Read Online Simple Riches by Mary Campisi - Free Book Online Page A

right,” she said. It had all been said so many times before that it sounded true. “I’ve been traveling around visiting small towns, trying to get the feel of them, find out what makes people want to live there, stay there, sometimes from generation to generation.” This part was true.
    “That’s Restalline, all right.” Chuck rubbed his jaw, nodded. “We got a lot of families like that. Androvich’s for one. Dr. Nick was the only one who left, but he came back.”
    Edna made the sign of the cross. “Thank God for that.” She turned to Alex. “He’s the one who saved Chuck’s life.”
    “Damn right he did. Best thing that ever happened to the town was when he came back.”
    Androvich? Alex listened with heightened interest. Androvich was the name of the people who owned the lumber business and a substantial amount of land in the town. And there was a doctor? He’d obviously gone away to school, lived in or near a city, maybe come back more out of duty than desire. She needed to meet him, talk to him, maybe work through him to persuade the rest of the family they could cash out of Restalline, buy a condo in the suburbs, drive a Volvo. But he’d come back? Why?
    “The… Androvich’s is it? They’ve been around a long time?”
    “They practically started the town,” Chuck said, moving across the room to take the cup Edna held out to him. He took a drink. “Ahhh…perfect.”
    “She wants to know about Nick Senior and Stella,” Edna said, like a child ready to blurt out information her parents don’t know.
    Chuck Lubovich held up a hand to still his wife, took another sip of coffee. “Restalline was nothing but a clump of dirt until the Androvich’s came here with their saws and buckets of sweat. They started with less than a hundred acres… worked from dawn to dusk, cutting, hauling, selling, buying more land, bit by bit.” He scratched the back of his head. “That’s what brought old man Kraziak here.”
    “And the furniture company where Chuck worked since the day he came home from the service.” Edna beamed, pleased with her little offering.
    “Kraziak started a lumber processing factory, took all the Androvich lumber and treated it, turned it into boards and the like, then shipped it all over the coast. Anybody who wanted a job had one.”
    Edna nodded. “They’re good people, the Kraziak’s. Good people.” Her voice dipped. She made the sign of the cross. “Why such a tragedy should happen to good people like that—”
    “Edna!”
    She shrugged, pursed her red lips. “It is a tragedy, Chuck. And I think Dr. Nick still blames himself for it.”
    “It’s not our business.” He gave his wife a look that told her the discussion was closed.
    But Edna Lubovich either didn’t notice or didn’t care. “Pshaw! Business. We’ve known him since he was a boy. He deserves to be happy.”
    “Just because he doesn’t bring a girl to Sunday dinner, doesn’t mean he isn’t happy,” Chuck said, an edge to his voice, “or that there isn’t a girl waiting at home for him. Trust me.”
    “Don’t you dare talk that way about Dr. Nick.” Edna shook a finger at him. “He saved your life.”
    “And I’m trying to save his from a busybody senior citizen who’s trying to butt into his business.”
    “Hmmmph.”
    “Excuse me.” As much as Alex wanted to find out about the Kraziak’s tragedy and Dr. Nick’s guilt, she didn’t want to be embroiled in the Lubovich’s marital spat. Confrontation made her uncomfortable. No, that wasn’t quite true, it wasn’t the confrontation itself that made her uncomfortable, it was all of the emotions tied up in them, tight, coiled, choking out rational thought. That’s what made her fidget, avoid if possible, run away if necessary . Like right now, now was the perfect time to make an escape and with what better reason than to tell the Lubovich’s that she’d like to see her new apartment? Maybe that would sidetrack them long enough for her