Proof of Murder (Beyond the Page Bookstore Mystery #4) - Lauren Elliott Page 0,40
and glanced around at the tables surrounding them. “We’re in public,” she hissed. “I don’t need the whole town seeing one of my agents carrying on with my mother in a restaurant of all places.”
“Really!” Vera gave an exaggerated eye roll. “Is that all you care about? What the people in this town think of the Queen of Real Estate?” Vera picked up her wineglass and swigged a large swallow. “Art, maybe it was a mistake to bring you back to Greyborne Harbor with me.”
“Nonsense, my dear.” He patted Vera’s hand. “These last eight months here with you have been the happiest of my life.”
“Oh, Arty,” Vera cooed and leaned her head on his shoulder.
“Mother, stop!”
Addie took that as her cue to leave, voiced her pleasure at seeing them all, and made her way to her own table, reaching it just as Serena sat down. “I need a drink—now.” Addie flopped into her chair and scanned the room for Zach to take her order.
Serena’s big, round, brown eyes locked on hers.
“What?”
“Are you okay? Did something happen since I last saw you, about twenty minutes ago?”
“Yeah.” Addie dropped her bag on the empty chair beside her. “The whole darn world’s gone crazy, that’s what’s happened.”
Serena barked out a laugh that mimicked a sick seal. The foursome at the table behind them turned in unison to look at her. Serena smiled at them and they, obviously uncomfortable with her acknowledgment, returned to their meals. She turned her freckled face back to Addie. “And you’ve just come to this realization?”
Addie glanced at the two women, who still appeared to be sniping at each other. “You know,” she said, turning back to Serena, “I never had my mother growing up, but I do hope that if I had, we wouldn’t have ended up like those two.”
“If you’re talking about Maggie and Vera, they’ve always been like that. Vera is practical and down to earth, and Maggie . . . well, she’s always been full of herself and worried more about keeping up appearances than anything else.”
“I just feel sorry for that poor man with them.”
“Art?”
“You know him? I’ve never seen him before.”
“Yeah, he works for Maggie.”
“I got that part from my brief introduction.” Addie scanned her menu. “How come he doesn’t have any signs around town?”
“Gloria told me at the last book-club meeting that he had to write his state exams. I guess he was some hotshot Realtor out west, but each state has their own licensing requirements or something to that affect.” She waved her hand in a fluttering motion. “I don’t know. I wasn’t really paying attention to what Gloria was saying because . . . I really didn’t care.” She flipped her menu up, chuckling.
“No, neither do I. It’s just the animosity between those two really got to me, especially after having just dealt with Marc and Ryley.”
Serena pushed down the top of Addie’s menu. “What? Where did this happen? Are they tailing us now?”
“Don’t be silly.” Addie lifted her menu back up. “Marc was checking out the lead I gave them about Kalea staying here, and we happened to run into each other, that’s all.”
Serena pressed Addie’s menu back down and locked eyes with her. “Are you sure that’s all?”
“Actually . . .”
“I knew it. What happened? What did Miss Special Agent say to put you in this world’s-gone-crazy mood?”
“That’s just it. She didn’t say much to me, other than openly displaying her displeasure with Marc and I speaking to each other. It’s the whispered conversation that I managed to overhear most of as I tailed them out the door.” Addie leaned over the table and told her what she’d heard.
“And that’s it? You have no idea what followed ‘mandatory’?”
“It could mean a lot of different things. Like mandatory leave, mandatory—”
“Assignment.” Serena sat back. “But you’re right. It’s a weird thing for him to say.”
“I know, and it makes my conspiracy-theory mind run wild with all the options.”
Serena snapped her menu. “The world hasn’t gone crazy tonight—you have.” She held it up, covering her face to hide a giggle she couldn’t suppress.
Addie pulled Serena’s menu down and made a googly-eyed face at her, then pushed it back up to the sound of a hearty laugh from behind her friend’s shield.
“Let’s order. I still need that drink and I’m starving,” Addie laid her menu on the table as she searched for Zach.
* * *
It didn’t take long for their drinks and entrées to arrive and feeling much better than she had