Feliz Naughty Dog - Roxanne St. Claire Page 0,31
upheaval and frustration, and on Christmas Eve, no less.”
“We agreed we would come and check him out, Finnie.”
“And we did,” she said. “And now we’re waitin’ to turn him in to the authorities. Poor Pru is on the hook for a lot of money, and instead of finishing up our wrappin’ and cookie bakin’, we’re in a crowded mall.”
It wasn’t what she was saying that concerned Agnes, it was the tone. “I think I can count on one hand the times I’ve heard you be less than positive and enthusiastic, Finnie. I am…” She swallowed. Hard. “I’m sorry I dragged us here today. Let’s leave the minute the kids come back.”
“Oh.” Finally, Finnie looked right at her, and her eyes filled with tears.
“What? What’s wrong, Finnie?”
“I don’t know.” Her voice cracked as she shook her head. “I just don’t know what to be thinkin’ anymore.”
Agnes scanned her friend’s face, looking for a way to read into these words. Every little crinkle and change of expression in her face was so familiar after nearly two years of being inseparable, but she simply couldn’t remember ever seeing this look of…sadness.
“Finnie, I had no idea this was going to upset you so. If I had, we wouldn’t have come.”
“It’s not…today. It’s…” She waved a hand and blinked back her tears. “’Tis the season, I suppose.” She added a laugh and tried to sound bright and cheery, but failed miserably. “Why don’t you take a walk around and see if you can find your Aldo, and I’ll watch for—”
“He’s not my Aldo,” Agnes interjected. “He’s some criminal, and I should have listened to you.”
“Fine, he’s not yours. But Max was interested in you—”
“I told you I have no interest in Max Hewitt other than as a friend.”
“Then it will be…the next one.” She sighed and managed a smile. “One of them will win your heart.”
For a moment, Agnes didn’t say a word, still processing just what was going on in her friend’s mind. “You know, every time I’ve said you’re jealous, I haven’t meant it. I was joking.”
“I’m not jealous.”
“I know,” she said. “You’re one of the rare—no, no, you are the only female friend I’ve had since being a widow who wasn’t a little jealous of me. That group down in Florida that I socialized with at the apartment complex? Every time I lost a pound or got a new round of Botox or had my hair colored, they judged me. I heard it in their comments, felt it in their looks. But worse, they judged themselves. My wanting to be attractive no matter my age drove a wedge between other women and me. But that has never happened with you.”
“Those things aren’t important to me, but I respect that they are to you.”
Agnes didn’t respond, still studying Finnie and trying to figure out where all this emotion was coming from, since it wasn’t jealousy.
“I’m…scared,” Finnie whispered, so softly the words could barely be heard over the din of shoppers and Christmas carols.
“Of what?”
“Of losin’ you.”
Agnes stared at her. “You think you’re going to lose me?”
“Of course I am. When the right man comes along, he’ll see what I see.”
“What you see?” Agnes shook her head. “I don’t follow.”
“All the things that make you so lovely, lass.” She gave a sad smile. “You’ll make him laugh at your quick wit and convince him to take chances he never dreamed of takin’, and then you’ll have your secret jokes and nicknames for people.”
“Like we do,” Agnes whispered, the words making Finnie’s eyes fill again.
“Aye, like I haven’t had with anyone else since…Seamus.” She tried to swallow, but that just made the tears she was fighting slip out and meander over the creases in her cheeks. “The truth is, lass, you’ve made my life so full and fun, so different and exciting again, that I’m bone-deep terrified of livin’ without you.”
The words landed like a punch to Agnes’s chest, hitting that sweet spot that was saved for so few people. Just Nik, really, and now Finnie.
“I’m never going to leave you, Finn,” she promised, squeezing Finnie’s hand to show how much she meant those words. “You’re the first and best and most real woman friend I’ve ever had. I walked into that wedding shower for my former daughter-in-law and your son that day, and I could feel every single person in that room tense up because I arrived. My own grandchildren were more than a little afraid of me.”
Finnie smiled. “They were,” she agreed.
“But you