Read Online The Money Bird (An Animals in Focus Mystery) by Sheila Webster Boneham - Free Book Online Page A

iridescent purple-leafed Persian shield. The colors of August. At this distance it seemed that some of the flowers, orange and yellow and indefinite dark, took flight from time to time. Butterflies.
    Despite the occasional twinge when I forgot myself and shifted too far to the left, I began to settle into a delicious calm. Jay sprawled on his side at my feet, eyes squinty with pleasure and mouth open to accommodate his soft panting. I pushed my concerns about blood-soaked bags as far back in my thoughts as I could and chitchatted with the bus boy as he replaced my tablecloth. Then male voices made me look at three men being seated two tables away. The one with his back to me caught my eye. I thought later how ironic it was that I should recognize him from that angle, but at the time I just wondered how I might escape without coming face to face with Dr. Neil Young.
    fifteen

    I did not escape. One of Neil’s companions smiled at Jay and the other two turned to look, and the next thing I knew Dr. Neil Young was standing in front of me with a grin on his face. Not just a grin, but the grin, the one that made me and my friends in high school all giggly and stupid. It was still slightly lopsided, which gave his face just the touch of imperfection it needed.
    “Janet MacPhail.” He held out his hand.
    I took it. “Neil Young.”
    He laid his left hand over mine and I glanced down. No ring. I looked back at his face and smiled, and we stood that way for a second or two longer than seemed comfortable. I extracted my hand and said, “It’s been a long time.” He didn’t react, so I held out some hope that he hadn’t known whose posterior he was embroidering the day before.
    “How have you been, Janet?”
    Acutely conscious of looking frumpy, especially as I took in the sheen of his gray suit jacket and the ice-blue tie that exactly matched his eyes. He wore a lapel pin that seemed to be a cross of some sort, but it was too small to see from where I stood and I wasn’t about to lean in closer.
    Right on cue, but with no trace of sarcasm that I could detect, Neil said, “You look terrific.” He glanced at Jay, who had stopped panting and seemed to be sizing up the good doctor. “Nice looking dog.”
    “Thanks.” I noted that he made no move to pet him.
    He looked at me again. “Really, you do. It’s great to see you.” He glanced at his friends, then fished a card from his pocket and laid it in front of me. “Look, I’m sorry, but I really need to get back to them. Business. But, well, I’d love to see you when I have more time.”
    I’m embarrassed to say it, but the teeny bopper inside me felt a little giddy at the thought of Neil the Hunk wanting to talk to me. Grownup Janet whispered Really? You’re giving me your number, not asking for mine? I also felt a tad guilty. Then again, Tom Saunders didn’t have dibs on my time, or me for that matter. My brain was trying to parse the questions dancing through it when I realized Neil was still there, still talking to me, and was pointing a pen at me. “If you write your number down, I’ll call you. I mean, if that’s okay?”
    “Oh.” I took the pen. “Sure, why not?”
    He slipped the card into his shirt pocket and nodded at me. “Soon.”
    I paid my bill, picked up Jay’s leash, and skedaddled as quickly as possible. As Jay and I retraced our route to the car, I wondered how it’s possible not to lay eyes on someone for thirty-some years and then run into him twice in two days. I also wondered aloud, “What the hell am I doing?” Jay bounced up to my chin level a couple of times and wriggled his rear end, which I assume meant, “Having fun, Janet! We’re having fun!”
    Right. “Okay, calm down. He probably won’t call anyway. He never did in high school.”
    Half an hour later we pulled into my driveway. There was some thing swinging from the front doorknob, so I put the car in the ga rage, refreshed Jay’s water, and opened the front door to a