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

to get out of here.
    “Excuse me.” She cleared her throat. “Do you think I could see the room?”
    “She’s staying?” Chuck looked confused.
    “She’s staying.” Edna set her coffee cup in the sink, moved to the door, eyes straight ahead. “For two months.”
    “Good. Good. Now Tracy won’t be able to run home to Mama the next time she has a fight with Ted.” He raised his voice as Edna headed for the door. “She’ll have to stay home and work it out!”
    “Old fuddy-duddy,” Edna muttered under her breath. “Come on.”
    Alex followed her up the narrow staircase. Uncle Walter and Aunt Helen had never raised their voices in front of her. Their tones were always quiet and respectful. Passionless. No emotions thrumming at the surface, threatening to explode in anger… or joy, not when it came to each other. Even when Aunt Helen died, Uncle Walter didn’t cry, didn’t grow hoarse with grief when he talked about his dead wife. He referred to her. My wife loved to play bridge. My wife was an excellent golfer. My wife was President of the Garden Club . My wife, my wife, my wife, rarely Helen. And never anything as personal as I miss Helen. I miss her so much some days I wake up and see her side of the bed is empty and just for a moment, I think she’s already downstairs, reading the paper, having her first cup of coffee. Of course, he never said that. How could he? He and Aunt Helen hadn’t shared the same room, let alone the same bed.
    “Chuck and I finished this place off for Tracy when she graduated from high school.” A wooden sign with the name TRACY painted in pink hung from the door. “She still comes here sometimes”—Edna turned the knob—“mostly when she and Ted have a little disagreement, you know, married kind of stuff, nothing serious.”
    No, Alex didn’t know. The one and only disagreement she and Eric ever had ended in divorce.
    “They’re getting along fine now.” Edna opened the door, stepped inside. “I just talked to her this morning.”
    As long as she gets along for the next two months. Alex scanned the living room. Pink. Very pink.
    Edna pushed back a pink ruffled curtain, opened a window. “She just lives across town. I’m sure you’ll meet her.”
    “That would be nice.” Alex was too caught up with the room to say anything else. Good God, Edna’s daughter had actually lived in this place? There was a pale pink sofa pushed against the wall, six hot pink pillows—three round, three square—lining the back of it, a pink coffee table, pink lampshade, pink picture frames displaying pink carnations, petunias and roses, a pink carpet. Pink carpet? Alex blinked. Yes, a pink carpet. Even a pink trash can tucked next to a pink rocking chair.
    “Isn’t this room just precious?” Edna beamed. “Tracy did it all herself, wanted to make sure everything matched.”
    “Wow.” It matched all right.
    “She loves pink.” Edna pulled an afghan—pink of course—off the back of the rocker, refolded it, put it back.
    “I guess she does.” Was Tracy pink too? Pink hair, pink makeup, pink clothes?
    “You’ve got to see the bedroom. It’s even better than this.” Edna motioned for Alex to follow. Eight steps forward and three to the left they entered Tracy’s bedroom. It was covered in pink, starting from the ceiling, stretching to the rose wallpaper, wrapping itself around the teddy bear sitting in the middle of the satin bedspread and ending with three ceramic vases of silk roses tucked in the corner.
    Edna leaned toward Alex, lowered her voice as though there was another person in the room. “I think she has a real knack for decorating, don’t you?”
    “Hmm. She certainly knows how to carry a color theme.” To an extreme . Alex spotted the pink-knitted Kleenex box on the nightstand next to the pink alarm clock. At least at night she wouldn’t be able to see anything but black, thank goodness. “I’d like to pay you by the week if that’s all right with