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all.

 
     
     
     
     
    NINE
     
     
     
    Ross stuck his head around the
open doorway and grinned. “How are my two favorite girls doing tonight?”
    I looked up from my laptop and shook my head. Having
been married to the same man for more than forty years, I knew when he wanted
something.
    “Don’t try and sweet talk us, buster, I’m onto your
tricks. Have you finished cleaning up the kitchen?”
    He grinned. “All done.”
    With a body by Pillsbury, poured into tight jeans, and
a baseball hat pulled low on his head, he was about three hundred pounds of
exaggeration, and twenty pounds of muscle. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got nothing
against a man wearing a good hat; with Ross it served as a neon sign indicating
his intentions.
    I looked at him over the top of my glasses and said,
“What about the washing?”
    “I just put the last load into the machine, so if you
can take it out when it’s finished and pop it into the dryer, I’ll put it away
when I get back.” He hitched his jeans up over his truck-tire midriff and
backed closer to the door.
    “I haven’t got time. You’ll have to do it when you get
home. And I noticed the ironing is piling up. When were you planning to take
care of that?”
    “I plan to get it done tomorrow while you girls are
off playing.”
    I saw the regret bloom across his face as soon as the
words were out of his mouth. Ross started back-peddling in an effort to make
amends.
    “Sorry, Hon I didn’t mean that the way it sounded,” he
said looking suitably contrite.
    “Don’t worry about it, Ross I know you didn’t mean
anything by it,” Rosie said.
    “So, where are you off to now?” I asked him.
    “To see a guy about a bike,” he answered, grinning.
    “I didn’t ask who, I asked where?”
    “Oops, sorry love. San Anselmo, on Sir Francis Drake
Drive.”
    “If you’re going out you can call into Safeway on your
way home. The shopping list is on the fridge.”
    He looked at my sister and smiled. “Anything special I
can get for you, Hon?”
    Rosie reached over and patted me on the arm. “I’ve got
everything I want, right here,” she said and held up a large bag.
    “We called into Safeway on our way home and picked up
some chocolates and pastries,” I said.
    “I baked a fresh batch of
cookies this morning in case you girls got a fit of the munchies, so you should
be well covered. If there’s nothing else, I’ll be off,” he said and headed for
the door.
    “Haven’t you forgotten something?” I called after him.
    Ross turned around. “Umm... No... I don’t think so. I
was just going to get the shopping list from the kitchen.”
    My eyebrows arched in a
McDonald’s moment as I looked at him over the top of my glasses, my finger
beating out a rhythm on my cheek.
    Suddenly recognition bloomed across his face. “Sorry,
love,” he said as he bent down and kissed me on the cheek and then kissed Rosie
on the top of the head.
    As I listened to the sound of his footsteps retreating
down the hallway, I looked over at Rosie and shook my head.
    “I know it’s not his fault but sometimes my patience
is sorely tested.”
    “Things could be worse, you know, Bubbie.”
    “How do you figure that?”
    “He could have forgotten to take the shopping list
with him.”
    I jumped off the bed and raced to the kitchen. I
looked at the refrigerator door where I’d put the shopping list earlier, and
breathed a sigh of relief.
    “Don’t scare me like that,” I yelled down the hallway.
“Girl could have a heart attack from the shock.”
    I collapsed against the refrigerator door and waited
for my heart to stop pounding.
     
    *****
     
    It was after twelve when Nicola heard the car pull
into the driveway. She closed the book and placed it on the coffee table. As
she walked down the hallway the front door opened and Danny wandered in, softly
humming to himself.
    “Hi there,” he said as he dropped the keys on the
table.
    “Hi, yourself.”
    Danny glanced at his watch.