Assault and Batter (3 page)

“Nothing here is free, but nobody’s sitting at that booth,” she said.

“Good enough,” I answered. “Jude came by my shop this morning.”

Gabby didn’t answer, unless you counted her disinterested shrug as one. Okay, I didn’t need to talk about her nephew if she didn’t. I told Emily, “Why don’t you sit down. I’ll be right back.” I grabbed a large black tub used for collecting dirty dishes and started cleaning off our table. I was still searching for a rag to wipe it down when Trish showed up.

“You don’t have to do that, Suzanne.”

“I don’t mind,” I said as she took the tub from me.

“Just for that, you get a ten percent employee discount today,” Trish said with a smile.

Jack Jefferson said, “I refilled my tea glass. Do I get one, too?”

“Jack, I should charge you more,” she said with a smile.

“Why?”

“Because I can,” she replied with a grin. After Trish wiped the table down, I took a seat across from Emily.

“Now, I’ll be honest with you. I don’t even know where to get started,” I said.

“It won’t be that bad, I promise. Mom’s taking care of the venue and the food afterwards, Max reserved the Senior Center stage for the venue, and he’s having the rehearsal dinner catered. You’re doing the wedding donuts, so really, all that leaves are a few details here and there. It’ll be over in a snap.”

“Are you sure about having donuts served at your wedding?” I asked her. “Goodness knows that I love them myself, but it’s kind of unconventional, wouldn’t you say?”

“We passed that exit a long time ago when you agreed to be my maid of honor,” Emily said with a smile. “Not many women would agree to serve such a vital role at their ex’s wedding.”

“What can I say? It’s taken me some time, but Max and I have come a long way since the bad old days.”

“I’m in awe of that, if you want to know the truth,” Emily said.

“Don’t give me too much credit,” I said with a slight grin. “I’m human enough, and if you don’t believe me, just ask Jake.”

“He’s coming to the wedding too, of course,” Emily said.

“If he can get away,” I replied, intentionally leaving it a bit vague. Hopefully Emily wouldn’t ask me anything else about my current boyfriend.

She must have seen something in my expression, though. “Suzanne, is everything all right?”

“It’s fine,” I said, not wanting any of her focus on me. This was Emily’s time to shine, and I was going to make sure that I didn’t do anything to spoil that. “What do your three buddies think about all of this?” I wasn’t talking about her real friends, though the three stuffed animals that had played such a vital role in her childhood were still near and dear to her. She had them perched on a shelf at her store, and we all loved to see how she was going to outfit them next.

“Spots is excited, Cow isn’t quite sure about it, and Moose is being his usual inscrutable self.”

“Are they going to attend the wedding?” I asked her.

“You bet. I’ve been working on tuxes for all three of them since Max proposed. They are all going to be quite dashing.”

“I’m certain that they will be,” I said. “Now, let’s get down to the details.”

Trish came by and we both ordered lunch, but it didn’t even break our rhythm. By the time we were ready to leave, we’d ironed everything out. Besides the donut wedding treats, I was in charge of getting the reverend to agree to perform the ceremony, and I had the added dubious task of keeping Peter from drinking too much at the rehearsal dinner and the reception the next day. How I was going to do that was anybody’s clue.

I insisted on treating Emily to lunch, and sure enough, Trish gave me the employee discount. “You’re crazy. You know that, don’t you?” I asked her with a grin.

“I know good help when I see it. Anytime you want to moonlight, come to me.”

“I might have to take you up on that someday,” I replied.

“You don’t even have to ask,” Trish said.

Emily and I were standing outside when Max rushed up to us.

“Hello, darling,” Emily said, and her face truly did light up when she saw him.

Max’s expression was more one of concern. “Hi, Em. Have you seen Peter, by any chance?”

“No, I haven’t,” Emily said.

“I have,” I piped up. “He was at the donut shop a little before eleven.”

“Then it appears that you were the last person to see him,” Max said. “I’m getting worried about him. It’s not like him to just disappear, and to top things off, I just heard that Jude was back in town.”

“He came by the shop, too,” I said.

“What did he want?” Emily asked me. She was clearly upset learning that he’d resurfaced.

