Read Online Iris Avenue by Pamela Grandstaff - Free Book Online

and although she knew him well enough to make polite conversation, and sat near him and his mother every Sunday at Mass, she didn’t know him all that well. The thought of going out on a date with anyone made Maggie shudder, but still, she had to admit Tony wasn’t a bad choice for her. He would understand about her crazy work hours and family responsibilities in a way many men would not. His mother was a fierce Gallic Amazon, but she’d always had a soft spot for Maggie. It was a pleasant diversion from thinking about Scott, with whom she was still so angry, or Gabe, whom she didn’t want to think about at all.
     
     
    Ed went to the Rose and Thorn to check in on Mandy at around ten o’clock, only to find the bar empty and her crying in Patrick’s arms. As soon as she saw Ed she pulled away and Patrick went to the back room.
    “What’s going on?” Ed asked her.
    “I’m just having a bad day,” Mandy said. “Don’t mind me.”
    “What happened?”
    “Nothin’,” she said. “I don’t wanna talk about it.”
    “Except to Patrick.”
    “When you and me talk honest it don’t always go so well.”
    “You have to be able to confide in me,” Ed said. “Or we can’t have a relationship.”
    “You do whatever you got to do,” Mandy said. “I got a right to keep some things to myself.”
    “I don’t understand what’s going on,” Ed said. “But whatever it is, I don’t want Tommy to get hurt.”
    “Everybody gets hurt,” Mandy said. “I don’t want Tommy goin’ around thinkin’ nothing bad can ever happen. That won’t prepare him for nothin’.”
    “You’re really not going to tell me what’s going on?”
    “Nope,” Mandy said. “And I guess me and Tommy will just have to live with the consequences.”
    Some customers came in and Mandy wiped her eyes with her apron.
    “Could you yell at me later?” she asked. “I need to get back to work.”
    Ed considered confronting Patrick, then decided it would only upset Mandy more. He left the bar and walked back toward home, not seeing anything that surrounded him.
    “Hey,” Scott said, and Ed realized he’d just walked past his best friend.
    “Sorry,” Ed said.
    He stopped and Scott caught up with him.
    “What’s going on?” Scott asked. “You look like you’ve got the weight of the world on your shoulders.”
    “Something’s going on with Mandy,” Ed said. “And for some reason she can tell Patrick but not me.”
    “I wouldn’t make too much of that,” Scott said. “They’ve known each other a long time. They’re more like brother and sister than anything.”
    “No,” Ed said. “She was crying and he was holding her, but it wasn’t like you’d hold your sister.”
    “What do we know?” Scott said. “Neither of us has a sister.”
    “Let me put it this way,” Ed said. “I would not have been surprised if the next thing Patrick did, if I hadn’t interrupted them, was kiss her.”
     
     
    Ava was expecting an FBI agent, so when one showed up at the back door with a suitcase, she wasn’t surprised.
    “Agent Brown,” she said politely as she opened the door to him.
    “Hi, Ava,” he said, and smiled at her.
    “I’m booked up,” she said, refusing to be defrosted by his familiar manner.
    “I have a reservation,” he said. “It’s under James Randolph.”
    “Oh,” she said. “I see.”
    He followed her through to the front parlor, where she checked in her guests. She went through the motions of checking him in without saying a word. He seemed comfortable enough with her silence, and she wasn’t willing to waste her hostess chit chat on him. She showed him to his room, the tiny single with a three quarter bath in the attic. He was so tall he could only stand up straight in the center of the room.
    “If you need anything, press zero,” she said. “I’ll pick up.”
    “Could I possibly have some coffee?” he asked.
    “Of course,” she said, reminding herself he was a paying guest. “I’ll brew