The Maverick - By Jan Hudson Page 0,23

looked very much alike. Both were still trim and a couple of inches shorter than Sunny and Cass. The streaks of gray in their strawberry-blond hair had disappeared in the months they had been gone, and they both had new short and fashionable haircuts instead of their old styles, which was usually some sort of convenient twist. They both looked ten years younger than their sixty plus.

“You look fantastic,” Cass said, hugging her mother, then Aunt Min. “What have you done to yourselves?”

Gloria beamed. “I highly recommend retirement. And the new French makeovers helped.” She fluffed her hair. “Like it?”

“I love it. Aunt Min, are you sure you haven’t had a face-lift?”

Min chuckled. “Absolutely not, but we went to this lovely salon for skin treatments.” She rubbed her cheek. “Soft as a baby’s butt. Feel.”

“You’re right, and you both look so rested. Were you able to sleep on the plane?”

“We were,” Gloria said. “You two, on the other hand, look like you’ve been dragged through a knothole backward. But not to worry, we’re here to help handle things.”

“There’s nothing to handle,” Sunny said. “Everything has been dried out and checked out and approved. The new floors are going in today and the contractors are coming tomorrow for some minor repair work.”

“What about…?”

“Supplies have been ordered for the kitchen,” Cass said, kissing her mother’s cheek, “and the cooks and kitchen help are coming in over the weekend to see that everything will be ready for business on Monday.”

Gloria looked at Min. “See, I told you our girls could handle the situation.”

“Ha!” Min said. “You were chomping at the bit to get here. Same as me. We have Sunny’s wedding to plan, anyhow. We just came back a little early.”

Sunny sighed. “I’ve told you. There’s nothing to plan. We’re going to have a simple wedding with only family and a few friends.”

“We’ll discuss that later,” her mother said, clearly intimating her preference for a more elaborate do. “Even small weddings take preparation. We’re eager to meet Ben.”

“He’s eager to meet you, too,” Sunny told her. “He’ll probably be over for dinner tonight.”

“Good, good,” Min said. “Come on. Let’s get our bags and stretch our legs. We love Europe, but it’s wonderful to be home. I’ve been dying for a big plate of barbecued ribs. Did you know you can’t get a decent barbecued rib in France? For all their culinary expertise, they’ve never managed to make a good old Texas barbecue sauce.”

“Or a good bowl of chili,” Gloria said as they walked toward the baggage carousels. “And forget enchiladas. Of course, we could make our own chili and enchiladas, but we didn’t have a proper barbecue pit.”

Cass laughed. “I’m surprised you didn’t build one and open a barbecue joint and a chili parlor.”

Gloria and Min glanced at each other. “We’ve considered it,” Min admitted.

“Don’t you dare!” Cass said. “You’re retired.”

Gloria sighed. “I know. And I love having time to paint.”

“Tell you what,” Sunny said. “Let’s get you settled, and you can come over and see my new house tonight and have a big barbecue dinner.”

“I’ll vote for that,” Min said. “That’s one of my bags. The one with the red tassel.”

After the bags were collected and loaded, the two older women insisted on stopping by the café before they went home. Cass and Sunny were eager to check out things, too, so they made a swing by the place. The assistant manager and two of their waiters were moving chairs and tables back inside from where they’d been stored in Cass’s apartment. What wouldn’t fit there were in Sunny’s garage, courtesy of friends with pickups.

“Oh, I like the new floor,” Gloria said.

“So do I,” Min added. “The old one had seen better days, anyhow. Was the wiring damaged?”

“Luckily, no,” Cass said. “At least nothing major. Everything has been checked out and is working fine. We hired a restoration company who got right on it. They had the water pumped out and the fans going almost immediately. The registers and computer equipment are stashed upstairs in Hank’s living room, and Griff hired a moving company to move the office furniture and file cabinets to Sunny’s storage unit.”

“Who’s Griff?” Gloria asked.

Trust her mother’s antennae to go up.

“He’s a guy I’ve been dating.”

“And why haven’t we heard about him before? Is he local?”

“No, Mom, he’s not local, and I’ve only been seeing him for a couple of weeks. It’s nothing serious.”

Gloria’s eyebrow rose, and she glanced at her sister. “What does he do?”

“He’s a lawyer.”

Gloria’s