Read Online Much Ado About Muffin by Victoria Hamilton - Free Book Online

the room, hopping from place to place, leaving dark pellets behind. I reminded myself to never walk barefoot in her home.
    I apologized for having been gone so long and seeming so distant on the phone. “Shilo, you deserved better. You
all
deserved better. I was selfish, caught up in my own needs; I’m so sorry.”
    She hugged me again and patted my shoulder, her eyes shining with tears. “I know, Merry, I know. We—Pish and I—did understand, but it hurt.”
    â€œAm I forgiven?”
    She nodded. Shilo and Pish both knew my past, and understood that when I left to go to Maria’s deathbed, I hadn’t much hope of a true reconciliation. “But Maria had changed a lot over the years,” I said. “She regretted how she had ostracized me. I now get that part of that was Miguel’s responsibility. He should have been willing to stand up to his mother for my sake; it would have made a difference. I felt guilty about feeling that way, but it was a legitimate response that I had been too afraid of losing Miguel to express.”
    â€œSo what about Virgil?” she asked.
    I sighed. “I need to apologize properly to him, and then I think we have some talking to do.” I left it at that. “How about you and Jack? You doing okay?” I was looking for a way to open up a conversation about the people who were worried about her. So far she had been nothing but cheerful, but it did feel like there was something just under the surface.
    And there it was: something
was
wrong. She didn’t meet my eyes, as she tried to smile. Examining her face even as she looked away, I noticed that she was pale and seemed even thinner than usual. “Are you okay, Shilo? Is anything wrong?”
    She shook her head. “No way. Jack adores me, Magic is alive, and I’m fine! What could be wrong?”
    Despite her jaunty attitude, my bull-crap alarm was going off. She was agitated, though, and I didn’t want to make our first get-together in months into an uncomfortable inquisition. I let it go for the moment. “So Rusty has his business going again! I’m so happy. And you and Jack hired them to do some of the work?”
    â€œWe’ve only been in here for a couple of weeks, and Rusty’s guys only started working yesterday.” She jumped up to move Magic away from an extension cord, then unplugged it and wound it up. “They’re going to have the veranda restructured by next week, then they’re going to paint the whole house for us. I can do a lot of the interior stuff, and Jack is handy, but there’s so much to do we need help.”
    â€œThe one guy, Dewayne, seems like a nice dude.”
    Her eyes sparkled, and she plunked down in the chair across from me. “You’ll never guess who he is.”
    â€œTell me!”
    â€œHe’s Minnie Urquhart’s new boyfriend! They met on a dating website, and he moved here to be closer to her!”
    â€œHoly crap, really?”
    â€œJack and I came out to the castle to talk to Pish, but he wasn’t there. When we told Roma about Dewayne and Pete helping us on the house, she said she’d seen Dewayne around. I guess he was at the post office talking to Minnie, and she figured out their relationship. As normal as he looked, Roma said, there must be something seriously wrong with him to go out with Minnie.” Her smile faltered. “And then she said some rude things about Minnie’s size and her name and her age. It was kind of awful.”
    â€œAnd Pish wasn’t there to hear it. That’s how she operates. She knows Pish doesn’t like cattiness, so she never says stuff when he might hear and see her for what she really is.”
    â€œHe may be catching on to her ways, though,” she said with a sly smile. “I take it Pish hasn’t told you about some of Roma’s exploits around town? She’s got half of Autumn Vale up in arms at her.”
    I