One Foot in the Grave (Carly Moore #3) - Denise Grover Swank Page 0,51

approaching. “There’s my girl.”

“Hey, Gladys,” I said, leaning over to give her a kiss on the cheek. “Hey, Roberta.”

Roberta scowled. “Tryin’ to buy our affection with jigsaw puzzles again?”

I gave her a cheesy smile as I pulled out a box with a tropical scene on the cover and set it on the table next to the puzzle they were working on. They’d only gotten the border and a few sections of the inside pieced together. “Is it working?”

Her scowl deepened.

“I’m gonna take that as a yes,” I said with a forced cheeriness that was excessive even for me.

“What’s goin’ on?” Gladys asked, her cloudy eyes pinned on me. “What’s got you upset? Does it have anything to do with the fact you haven’t been here for weeks?”

“No. I haven’t been coming around because the new construction at the Drummond resort site has brought a bunch of workers into town. I’ve been working doubles every day for weeks. But Max finally hired someone to help out, and I don’t have to go in until three today.”

“And you came to see us?” Roberta grumped as her arthritic hands fumbled to open the box.

I took it from her and used my car key to slit open the paper seal. “I was running some errands in Ewing, so I decided to stop by and pay a visit.” I darted a glance down the hall, then returned my attention to the box as I worked on another side. “I also want to speak to Thelma Tureen.”

“Greta was here just the other day,” Gladys said, picking up the box for the puzzle they’d started and sweeping the loose pieces inside. I wasn’t surprised they were abandoning it for the new one. They spent so much time building puzzles, they’d pieced together most of the ones owned by Greener Pastures at least a dozen times. “Brought her some pretty flowers.”

Roberta started to break apart the border of the old puzzle. “The kind you get at grocery stores.”

“Well, it sounds very sweet,” I said. “Greta’s a good granddaughter.”

“And so are you,” Gladys said, reaching over to pinch my cheek. A few visits back, she’d told me that I spent more time with her than her real family and declared me to be her adopted granddaughter. “And how is that handsome Marco doin’?”

“He’s great. In fact, he’s going to be moonlighting at the tavern for a while. He said to tell you hi.”

“I take it he’s workin’ as a deputy today?” Gladys asked, helping Roberta break apart the puzzle. “Otherwise he’d be here with you.”

I chuckled. “Yes, he’s working, but I had lunch with him.”

“I do love a man in uniform,” Roberta mumbled under her breath, and my brow shot up as I turned to Gladys.

She tried to stifle a smile. This was the first hint Roberta had given that she liked Marco…or anyone for that matter. But there was no denying Marco did have charm.

“It’s a shame you two aren’t screwin’,” Gladys said as she swept the last of the pieces into the box.

“Gladys,” I said with a sigh. “How many times do I have to tell you that we’re just friends?”

She glanced up. “Then why aren’t you screwin’?”

It seemed like everyone was asking me that lately. “I’m not really sure,” I said, deciding to be honest. “A lot of reasons, I guess.”

“Such as?” Gladys asked thoughtfully as she set the box aside.

I sighed again. “Well, for one thing, Marco told me he wasn’t a commitment kind of guy, and I told him I wasn’t a fling kind of girl.”

“And when did he tell you that?”

“Early last December, when we were looking for Greta.”

“And when was the last time he hooked up with another woman?”

“I don’t know,” I said, really not liking the direction this was going. “This morning he said it had been a few months, but according to him it was because he’d cycled through so many women. He wants to pace himself.”

Roberta snickered.

“What?” I asked.

“He likes you, you stupid fool. He doesn’t want anyone else. He wants you.”

I frowned.

“I’ve seen the way he looks at you,” Roberta said. “And I’ve seen the way you look at him. Gladys is right. Why aren’t you two hookin’ up?”

Were they right? Did Marco want to be more than friends? The thought left me devastated, although I had no idea why. I only knew this wasn’t the time to figure it out.

I gave them a coy smile. “And what if we hooked up and it was terrible? Then I’d