Dateline Matrimony

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“Can we unpack my stuff first?” Maggie requested. “I want to fix up my room.”

“We’ll unpack everything when we get to it,” Teresa assured her. “Why don’t you and Mark go check out the backyard while we carry some things inside?”

“But I want to help the guys,” Mark insisted, moving closer to Riley.

“Me, too,” Maggie added.

“We’ll find things for them to carry,” Cameron assured Teresa in a low voice that Riley overheard. “They want to feel useful.”

“Just don’t let them get under your feet.”

“They’ll be fine.” Cameron turned to the van. “Okay, let’s get some of these boxes out of the way so we can get to the furniture.”

“You don’t have to do this, you know,” Teresa said to Riley. “I have plenty of help if you have other things you need to do today.”

“I don’t mind,” he said carelessly, and was almost surprised to realize it was the truth. “It’ll earn me a few brownie points with my employers.”

She smiled a little at the joke, then turned to take a box from Cameron. “Thank you,” she said over her shoulder to Riley.

“Thank him after he’s actually done something,” Cameron suggested. “Riley, let’s get this dresser first. It has to go upstairs.”

Riley winced, pushed up the sleeves of his long-sleeved T-shirt and prepared to sweat. “Okay. Let me at it.”

He soon noticed that Teresa had brought just enough belongings to furnish the few rooms of the duplex apartment. She didn’t have an overabundance of possessions, but what she had looked very nice. Riley would almost bet another day of hard labor that some of the items he and Cameron carried to her bedroom were rather nice antiques. She had good taste.

Every tidbit he learned about Teresa Scott only increased his curiosity about her. Which might not be a good thing, he reflected, considering that he was always too easily intrigued by a puzzle.

Just before six, when almost everything had been brought inside, Marjorie laid out sandwiches for an early light dinner. It provided everyone a welcome break from hauling and arranging furniture and toting and unpacking boxes. Even the kids were starting to wear down, their excitement over the novelty of the move fading. Gathered around the kitchen table while the children picnicked on a tablecloth spread on the floor, the adults chatted for a while, something they’d been too busy to do so far.

“So you and Serena were college roommates?” Riley glanced from Teresa to Serena as he asked the question, finally clearing up the connections between this group.

“Yes.” Teresa sent Serena a quick smile. “I finished high school a year early and I was a bit younger than the average college freshman. I was scared spitless. It helped to discover that I’d been assigned a very nice and friendly roommate.”

“And I was relieved that my roomy was neat and studious,” Serena admitted. “I’d been so worried I’d get a slob who would spend more time partying than preparing for classes.”

Riley chuckled, not at all surprised. A successful attorney, Serena was a notorious workaholic who took her responsibilities to her job, her family and her community very seriously. Riley had often accused her of being too serious.

She and Cameron made a good match, he reflected. While equally dedicated to his career, Cameron was more laid-back about it than Serena. He brought out her dry sense of humor and encouraged her to have fun. They’d been married a year and still looked at each other like they were on their honeymoon.

Riley had nothing against the institution of marriage. It certainly seemed to work well for some people—Serena and Cameron, Dan and Lindsey, his own parents, for that matter, who’d been contentedly wed for thirty-five years. He just couldn’t really picture himself taking that drastic step—at least not with anyone he’d met to this point.

He wondered if Teresa had been as happy with her late husband as his newly married friends were with their respective spouses. How long had it been since she lost him? Was she still grieving for him?

He realized abruptly that Teresa was talking again, filling in the gaps about how she came to be his tenant. “I visited Edstown with Serena a couple of times during college and I always thought it must be a wonderful place to grow up. When the neighborhood the kids and I were living in before started having more problems with crime and delinquency, I decided to move here for their sakes. Marjorie very kindly offered me a job. Since the diner is only open for breakfast and lunch, I drop Mark and Maggie off at a before-school program at the church next door to their school, and then I’m there to greet them when they come home in the afternoons. It’s working out very well.”

“You’re doing me the favor,” Marjorie insisted. “I’ve had so much turnover in staff at the diner during the past year or so that it’s nice to have someone I can depend on to stay for a while.”

Cameron cleared his throat and shifted in his chair. “Technically, I am still working for you,” he reminded his mother-in-law.

Marjorie laughed. “I wasn’t referring to you, dear.”

Teresa lifted an eyebrow.

“You remember me telling you that Cameron worked in the diner when he first showed up in Edstown?” Serena prompted.

Teresa nodded, looking at her friend’s husband. “You were working as a reporter for a newspaper in Dallas and you got involved in a dangerous story that almost got you killed. Something about a politician who was embezzling public funds, wasn’t it?”