“He wouldn’t say.” I turned to Max. “Why are you so concerned about Peter’s whereabouts?”

“We were supposed to get together twenty minutes ago, but he never showed up. He promised me that he wouldn’t pull any stunts this week, and now he misses our first rendezvous time.”

Emily touched his shoulder lightly. “Don’t worry, dear. I’m sure that he’ll turn up soon.”

“I hope so,” Max said. “I’d hate for anything to ruin our wedding.”

She put her arms on his shoulders and looked straight into his eyes. “It won’t. Nothing will. Everything is going to be perfect.”

Max appeared to take great comfort in that, and I was amazed by the changes that had taken place in him over the past six months. He’d grown up a great deal, and he and Emily were clearly in love.

I just hoped that Emily was right, and that nothing would ruin the start of their new life together.

After Max and Emily took off in search of Peter, I decided that I had time to go home and take a shower before Jake showed up. His tone of voice when we’d spoken earlier on the phone had been dire, but I couldn’t let it get to me yet. If the news were indeed bad, I’d deal with it when I heard it, but I was going to do my best not to borrow trouble in the meantime. If I was lucky, Momma would be out taking care of one of her many businesses and I wouldn’t have to tell her what had happened. It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy talking to her, but a part of me felt that if I put my fears into words, they had a better chance of happening. I knew that was ridiculous on the face of it, but that still didn’t make it any easier.

“Hello, Suzanne,” Momma said as I walked into the living room of the small cottage we shared on the edge of the park.

“Where’s your car?” I asked her as I shut the door behind me. When I’d driven up in my Jeep, I had felt a wave of relief sweep over me to find the driveway empty.

And yet here she was.

“It’s in the shop,” she said. “The tow truck driver was kind enough to run me home when I had troubles with it. Wasn’t that sweet of him?”

“He must be a real doll,” I said. “Aren’t you going to need your car, though?”

“I’ll have it back in an hour. I’ve been promised,” she said. After carefully studying me, Momma asked softly, “Suzanne, are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be? Emily and Max are getting married in three days, and I’m their maid of honor.” I didn’t want to talk about Jake, so what better way to distract my mother than by bringing up the other jarring news about my life?

“You actually agreed to that?” Momma asked. “What were you thinking?”

“That I couldn’t refuse a friend’s request,” I said simply enough. “I honestly believe that Max has changed, and it was important to Emily that I do this, so I agreed.”

Momma nodded, and then she added a slight grin. “Suzanne, you have to admit, it is a bit unconventional.”

“When have we ever been conventional?” I asked, matching her smile with one of my own.

“That’s a fair point. I just can’t believe you’d take this on.”

“Hold on. It gets better. I’m also making a donut display for the wedding. They’ve decided to have my treats instead of a wedding cake.”

“I can’t disagree with that,” she said. Though she was a diminutive woman in size, my mother more than made up for it with the sheer size of her personality. “Are her little stuffed friends going to be in the wedding party?”

“I’m pretty sure that she wouldn’t get married without them,” I said. “She’s going to make tuxedos for all three of them.”

Momma’s grin got even bigger. “I can’t wait to see that. It’s almost worth the cost of admission in and of itself. I wonder what Max will think about that?”

“He loves Emily, and that means that he’s bought into the idea from the start that Cow, Spots, and Moose are as real and as animated as we are.”

“It sounds as though he really has changed,” Momma said.

“I never would have pled his case to Emily in the first place if I hadn’t believed it,” I said.

“So, once again, no good deed goes unpunished. As a reward for your kindness, you’ll have the privilege of walking down the aisle just ahead of Emily, and Max will see your face just before he sees his betrothed. What does Jake think about all of this?”

“As a matter of fact, I haven’t told him yet,” I said, averting my gaze.

“Don’t you think it’s something that he’ll want to know?” she asked. I knew that slightly scolding tone of voice too well.

“This all just happened,” I said. “Jake’s on his way here, and if I get the opportunity to bring it up, I will, but I have a hunch that he’s got something more serious on his mind. He told me that we needed to talk.” As soon as I said the last bit, I wanted to clamp my jaws shut, but it was too late. I’d let my frustration with Jake’s mystery cloud my ability to watch what I said around my mother.

