He looked remorseful despite one corner of his mouth tugging as though he would burst into laughter at the slightest provocation. “I should beat all of our children, but Debbie won’t permit it. That’s why they’re so spoiled.”
