a morning of sleeping in. It still rang so seldom that this was an event.
On the other end, Sherrie was bright and chirpy, considering it wasn’t even 6:00 a.m. in Arizona.
“Good morning, good morning!”
“Why is it good?” Tracy squinted at the bedside clock again, but the time didn’t change. It wasn’t quite eight in Palmetto Beach.
“Because a colleague of Wade’s is flying into Tampa for a conference, and I gave him your phone number. He’s gorgeous and available.”
“And rich?” Tracy stretched.
“Not CJ rich, more like your father rich. Before CJ mopped up the floor with him.”
“It’ll be nice if he calls.” Tracy thought it would be okay if he didn’t, too. “So how come you’re calling now? What are you doing up at this hour?”
“The girls had a sleepover last night. I haven’t been to bed yet.”
“Ouch.” Although, truthfully, Tracy thought that might be fun.
“So what’s up with you?”
Tracy told her about the rec center, the mural and upcoming shuffleboard tournament, the joys of taming Bay Egan into something approximating a normal boy; then she ended with her neighbors.
“So the quest to find Herb’s daughter’s hit a big snag, but it’s worse than that.” As succinctly as she could, she told Sherrie about Alice and everything that had transpired. “We’re all worried about her,” she finished.
“Wow. Do you think she really ripped up the whole tablecloth?”
“I don’t know what happened, but it seems more and more suspicious. I wish I could be a fly on the wall and just watch what’s going on at that house.”
“Well, you know, you can. They call it a nanny cam, although in this case it’s more like a granny cam.”
Tracy knew what a nanny cam was, of course. But she had never considered using one in Alice’s cottage—or anywhere, for that matter.
“Isn’t that against the law?”
“Well, you’d have to check locally. But I have a friend who was concerned about the way a babysitter was treating her son. He was hyper every time my friend went out and much too quiet after she came home. So she installed one in his bedroom and one on the mantel.”
“What did she find out?”
“That the kid was a devil. He tired himself out running around the house and abusing the poor sitter, and that’s why he was so exhausted.”
“Well, I guess that was worth discovering.”
“You are the landlady. That probably gives you rights.”
“I’ll talk to my friends, but it’s an idea. I should have thought of it.”
“You tend to think the best of people.”
“It’s easier than wondering.”
“You always make yourself out to be lazy and completely self-involved.”
“And your point would be?”
“That you just hate to condemn people. So if you see something, you give it the best spin. That’s why you stayed with CJ so long.”
“You’re making me sound virtuous instead of like the spoiled rotten divorcée I am.”
“Trace, if you were spoiled rotten, you wouldn’t have taken that job. Or tiled your own floor. Or even gone off to Florida to wrestle this property thing into the ground. You’re a lot more than you ever thought, and every time I talk to you, you just sound better. You’re coming into your own.”
Tracy was touched. “Wow, if I look in the mirror, will I see a halo?”
“Don’t get carried away.”
They talked about Sherrie then, and when they hung up, Tracy was wide-awake and ready to start her day.
She decided against a run. Last night she had sealed the last seam on her new floor, and she wanted to show it off. An hour later she was serving good coffee and coffee cake she’d bought in town as the bakery doors were opening. The coffee cake was a splurge, but this was a celebration.
“So, what do you think?” she asked Wanda and Janya, who had finished wandering through the house, examining her work. “Am I good or what?”
“I’ve got to hand it to you,” Wanda said. “You did a professional job. It’s sure a big step up from what you had before. Makes it look like a home.”
“And you learned all this from a book?” Janya squatted and ran her fingers over a seam.
“I did. I made mistakes, but next time I’ll do even better.”
“You planning on going into business?” Wanda asked.
“The clearance center where I bought my tile has a fall sale. We could do your floors, if any of the tile gets cheap enough.”
“You’re serious? Aren’t you trying to sell this property?”
“Do you see anybody busting down my door to buy it?” Tracy thought of Marsh’s