Ring in the Holidays by Katie Lane

Author:Katie Lane
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2014-09-22T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

Wheezie pulled the opera glasses away from her eyes and glanced down at the noise-making piece of technology Katherine had given her as an early Christmas present. The contraption didn’t even have a normal telephone ring. It sounded like Rory and Amy’s two-year-old son Douglas banging on his xylophone. And at least Douglas stopped when you clapped. She had yet to figure out how to shut this thing up.

“You want me to answer it?” Her chauffeur Barkley reached his big mitt of a hand toward the phone that sat in the console between them, but she waved it away.

“I got it! You just keep your eyes on the suspect.”

Barkley shrugged and looked back at M&M Construction’s office building. “I don’t think Big Al is going to like us spying on his favorite son-in-law. A son-in-law who is a major shareholder in the company.”

“Which is why I asked you to drive your car today. What Alby doesn’t know, won’t hurt him.” Wheezie squinted at the phone. “Where the heck is the talk button?”

Barkley took the phone and briefly touched the screen with his big, calloused finger before handing it back. For an ex-boxer and construction worker, the man had a gentle touch. And was darn good at pinochle. Which was the only reason Wheezie kept him around. She knew how to drive. In fact, she drove a hell of a lot better than Barkley.

“Hello?” she said as she held it to her ear. “Hello?” Barkley reached out and flipped the phone to the other side. She sent him an exasperated look before trying again. “Hello?”

“Hey, Wheezie,” Matthew’s voice came through the receiver. “It sounds like you’re getting used to the phone.”

“When hell freezes over.” She lifted the opera glasses back to her eyes. “Although with as cold as it’s been the last few days, I wouldn’t be surprised if it does.” She waited for his laugh, and when it didn’t come, she lowered the glasses. “So what’s going on?”

“It’s Mom.”

“She didn’t like you bringing over the tree? I thought she’d be jumping for joy to have one of her kids help at the shelter.”

“No, she liked that. This has to do with the conversation I overheard her having with Dad. It seems she doesn’t feel appreciated—mostly by Dad. Has she talked with you about it?”

Wheezie blew out a disgruntled gust of air. It was getting harder and harder to keep her family afloat. With the way things were going, she wouldn’t be able to meet her maker until she was a hundred and ten. And fifteen more years with this wreck of a body was pushing it.

“She mentioned something about it,” she said. “What did you overhear?”

“Just that she’s upset about not being appreciated and wants Dad to make his own dinners from now on.”

Wheezie laughed. “Well, I’d say it’s about time. Your mother is the glue that holds this family together, and it’s time your father realized that.”

“And you think he will?” he said. “Dad is as hardheaded as they come.

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