I Can't Make You Love Me - Equalizers 05 (2011) by Dixie Cash

Author:Dixie Cash
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins US
Published: 2011-04-01T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Bob stood at the living-room window sipping his second cup of morning brew and taking in the sunlit morning. Eddie had gone out to the patio attached to the back of the house to smoke while Mike cooked breakfast. Mike’s behavior this morning appeared to be no different from what it always was—absorption in the music from his earpiece and indifference to almost everything else.

Bob set his suspicion aside. Roxie’s antics meant little to him anymore. Even after what he had learned about her last night, he had slept as if he had been cradled in the arms of angels, couldn’t remember the last time he had rested so well. Amazing how things coming into focus could clear the mind.

An elderly woman coming out of the cottage across the street caught his attention. She crossed the street, coming toward the house carrying a newspaper. As she shuffled up the driveway, he walked to the front door and opened it. “Good morning,” he said cheerily.

“Morning,” she said. “You must be the new renter.”

“Well, no—”

“I’m Koweba Sanders. Debbie Sue called me and told me you was here. I brung you the paper.” She handed over an edition of the Odessa American.

No doubt Debbie Sue had asked this Mrs. Sanders to keep an eye on things at her house, though he wondered what the woman could see. She looked to be a hundred years old, wore huge black-framed glasses so round and thick the sheer weight of them kept them sliding down her narrow nose. Bob smiled as he took the paper. “Hey, thanks.”

“I used to have a freezer full of casseroles and I’d bring one of them to new neighbors,” the elderly woman said, “but Debbie Sue’s had so many renters I’ve used ’em all up.”

He stepped back for her to come into the house. “I’ll be sure to return the paper.”

She waved the suggestion away as she came into the living room. “Nah. Don’t bother. I haven’t read that paper in years. Don’t give a damn what happens in Odessa. I’ve kept up my subscription so my kids will have something to read or a puzzle to work when they come for a visit.”

“It’s no problem for me to bring it back to you after I’ve read it, Mrs. Sanders,” Bob promised. “And I won’t touch the crossword. I’ll leave it for your kids to work.”

“Oh, that’s all right. You go ahead and work it if you want to. I’ve got stacks of newspapers saved up. Those kids live over in Austin. They haven’t come to see me in years.” She turned and limped back to the front door. A wave of pity washed over Bob as he watched her totter back to the tiny, neatly kept house across the street. “Do you need any help over there?” he called out.

“No, thanks,” she yelled back. “I haven’t been to the fair in years. Too many people.”

“Bless her ol’ heart,” Bob mumbled.

“Bless whose old heart?” Roxie asked when he returned to the kitchen.

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