Sunday shift. And we’re so shorthanded anyway. Deek’s been working overtime and Aunt Jackie—well, she’s moving in with Harrold. So it was just me.” I turned the key in the lock and stepped inside, closing the door before Emma could even look outside. My dog is smart, but when she wants something, she becomes brilliant. And we hadn’t run for a few days.
“Oh. So why didn’t you pick up? Were you that busy?”
I could tell from her tone she was calming down and not quite as angry, but I knew I’d have to buy brunch next week to get totally out of the doghouse. “No, I had my stupid phone on silent. I just noticed it when I was fumbling around for my keys.”
I walked into the kitchen and set the phone on the table, putting it on Speaker. I let Emma out in the backyard and watched for a few minutes.
“Oh, I guess I understand. I was just so excited to show you the linens we have it narrowed down to for the reception.”
I must have heard her wrong. “Sorry, I didn’t catch that. What did you pick?”
“Nothing yet. I just have it narrowed down to three choices of linens for the tables. They’re all white, of course, but each one has a special design I wanted to show you.”
I could hear the excitement building in her voice. “So, the venue is providing you choices?”
“No, silly, you have to rent your linen. And your china and flatware. Of course, the venue has basic stuff, but if you want anything suitable, you have to rent.” She sighed. “I should have called Jackie. She understands the wedding process so well. She’s looking at a fall wedding at that restaurant overlooking the San Francisco Bay. Won’t that be lovely? I wish I had that kind of budget, but Justin keeps insisting on keeping it under forty thousand.”
“Four thousand? That sounds about right. That doesn’t include your dress, right?” I grabbed a water bottle and sat at the table, opening my laptop.
“Forty thousand. You can’t even rent a suitable venue for four.” She paused as I gulped. “What did you spend on your first wedding?”
“Maybe a thousand, but that included the trip to Vegas. We didn’t have a big, expensive event.”
“And see how that marriage went?” She paused. “Justin is calling, I need to take this so we can make the final linen decision. I’ll call you later.”
She hung up before I could say goodbye. Forty thousand. That was ludicrous. And she thought Aunt Jackie was spending more? Unless Harrold was draining his retirement account, I didn’t know where they were going to get that kind of money. I put “call Aunt Jackie” on my Monday list.
Putting aside the crazy wedding talk, I focused on the discussion I’d had with Deek about the missing Mrs. Gleason. Then I went into my office and sorted through the ARCs I’d read that month. I needed to take them back to the store, but Toby read only military history and high fantasy. And Deek was focusing on the autobiographies and nonfiction. That meant Aunt Jackie and I shared the rest of the fiction genres. And she hadn’t been reading as much as she had before she’d made up with Harrold. I pulled out my three top runners for my favorites and put all the others into large book totes. Then I put the totes into my Jeep. At least that would be done sometime tomorrow, when I ran my errands.
I went back into the kitchen, let in Emma, and thumbed through the books. Settling on one, I sat down to write the recommendation. It had to have the feel of the book without just telling the story. More of a marketing blurb than a true summary. And I always liked to end it with the phrase, “if you liked this, you’ll love that.”
Two cookies and an hour later, my review was done and I was thinking about another book. I’d brought it home at the beginning of the week and it called to me. I poured a glass of tea and went to the living room to curl up on the couch.
The best thing about the murder mystery I had chosen? No one was getting married or talking about wives or husbands or missing people. I could lose myself in the fantasy without being drawn back into reality. Which was the sign of an excellent book.
Maybe I should use this one for next month’s recommendation and