Read Online Off Season by Philip R. Craig - Free Book Online Page B

tea,” I said.
    â€œSit. Well?”
    â€œNothing compared to your troubles with Nash Cortez.”
    â€œSomeday he’s going to do the wrong thing to the wrong person. I just hope I’m there when it happens!” Then she sighed. Just what is that man up to? Why does he do these foolish things?”
    â€œMaybe old Nash is just bored. Maybe being a bachelor is catching up with him.”
    â€œMaybe it’s catching up with you.”
    â€œI want it to end with me.”
    She leaned back, not displeased. Like most women, even the deliberately single ones, she basically thought that all decent men, and most of the others, should be married. There were only a few men so rotten that they didn’t deserve to be married. I figured that maybe Nash Cortez was one of those, in her book.
    â€œSo you’re ready to tie the knot. Good. Zee Madieras is a real catch. Smart, good-looking, sexy . . .”
    â€œOf course that’s a perfect description of me, too. Zee and I have those attributes in common, along with character, terrific personalities and the other qualities that make our nation great. That’s why we’re such a fabled match.”
    She rolled her eyes. “You don’t deserve that girl. Poor thing. Imagine having to live with such crap for the rest of her life!”
    â€œShe’s got a steady job, too. Don’t forget that. A beautiful, sexy woman with a dependable income doesn’t come along every day, you know. A man can’t let a chance like that go by when he encounters it. It wouldn’t be fair to their children.”
    â€œYou’ve explained all that to Zee, of course.”
    â€œOf course. She holds my reasoning in high esteem. As, naturally, she should. I imagine Just Ted has explained things to Angie in much the same way. Women appreciate candor.”
    Ted Just was an accountant and Angie Bettencourt’s current beau. He had once been asked his name, and having just completed a bunch of those forms where you put your last name first, had answered, “Just, Ted.” Thereafter, island humor being such as it is, he had become Just Ted.
    â€™Just Ted would never try anything like that with Angie,” said Mimi.
    â€œMaybe he should, so you can get started on some more grandchildren.”
    â€œOh, dear, I don’t know if I’m ever going to have any more grandchildren. You know, none of Angie’s gang, the girls she grew up with, have gotten married. Heather Manwaring, Helene Norton and Angie. Three bright, attractive young women, and not one of them married. It wasn’t like that in my day. I suppose I’m just not in step with modern times, but, here theyare, all pushing thirty, all with good educations and good jobs, and not one of them married.”
    â€œMaybe they’re trying to decide whether they should become nuns.”
    She laughed. “It sure isn’t that. They’ve got men in their lives, they’re just not married to them! Maybe that’s smart! They can shake the dust from their shoes when it gets too thick.”
    â€œIf dust comes with the marriage, I want it to pile up,” I said.
    Mimi approved. “That’s the way to think. But there won’t be much dust in a house with you and Zee. One time, you know, I thought that you and Angie might make it together, but I guess that was not to be.”
    â€œJust Ted is a nice guy, although I imagine he eats meat.”
    â€œCan’t leave it alone, can you? You’re as bad as Nash Cortez. Well, Angie eats meat too, just like her dad did. I’m the only one who doesn’t.”
    â€œI hear Helene Norton has a guy on the string. I haven’t seen her since she moved over to the Cape to get closer to her mom and farther from her father.”
    â€œNot that her plan worked. Carl’s over there living with her, you know.”
    â€œSo they say.”
    â€œI understand that Helene’s going