“That doesn’t sound too promising,” Momma said. “What do you think he wants to talk about?”

“I think he might be dumping me,” I said, shocking myself even more than Momma. Why in the world was I still talking?

“He knows better than to throw you back,” Momma said dismissively. “You are a jewel of a woman, and he’d be lucky to have you.”

“But what if he doesn’t want me anymore?” I asked. I was on the edge of tears, but I fought them with everything I had. I knew that if I started crying, Momma would not be far behind, and then we’d both be a mess. If my worst fears were realized, there would be plenty of time for tears later.

“Have you considered the other possibility?” she asked.

“What’s that?”

“What if he’s about to propose?” she asked. “You said he sounded serious. It might be something good instead of bad.”

“I don’t think so,” I said.

“But you don’t know, do you?”

“No, but I’ve got a pretty good idea,” I said.

“Well, there’s nothing you can do until he gets here. I’ll make myself scarce even if I have to walk over to the Boxcar. That way, I’ll be close by if you need me.”

“You don’t have to leave the cottage on my account,” I said, though it was my most fervent wish at the moment.

“You are my daughter, and I love you,” she said simply as she stood and kissed my forehead. “I know you love your shower, but why don’t you take some time for yourself and have a nice long soak in the tub, instead? It will do wonders for you; I guarantee it.”

“Maybe I will,” I said. I kissed her cheek and hugged her. “Thanks for being here for me.”

“There’s nowhere else that I’d rather be,” she said. “You smell just like donuts; you know that, don’t you?”

“It’s hard not to after making them and then serving them all morning,” I said as I started to pull away.

She wouldn’t let me, though. “I wasn’t complaining,” she said. “It’s really rather quite nice. They should make a fragrance of it.”

“Grace’s cosmetics company tried that,” I said. “We both got nice little checks for the idea, but nothing ever came of it.”

“It’s just as well,” Momma said as she released me. “The men would never leave you alone.”

“I have a feeling that they’d find a way,” I said. “I’m going to go take that bath now, if you don’t mind.”

“You do that, and I’ll walk over to the diner.”

“You don’t have to leave right now,” I said as I glanced at the clock. “You’ve got at least an hour still.”

“I’d rather be safe than sorry,” she said. “Good luck, and call me after he leaves, no matter what.”

“I will,” I said. “I promise.”

After Momma was gone, I drew a bath, something I rarely did these days. As the tub filled, I turned the ringer off my cellphone, put it in my bedroom to charge, and then I shut the door. I wouldn’t be able to hear the house landline phone from in there, either.

All I needed at the moment was a little quiet time just for me.

I don’t know how it happened, but I must have dozed off in the tub, because when I woke up with a start, I realized that it was past my allotted hour to soak. The water was cold, and I had a stiff neck; so much for my relaxing bath. Any good that it had done was long gone. I drained the water, showered off quickly, and then dried off, put on my robe, and walked into my bedroom.

My cellphone had a message stored on it. Had Jake called me while I’d been asleep? I entered my code and listened to my message. Sure enough, his voice came on the line. “Hey, it’s me. I’ve been called back to the office for an important meeting with my boss. It looks as though I won’t be able to make it tonight after all. Don’t try to call; I’m turning my ringer off. It’s pointless anyway, as this sounds as though it’s going to be a late night, and don’t forget, you have to get up early tomorrow morning. We’ll talk as soon as we can, but I can’t say right now when exactly that will be. Sorry about the drama and confusion. I’ll explain it all the next time we talk. Bye. Oh, love ya. Bye again.”

The love he’d sent my way had been cooler than the bathwater when I’d climbed out of the tub. It meant either one of two things; he was already preoccupied with another case, or his feelings for me were beginning to cool as well. I didn’t know which one it might be, and I had no way of finding out now, either.

I was still staring at my phone when it rang. I searched the caller ID, but unfortunately, it was the imminent bride and not my boyfriend.

Trying my best to sound chipper, I said, “Hey, Emily. Any sign of the missing best man yet?”

“He showed up three minutes ago,” Emily said. “He’s got a black eye, and the knuckles on his right hand are bruised. I don’t know what happened, but Max is pushing him for the details right now.”