Jewels in the Juniper - Dale Mayer Page 0,19
if she removed a few of them.
Picking up her purse, she reset the alarm, and leaving all three of the animals inside, she stepped out. Mugs hopped up on the door, trying to tell her with his barking that he wanted to go with her. She called back through the door, “Sorry, buddy. I can’t take you in the grocery store, and I’m not leaving you in the car.”
She went to the hardware store first and found the cheapest tarps. Only at twelve dollars, they were not exactly cheap. She hesitatingly put them back on the shelf, wondering if there was a better option. She texted Mack.
Where’s that place you said is best to get tarps?
He responded, and she remembered the name, although who in their right mind would put “princess” in the business name for an auto shop? She found her way to what looked to be a military and outdoorsy all-in-one-guy type of store. She walked inside to find an older man with a bald head smiling at her.
She looked up at him and grinned. “Okay, I know I don’t look like I belong here,” she said, “but I’m looking for tarps to put under a new deck we’re trying to build.”
“Perfect,” he said with a nod, then led her to the tarps. “These are pretty cheap,” he said, “particularly for what you’ll be using them for.”
“I don’t want weeds to come through,” she said, “so I don’t want it to be too cheap.”
“Not a problem,” he said. “The material is really dense. You could also double up on them, if you wanted.”
“How much are they?” she asked.
“They happen to be on sale this weekend.” His smile was genuine. “It’s buy-one-get-one free, so it works out to be two for ten bucks.”
Delighted with that, Doreen picked up two, then she stopped and looked at the size and said, “They’re ten by ten.”
“Is that how big your deck is?” he asked. “Or bigger?”
“Bigger.” The trouble was, she didn’t know how big the end result would be, and she didn’t want to shortchange on the tarps.
“When you get the concrete blocks tucked in,” he said, “make sure you dig these down, otherwise you’ll get weeds around the blocks.”
She frowned at that and nodded.
He continued, “And you could grab a third one and cut up pieces to extend it.”
“Or do you have the bigger ones on sale too?” Doreen asked craftily.
He chuckled. “I do have some that are twelve-by-fifteen.”
“I’ll take two of those,” she said. “I can always fold under any surplus.”
They were fifteen dollars, but, hey, she would take that. With both tarps in her car, she headed to the grocery store. She didn’t have much money with her because she deliberately didn’t budget much for each week. But she needed a little bit more than she had planned for. Including coffee. As she wandered the aisles, filling her basket, she thought she heard her name spoken. She turned around to look, but nobody was there. Then she heard her name, not being called, more like someone mentioned it in a conversation. She moved closer and heard several older women having a discussion about Nan’s granddaughter, Doreen.
As she came around the corner, somebody nudged one of the others, and they all shut up. Doreen looked at them and smiled. “Did I hear you talking about me? I thought I heard my name mentioned. Doreen?” She’d always found the best way to deal with gossips was to nip it in the bud.
One of the women looked at her, then raised an eyebrow, her nose going up in the air. “Of course not,” she said. “Why would we talk about you?”
The arrogance and such a superior tone in her voice stopped Doreen, and she looked at her in surprise. “No reason, I guess,” she said, easily hiding behind her years of training with an equally arrogant husband. “Of course, if you’re gossiping about anyone,” she said, “it’s really not well looked upon, is it? My grandmother is a lovely person, so I know that, if you’re talking about her, it would be in the best regard.”
The whole time she spoke, the woman glared at her.
Doreen just gave her a sunny smile and walked to where the bananas were. She picked up one banana and put it in her basket.
“Is that all you can afford?” the woman asked.
Doreen could feel anger sparking inside her. She turned and slowly looked at the five women gathered together, and only one had the grace to look