In Name Only (Pine Falls #2) - Jennifer Peel Page 0,32

nothing yet still made us think we were the richest people in the world because we had each other.”

“You must miss them.” I knew they had both passed away within days of each other a few years ago.

“I do. Daddy used to call me every week and tease me, asking me if I was ready to leave John and come home. I used to beg them to come live near us. We offered to build them a house on our property, but they never wanted to feel like they were a charity case. They were so proud of me and John.”

Interesting. “So how did you meet?”

She rested her elbow on the back of the couch, and her head fell neatly into her manicured hand. Her humongous diamond wedding ring glittered in the light. “It’s a funny story. I was on my way to the diner one day to work a double shift. I was in my daddy’s old Oldsmobile truck that had a huge bulbous front. It was more rusted than it was painted, and boy, did it rumble.” She laughed, obviously fond of the old truck. “Anyway, I was driving down the highway, singing along to the static radio, and I see this handsome man dressed up in a fancy three-piece suit, pacing in front of his tiny red sports car that had steam pouring out of the popped hood. He looked so out of place, but there was something about him. He didn’t appear to be swearing or kicking the tires. I could see that while he paced, he was thoughtfully thinking about what his best course of action would be. This was back before the days of cell phones, and it was almost a five-mile walk into town, so he didn’t have a lot of options.”

“Did you stop?”

She bit her lip. “Well, not at first. I was raised to never pick up hitchhikers. But as I drove past him, I kept thinking it was so dusty and hot out that he was going to ruin that suit.”

She made me giggle. She did love clothes. It would seem she always had.

“And,” she continued, “I thought he must have somewhere important to be, dressed up like that in the middle of the day. So, I flipped a U-turn in the middle of that two-lane highway. I pulled off on the other side of the road from him, rolled down my window, and hollered, “Looks like you’re having some trouble.” She got all dreamy eyed. “But it was me who was in trouble. His smile and eyes hit me like a Kansas tornado, and I got swept up in them.”

“Weren’t you worried he could be dangerous?” Because he absolutely was.

She tossed her head from side to side. “Maybe a little, but he was such a gentleman. He never approached my truck. He shouted his name and wondered if, when I got to where I was going, I could make a call for him. It was a long-distance call, and at the time, those weren’t cheap. He promised I would be reimbursed for my trouble.”

“Who did you call for him?”

“His secretary in Denver. He looked too young to have a secretary, but she worked her magic and rescued him, though I didn’t know that until a week later when he showed up at the diner asking for me.”

That kind of creeped me out. “How did he know where to find you?”

“I had given his secretary my name when I called and told her where I was calling from, just in case she needed to call back. It was a different time back then. We were too trusting, but I wanted to make sure Mr. Wiley, who owned the diner, got reimbursed for that call.”

I supposed that made sense. “Did he get reimbursed?”

She smiled. “Oh yes. John paid his entire phone bill for that month. He’s always been generous like that.”

I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes. He probably did it all for show or to impress Sheridan. There was no way he had done it out of the goodness of his heart, because he didn’t have one.

“In fact,” she continued, “when Mr. Wiley got sick about twenty years ago and was about to lose everything, John stepped in and paid off all his debt and took care of his medical bills. John said he owed him the world for bringing us together.”

I pressed my lips together, not sure what to say. That was actually sweet, and possibly sincere. Perhaps