For Love and Family by Victoria Pade

Author:Victoria Pade
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance, Fiction, Contemporary, General
ISBN: 9781426860980
Publisher: Harlequin Enterprises
Published: 2010-07-01T12:49:49.190000+00:00

Six

“Yoo-hoo! It’s me!”

“Come on in. I’m in the kitchen,” Terese called when the front door opened without a prior knock or ring of the doorbell and Carla announced herself.

It was just before dinnertime on Thursday evening—the time Carla usually picked up Willy—so Terese had been expecting her.

Carla didn’t respond but Terese assumed that she’d been heard because the front door closed and a moment later Carla pushed through the swinging door to join her.

“Willy is out in the barn with Hunter and Johnny,” Terese said in greeting. “They’re carving pumpkins but they’ll be in any minute.”

Carla nodded at that information but her interest seemed more on the platter of chicken Terese had set in the center of the table before returning to the stove to clean the mess she’d made.

“Oh boy, that smell just gave me déjà vu,” Carla said as she headed for the table.

“Fried chicken?” Terese asked. It had been Johnny’s request for the meal she’d agreed to prepare to prove to Hunter that she honestly could cook.

“Fried chicken here,” Carla qualified. “Funny how a smell can just whisk you back in time, isn’t it?”

“To something good, I hope.”

“To something bittersweet now that Margee is gone. A picnic Willy and I and Hunter and Johnny and Margee went on the summer before she died. Margee fried chicken for it and that was what the house smelled like when we got here.”

“Hunter told me how close you all were,” Terese said.

She couldn’t help being curious about Hunter’s late wife. The fact that Carla had brought her up and there was no one else around seemed as if this might be Terese’s chance to do a little fishing.

Carla didn’t seem opposed to it. “Margee and I were best friends,” she said. “Hunter and Willy were best friends and worked together. So, yes, it just came naturally that the four of us would be about as close as any four people can be without being related by blood.”

Carla sat at the table then and began to dig through her purse in search of something.

“Willy said you were having dinner tonight with your parents so you couldn’t stay,” Terese said, concealing the fact that she hadn’t been sorry not to have the company for the meal. “But can I get you something to drink while you wait for him?”

“No, thanks,” Carla said. Then she pulled her wallet out of her purse, opened it and went through the clear plastic sleeves that held credit cards and what appeared to be a few photographs.

Carla took out one of the pictures, looked fondly at it herself and then handed it to Terese. “I think this was taken on that same picnic.”

Terese was finished cleaning the stove and went to the table to accept the photo, eager to see it. “I wondered what Hunter’s wife looked like. There aren’t any pictures of her around the house.”

“That was the way Margee wanted it. She was a model, you know.”

“No, I didn’t know.”

“Mostly catalog work. But she always

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