Read Online Dead Certain by Mariah Stewart - Free Book Online

were deep in conversation over their beers.
    “And I told him, look, I don’t need this shit. I have too much going for me—”
    “Damn right, you do.”
    “—to be putting up with this kind of shit. I mean, do I look like I need the hassle?”
    “You know you don’t.” The woman shook her head vigorously. “You got it all going on, Dolores. You got a job—shit, you got your own salon. Half of it, anyway. You got a car, you got your own house. . . . You don’t need nobody leeching offa you.”
    “That’s what I told him.” Dolores tossed her bleached blond hair over her shoulders and took a long and righteous drag off her cigarette. “So that is that. I have washed my hands of Mr. Doherty. Done.” She slid the palm of one hand over the other to show she was, in fact, done.
    “Frankie, give Dolores another beer on me,” her companion called to the bartender.
    “You got it, Connie,” Frankie acknowledged as he poured Vince’s beer from the tap and set it before him.
    Vince sipped at his beer and pretended to watch the football game on the TV to his right at the end of the bar. The first Thursday night game of the new season had just begun. The ladies swung on their stools to watch the kickoff.
    “Don’t it seem like football starts earlier every year?” Connie asked no one in particular.
    “That’s a fact.” Vince nodded without turning around.
    “I like football,” Dolores was saying. “Used to watch it with my dad and my brother when I was a kid. God rest their souls.”
    “To be sure.” Connie nodded solemnly and made the sign of the cross in concert with her companion.
    “Who do you like this year?” Vince asked the bartender, still careful not to pay too much attention to the ladies.
    “Dunno. Too early to tell.” Frankie stared at the screen for a moment, then turned to Vince. “ ‘Nother beer?”
    “Sure. And one for the ladies, too.”
    “Aw, you don’t have to. . . .” Dolores protested.
    “Aw, thanks, that’s so nice.”
    “Hey, we’re gonna watch the game together, we have to toast the start of the new season, right?” He turned to them now for the first time and smiled his easiest smile.
    “Right. To the new season.” Connie lifted her glass and leaned forward just slightly to get a better look at Vince.
    “To the season.” Dolores did likewise. “To the NFL.”
    “Long may she wave,” Connie giggled. “And long live those spandex pants.”
    “Shhhh,” Dolores whispered to her.
    “Hey . . . hey, what’s your name?” Connie called down to Vince.
    “Vinnie. Vinnie Daniels.”
    “Hey, Vinnie, you think those guys’ pants are made from spandex?”
    “Not sure what they’re made from.” Vince pretended to be amused.
    “You hush, Connie. He’s gonna get the wrong idea about you.”
    “What, that I’m interested in those big thighs and those big butts and those big—”
    “Connie!” Dolores slapped a hand over her friend’s mouth. “That’s enough.”
    Red-faced, Dolores turned to him. “You have to excuse her, Vinnie. She gets a little mouthy when she drinks beer on an empty stomach.”
    “Then let’s get some sandwiches out here.” Vince signaled the bartender. “Your sign out front says you got the best burgers in town. Let’s have a few of them while we watch the game.”
    He turned back to the two women. “My treat, ladies. To celebrate my first day in Carleton.”
    “Oh, you’re new in town?” Dolores asked.
    “Just arrived this afternoon.”
    “Where you from?”
    He paused. Where was he from?
    “Delaware.” He had no idea where that came from but it sounded okay.
    “Oh, where? My sister lives in Delaware. At the air force base in Dover,” Connie said.
    He avoided the question. “She in the air force?”
    “No, her husband is. They been there for two years now. I should get down there one of these days for a visit.”
    “Hey, look at that! A touchdown already.” Vince raised his glass. “Here’s to the first touchdown