Growing up, the two Bailey girls had been near enough in age to be a nuisance to each other, yet far enough apart that their worlds didn’t intersect. By the time Laura got to high school, she naturally hadn’t wanted anything to do with her kid sister, and then she’d gone straight to college, and on to a high-powered job in San Francisco. She didn’t get home much, and the girls had never really gotten to know each other.
And now that they were adults, their surface differences kept them apart. But he knew, they weren’t so different in their hearts. If only they’d give themselves a chance to see it.
He quickly flipped his burgers and wandered back to the window just in time to see Laura snatching the letters back. He couldn’t help but smirk. Both girls had grown into strong, independent women, but this was turning into a childish squabble.
“Mom, tell her. ” Laura turned in her chair to challenge Edith. “I majored in marketing. I have a degree in it. ”
Edith gave her youngest a rueful look. “Honey, Laura is vice president of her company’s marketing department. ”
Sorrow seemed ready to explode. “Well, I have a degree in running this lodge, which is just as real as her experience. ”
It was silly, pure and simple. The lodge was falling down around their ears, and they had a real find in these historical letters. Why they wouldn’t just talk it out was beyond him. They were all nuts…just one big fruitcake sitting ther
e, sipping their Diet Cokes.
The door opened, and Sully held his breath. It was Marlene’s entourage, Emerald, Pearl, and Ruby Kidd. The three grandes dames of Sierra Falls were a slow-moving barge of white hair, colorful clip-on earrings, and the scent of powder. And where Marlene’s aunts and mother went, she was never far behind.
He gave a quick check to the grill, and darted out from the kitchen to help usher them in. Flurries blew in on a gust of cold air, and he angled his body in the doorway to block it. It put him face-to-face with Marlene.
Hell, but she was a fine figure of a woman. Winter had finally settled in for good, but she didn’t frump up like some of the others did. Her down coat was white and sleek, and her sunglasses reminded him of something Jackie O would’ve worn. The lady was all class.
“Thank you, Tom,” she told him, and the sound of his Christian name on her tongue was good on his ears.
She pulled off her sunglasses, and the smile she gave him knocked his socks off. She hadn’t done any nonsense to her face like he’d seen with other women their age. The years were plain on her face, and she was the more beautiful for it.
“Looking lovely, Marlene. As ever. ” Sully frowned. She deserved more than whoever that milksop was she’d met for drinks. Now he would know how to treat her right. Why shouldn’t he meet a woman like Marlene for drinks? Why not Marlene herself? Yet he couldn’t seem to get away from flipping Bear’s damned burgers.
“If you’re sweet talking me, why is it you look like you just sucked a lemon?”
He had nothing to say to that—although he was sure that, come midnight, a half dozen good responses would come to him. Cursing his lack of words, he could only grin at her, feeling like a fool.
She carefully folded her sunglasses and put them in her bag. Giving him a polite smile in return, she glided across the room to join the Bailey women.
Sully headed back to the kitchen, but when Edith popped out of her chair to get the women their teas and sodas, he saw his second chance. “You sit,” he told her. “I’ll get your drinks. ”
Laura twisted around to look at the bar. “Where’s Helen?”
Bear grumbled, “Yeah, where is that woman? Bar won’t tend itself. ”
“Don’t know,” Sully said, “and I don’t care to know. ” There was a saying for women like Helen: a mess in a dress. He’d spent years trying to find some inner peace, and getting embroiled in the dramas of his coworkers wasn’t high on his list.
The man seated next to Bear at the bar grumbled, “Give the woman a break. I hear her husband’s a real son of a bitch. ”
Deputy Marshall McGinn had been seated at the end of the bar, and he stood to put on his jacket. “It’s morning yet, Bear. Pour your own damned coffee. Or Sully can pour it for you. ”
Sully shot him a snarling look. “Aren’t you on duty?”
“Watch out,” Sorrow said. “Or Marshall might give you a ticket next time he sees you. ”
“Just look at him funny and he’ll give you a ticket,” another said. “Ain’t that right, Deputy?”
Marshall only shook his head at that, and a round of laughter followed him out of the tavern. McGinn was a by-the-book sort of deputy. Former military, with an honorable discharge after getting wounded in Iraq, he took his job in law enforcement more seriously than some folks in Sierra Falls deemed necessary.
Sully went behind the bar to pour the women their drinks. There was no need to ask what they were having—the older ones always had iced tea, and the younger ones their diet colas. The women’s chatter resumed, and he gave it half an ear.
His mind was on one thing: Marlene Jessup’s perfume. It beat the smell of fry grease any day of the week.
Seventeen