“They would,” he said with a smile. “Liz is a real pistol. Very sociable and easygoing, and her husband is a great fella. I’m not sure how long they’ve been here. I think they arrived before Ester. Ester Teasle? Oh, you have to meet Ester. She’s a great gal. A little lonely, though. Herson is some hotshot Wall Street banker, and instead of putting her in some nice place close to home, he put her all the way up here and then never visits! Can you imagine?” He shook his head at so much callousness. “She’s been here two years now.”
“Does your daughter visit you often?” asked Vesta, starting to realize that this was an important issue for Bob.
“Oh, sure. Sharon is in here all the time. Sometimes every day, if work permits. She works in town, you see, and drops by on her way home. How about you? Any relatives?”
Vesta took a deep breath.“Well, my husband died a couple of years ago, though frankly no great loss there, since we had been estranged for a while. And I’ve got a daughter and son-in-law and a granddaughter and even a great-granddaughter now.”
“Isn’t that great,” said Bob with feeling. “Sharon never had much luck in that department. Got divorced twice, before she had the chance to start a family. She met a wonderful fellow now, though. Pete Walker. He’s the reason I’m in here. I wanted to give them as much space as they needed. Newlyweds, you know. Didn’t want to cramp their style.”
“How long have they been married?”
“Well, they haven’t. Not yet. But it won’t be long now. They’re taking their time, though. Won’t rush into things.” He gave her a brittle smile, which told her that he was worried that this marriage wouldn’t last either, just like Sharon’s previous ones.
“I’m sure they’ll announce it soon enough,” she said.
“Oh, absolutely,” said Bob, perking up a little. “Anyway, enough about me. Today is about you and your sister. We should organize a welcome party or something. Let me talk to Brian and see if we can’t arrange something.”
“That’s not necessary,” she hastened to say. The last thing they needed was to attract the attention and the scrutiny of the entire community. In and out in a couple of days had been her plan—long enough to accomplish both missions, short enough not to attract attention and be recognized byone of the other residents. “My sister isn’t a big one for parties,” she explained. “She’s pretty shy that way. Hates attention.”
Bob’s eyebrows shot up. “Now is that a fact?”
“So how about this bingo night? Any tips?”
“Don’t go,” he said immediately. “Unless you want to be bored stiff.”
She grinned.“I have to admit I’m not all that big on bingo myself.”
“Sound reasoning, Janelle. Very sound,” he said with a wink.
“So you’re not going?”
“Oh, I’m going. Any excuse not having to sit alone in my room.” When he realized how sad this sounded, he quickly added, “There’s some great people here, you’ll see. And once you get to know them, you’ll be happy you chose Happy Home as your final destination.”
She gulped a little at this, then said her goodbyes and left. Final destination sounded so darn… final!
13
Brutus wasn’t too sure about this so-called mission they’d been handed. He might like to talk tough but deep down he was a real homebody, and liked nothing better than to spend time in his favorite spot, eating his favorite food, and cuddling up to his favorite human—in his case Chase. Even though the man was a self-professed dog person, Brutus wasn’t convinced. Deep down he knew that Chase was actually a cat person, and if he wasn’t now, he would be once Brutus was finished with him.
But if Harriet said they were going on a mission, they were going on a mission, cause he would never leave the side of his favorite cat in all the world—his sweetheart Harriet.
She might be cranky from time to time, and a little high-maintenance at other times, but that had never bothered him. In fact he still thanked his lucky stars every single day for putting Harriet on his path—the best moment of his life.
But now this mission. Following the strangely promiscuous retirement home manager around, trying to catch him in the act, had sounded weird enough, but having to keep following him was even worse. There were certain things Brutus felt no cat should ever have to see, and one of them was most definitely humans having sex. Yuck.
“I think I’m going to need therapy when this mission is over,” he confessed now. They were traipsing along the corridor, attracting a lot of attention from the residents, who couldn’t stop staring at them, with some of them even reaching out and trying to pet them—until Harriet emitted that low growl she was so rightly famous for, and immediately they retracted their hands, probably figuring they might lose a finger if they dared touch this prissy Persian and her big black sidekick.
“And why is that?” asked Harriet.
“Watching humans having sex,” he said, and shivered at the recollection. “It’s just so… gross.”