6 A Cup of Jo by Sandra Balzo

Author:Sandra Balzo [Balzo, Sandra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Cozy Mystery
ISBN: 9780727879691
Google: hV1tygAACAAJ
Goodreads: 7846763
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2010-09-30T14:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

At the mention of Jake's name, I swung around to see Kate gesturing wildly for her assistant to turn his camera on me.

Jerome, bless him, was still tight on Kate, hopefully focused close enough now to count enlarged skin pores.

As for me, I took off for our kitchen, through its store room and into the office beyond. There, I pushed the button lock on the door and swung it closed, none too quietly.

Collapsing into our office chair, I folded my arms on its desk and rested my chin on top of them, a la nap time in kindergarten.

I felt about as lost, too. (Kindergarten had been a tough year for me. All that paste. The orange construction paper. And those crayons? Brrr.)

I lifted my face. I could see the back parking lot through the window above the desk. There had to be twenty or thirty cars in it.

I counted them, anyway. Just as I reached the end of the second row, another vehicle pulled in and parked in the first. I started over.

'What, you're counting cars now?'

I jumped and the chair swiveled. 'How'd you get in? I locked—'

Sarah punched in the lock button on the knob and closed the door. The button popped back out. 'Gotta secure this baby after you close the door.'

'Oh.' I resumed my position and the parallel contemplation of the parking lot. The driver's door of the new entry, a white Lexus, was standing open. Nobody had emerged so far as I could tell.

'Kate still here?' I asked.

'I can't heeear you,' Sarah sing-songed. 'If you have something to say, sit up straight.'

Geez. I was back in kindergarten. But, as in that class, I did as I was told.

'Now repeat what you said,' Miss Sarah demanded.

Through clenched teeth: 'I asked if Kate was still in the store.'

'Nah,' Sarah said, uncoiling into the side chair. 'I kicked her tight ass out.'

Great. 'Jerome capture the moment on tape?'

'Sadly, no.' Sarah shrugged. 'Jerome was too busy chatting up Amy. And did Katie Cougar ever love that.'

I still couldn't picture Kate with Jerome. But I'd been naive about so many people.

'What's Anita Hampton doing here?' Sarah asked, indicating the woman who had finally climbed out of the Lexus. Anita was on her cellphone. 'Maybe she has my award.'

'Maybe she's just stopping for coffee.' I changed the subject to something more important. My life. 'Pavlik's in trouble.'

'Pavlik's a sleaze.' Sarah was watching Anita disappear around the corner. 'He was cheating on you, you forget?'

Suddenly, I found myself defending him. 'To be honest, he and I never talked about being exclusive. I guess I just figured Pavlik wasn't dating anyone else, because I wasn't.'

'"Dating"?' Sarah repeated. 'Quaint euphemism for committing adultery with another man's wife.'

'This is Brookhills,' I said. 'We survive on our quaint euphemisms.'

'Sooo?' Sarah, leadingly.

'Sooo . . .' I was trying to follow. 'We're deluding ourselves. Living in Peyton Place while pretending it's Sunnybrook Farm.'

'No, you idiot. I meant, sooo did you see Pavlik last night and confront him with

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