from law enforcement: You found out about the dark side of the world real fast. Even though he didn’t like talking about his work and the people he arrested, he did things like lock our front door when we left. And the last time I’d left my laptop in my car in the driveway, I’d gotten a lecture about making it easy to steal from me.
I knew he meant well, but sometimes I wanted to think the world was filled with positive energy and good vibes, not crime and hate.
What can I say, it was my sunshine filter on the world and I was happy with it. I’d worked in family law. I knew there was evil out there. I just didn’t want to acknowledge it in my life.
True to his word, Greg didn’t come home that night. Well, not until after I’d fallen asleep. Mid morning, my phone rang and a smile crossed my lips as I looked at the caller ID. Amy would brighten my mood with all her wedding talk. “Hey, Amy, what’s going on in the tule-filled world of wedding planning?”
“Jill, something’s terribly wrong. I went to Justin’s office to talk to him about the catering decisions we’d made and they said he took a week of vacation. He told me he was working. What am I going to do?”
“Where are you?”
“Just coming back from Bakerstown. I’m about to turn off the highway.” She sniffed. “I’ve been trying to think all the way back, but I keep coming back to the undeniable fact that he’s left me.”
“Justin hasn’t left you. I talked to him yesterday when I went shopping after our lunch. He said he had to run back to Nebraska to check on his mom.” I squeezed my eyes shut. I wasn’t supposed to say that. “Look, stop at the house. We’ll drink a few beers and figure out this thing with Justin.”
“I’m dropping off the car at the apartment. Then I’ll walk back. Give me twenty minutes.” She paused a beat and I could hear the turn signal in her car. “Thanks Jill, you’re the best.”
After I hung up I looked at Emma. “Your aunt Amy’s coming over for a visit and we need to be very nice to her right now because she’s fragile.”
Emma put her paw on my hand, and I imagined her thinking, we’re a team, Jill. No problem.
Instead, she was probably asking for a piece of the cheesecake her nose had told her was hanging out in my purse. But, of course, there wasn’t any cheesecake in my purse. I’d eaten my piece at the store before I’d left. I hurried and finished my review and sent it off to Deek. I’m sure I was the last one to return their review, even though we’d all had the same deadline. I liked to push boundaries.
I’d just closed the laptop when Amy knocked on the door. I let her in and she set down several boxes on the coffee table. “I thought we could fold napkins into rings while we talked.”
“Napkin rings?” Who thought of this kind of stuff? There were other things I’d wanted to say but bit my tongue. The adults who were attending Amy’s party knew how to find a napkin and put it on their lap. Well, except for her uncle Brent, who was playing his part well as wedding financier; I was pretty sure he was making notes on everything he paid for.
“Relax, I’m not asking you to paint the Mona Lisa.”
“Funny girl.” I picked up several books I’d had strung along the couch and carried them to my office. I stacked them on the desk right next to last month’s advanced readers copy pile. I wondered how many pounds of books the desk would actually hold. This was getting out of hand. “Can you give me a minute?”
“Sure. I’ll set up.” Amy disappeared into the kitchen.
I ran upstairs to change out of my running clothes and into sweats. I hadn’t done it when I first came home, worried that I would miss seeing something over at Esmeralda’s. The poor woman must have been scared in that house with a crazy guy pounding on the door. What was he thinking?
My concern about the scene next door disappeared when I got back to the kitchen. Gray napkins and pearl rings were stacked neatly in two piles, one on each side of the table. Apparently Amy hadn’t been joking about me participating in the napkin folding ritual. At