“Look, I love you, Dee,” said Brian now, as he placed his hands on her shoulders. The man actually looked desperate. “There’s only one woman for me and that’s you. You know that. And no one will ever come between us.”
“You’re saying that now, but when Gladys comes back—”
“When Gladys comes back I’m going to tell her, in the most diplomatic way possible, that what happened in there just now must never happen again.”
“And you think she’ll accept that?”
“She will have to, because I won’t go through that ordeal again.” He directed a gentle smile at her. “In fact next time when she arrives, tell her I’m not in my office. Make up some excuse. Because I’m through with that woman. Absolutely done.”
Slightly mollified, she allowed him to take her into his arms, and press a tender kiss to her cheek.
“I was very upset when I saw you with her,” she said.
“I could tell from the way you attacked her!” he said laughingly.
She smiled, and he kissed away her final tear.
“I’m sorry about your office. I wrecked it, didn’t I?”
“I deserve it,” he said fervently. “I hurt you, Dee, and I deserve everything you can throw at me. But I’m going to make it up to you, I promise. Sara and I are done. I’m going to talk to her about a divorce.”
Dee’s eyes lit up. “You will?”
“Absolutely. After what happened just now, I realize I came this close to losing you. And so I’m going to make it official. I’m divorcing Sara and I’m marrying you.”
“Oh, Brian!” she cried, and threw her arms around his neck and covered his face with kisses. “This is the best day of my life,” she whispered.
Which just goes to show how close heaven and hell can actually be!
21
Dooley and I were in the room with Bob when his daughter Sharon dropped by for a visit. Contrary to Ester Teasle, Sharon was in there all the time, sometimes daily.
“She’s a great gal,” said Dooley. “One day when Gran is in here for real, Marge will have to come by all the time also, and Odelia, and maybe by then also Grace.”
“I don’t think Gran will ever actually be in here as an actual resident,” I said.
“She won’t?”
“Oh, no. You know how she feels about retirement homes. She won’t be seen dead in one of these places.”
“But she’s in here now, isn’t she? And she’s not dead yet.”
“Yeah, but only because Odelia asked her to, and for a limited time. She wouldn’t want to become an actual resident here.”
“Oh, goodie,” said Dooley. “Cause me being Gran’s pet, I figured I’d have to move in here with her one day, and then I wouldn’t see you so much anymore, Max. And that would make me very sad.”
“You’ll see me all the time, Dooley,” I said, “cause there’s no way that Gran will ever move out of Marge and Tex’s house.” Unless Tex kicked her out, of course. But Marge wouldn’t allow that. She’d rather kick Tex out than her own mother.
“So how is Pete?” asked Bob now, as Sharon placed some snacks on the table. “When are you two finally going to tie the knot?”
Sharon hesitated for a moment before answering. She was a dark-haired good-looking woman in her late forties, and was dressed in a nice suit. I thought Bob had told Gran that she worked as an accountant in Hampton Cove.
“There won’t be a wedding, Dad,” she said now.
Bob sat up a little straighter, clearly surprised.“What do you mean there won’t be a wedding? What are you talking about?”
“Pete and I split up,” said Sharon quietly.
“Split up? But why? I thought things were going great between you?”
“Things were great for a while, until they weren’t,” said Sharon with a shrug. “It happens, Dad. Not everyone can have what you and Mom had. And the older I get the more I’m starting to think that kind of happiness is simply not in the cards for me.”
“But… but how? Did you guys have a fight?”
“It’s not important,” said Sharon with a weak smile. “I should have told you sooner, but I didn’t want to upset you, especially after you had that health scare.”
“I’m fine,” Bob assured her. “It’s you I’m worried about. When did this happen?”
“A couple of weeks back.”
“So he moved out, did he?”
“He never moved in,” said Sharon. “That’s one of the things we argued about.” She turned to him and placed an arm around his shoulder. “Actually I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that. Would you consider moving back in, now that Pete and I are done? I mean, I know the main reasonyou came to Happy Home is that you didn’t want to be in the way. But now that Pete is gone, there’s no reason for you not to move back. You can have your old room back,” she said with a smile. “I haven’t changed anything and it’s still exactly the way it was when you moved out.”
“I would love to move in again, honey, but frankly I’m too old and too tired to go through that whole thing again,” he said, though he didn’t look at her when he said it, which made me think there was something else going on here.
“But… are you happy here, Dad? Happier than when you were living with me?”