The Widow's Mate by Ralph McInerny

Author:Ralph McInerny
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

7

Sylvia Beach wore her hair in a crew cut, dyed blond, and nuts to Marco, she liked it. She suspected he did, too, though he grumbled that if he had wanted a boyfriend he would have shot himself. Macho, macho, but that was his great attraction. Sylvia had taken care of her body, and no one was going to mistake her for a boy. Marco hadn’t had two consecutive thoughts in his life, at least not ones he would put into words, and that was fine with Sylvia. She’d had her fill of brooding men.

Her first impulse when she got the e-mail from Brenda Kelly was to ignore it. She didn’t erase it, though, and went back and read it a couple of times. Ever since she returned to Fox River, she had thought from time to time about looking up old friends, and, of course, Brenda would have been the first. Imagine her still plugging away at what they had done working for Wally Flanagan. Sylvia had learned how to be content doing nothing, but after hooking up with Marco, it was feast or famine, out on the town in his cool sports car, hitting the spots, and then a free-for-all in bed that could last for hours. Then she wouldn’t see him for a week or more, no word, no explanation; he just assumed she would be available when he was free.

“Free from what?”

He just looked at her, and his eyes went dead.

“Forget I asked.”

“No, you forget you asked.”

All right, all right. That was another part of his attraction, the largest part, the danger. Who had ever grown up in Fox River and not heard stories about the Pianones? Not that she had really believed the stories back then; they were just part of local lore. Marco managed two of the river craft on which gambling went on twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Sylvia would have liked to try her hand, but hanging around where he worked was not Marco’s idea of a good time.

“You think you’d win?”

“Somebody has to win.”

“That’s right.” He grinned.

Sylvia decided he looked like Cary Grant. She was into old movies on TCM, and there had been a week of Cary Grant. In one of them, the actor had played someone like Marco, but back in the old days when the actor still had rough edges. Maybe that’s what suggested the similarity.

Over a week had gone by with no word from Marco when Sylvia tapped out a reply to Brenda. She got an answer while she was still on the computer. Brenda was all excited to learn that Sylvia was back in Fox River. When could they get together?

Sylvia called K&S and asked for Brenda Kelly.

“Speaking.”

“Sylvia. What are you doing tonight?”

A squeal of delight. “Nothing! Where shall we meet?”

“I can pick you up there.”

And she did, at five o’clock. Brenda hopped into Sylvia’s car and then just stared. “Your hair!”

“Like it?”

It was an odd way to start a conversation after so many years.

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