Save the Date by Mary Kay Andrews

Author:Mary Kay Andrews
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Contemporary Women, Fiction
ISBN: 9781250019684
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2014-06-03T00:00:00+00:00

33

Bert met her at the door of the shop, and the look on his face telegraphed the bad news. “I’ve looked everywhere,” Bert said, rubbing a hand wearily over his face. “Honest to God, Cara. Every single stop I made Friday, I retraced. I showed everybody the picture of the epergne. I even crawled around in the grass and the bushes at the Shutters. Since it was low tide, I even looked around that dock, thinking maybe somebody got drunk and chunked it in the water for a joke. But nothing. It ain’t there.”

“Oh God.” Cara thumped her forehead on her desk. First Lillian Fanning, then Patricia Trapnell. Now this. What was wrong with her karma?

“What now? Will you call her and tell her?”

Cara popped three aspirin in her mouth and dry-swallowed them.

“I can’t deal with Lillian right now. I think I might have heat stroke.” She pulled her sticky shirt away from her chest.

“Did you call Sylvia Bradley again?” Bert asked.

“Yes, I called her. She doesn’t pick up the phone, because she doesn’t want to deal with me. I’ve sent her a registered letter, too.” Cara reached into her desk drawer and got her pocketbook.

“Let’s go,” she told Bert.

“Where to?”

“To wherever they sell air conditioners. I can’t spend one more hour living like this.”

* * *

The salesman at Lowe’s carefully explained the merits and options of all the room-size air conditioners the store carried.

“Which one is the next to cheapest?”

The salesman looked startled. “Next to cheapest?”

“My father taught me never to buy the cheapest model of anything. Or the most expensive,” Cara explained. “I sure can’t afford the next to most expensive, so I guess I’m buying the next to cheapest.”

“Most affordable,” the salesman said gently.

“Whatever. As long as you have it in stock and we can walk out of here with it in the next ten minutes.”

She handed over her credit card and held her breath waiting to see if the transaction would go through. She’d maxed out most of her cards, but this one, a Visa that had come through the mail months ago, was one she’d activated but never used. She thought of it as her Plan B card. And she reflected, grimly, that there was no Plan C.

Cara had sent the Colonel a check for $15,000 the minute Gordon Trapnell had paid the deposit for his daughter’s wedding. It meant letting her other past-due bills ripen a little longer, but at least, she thought, it would forestall her father for another few weeks.

But there would be no more stalling on purchasing an air conditioner. She couldn’t have brides entering a shop that felt like a sauna. And she couldn’t deal with all the crap life was throwing at her, working in those conditions after spending another sleepless night upstairs.

She and Bert carried the precious new air-conditioning unit into the shop and unboxed it immediately, fitting it into one of the front windows. Cara held out the thin plastic remote control, took a deep breath, and clicked the On button.

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