Fading Rose by Tamrie Foxtail

Author:Tamrie Foxtail [Foxtail, Tamrie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance, suspense, spicy
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Published: 2013-11-08T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

“I bought them at a yard sale,” the woman said. “I thought my grandson would like to play with them but my daughter had a fit. ‘You can’t give him used toys. They’re full of germs.’ I told her I’d clean them off but she said she wasn’t going to let someone’s garbage into her house.” She shook her head. “I don’t know where my daughter gets the attitude from. She played with used toys and wore hand-me-downs when she was little.”

“I guess we all have our quirks,” Aubrey said as she peeled back the newspaper. It was a wooden duck pull toy. The paint was chipped here and there, but overall it was in great condition.

“There’s supposed to be more in there,” the woman said. “The woman I bought it from at the yard sale said there were three. My grandson’s two. I thought he’d like pulling them around the house.”

Aubrey set the duck on the counter. The other two pull toys were a dog and a horse.

“These are beautiful.”

“Liar, liar.”

The woman looked up, startled.

Aubrey just shrugged. “Sorry. My friend keeps threatening to turn him into parrot pie.”

She quoted the woman an amount for the toys, wrote a check and handed it over.

The woman looked at Aubrey’s feet, swollen from the weekend. She’d put on her summer flip flops because her sneakers hurt.

“When are you due?” the woman asked.

“I’m not pregnant.”

“Oh, I’m sorry…I—”

“It’s okay. I retain fluids sometimes.” Sometimes being 365 days a year.

The woman tucked the check into her purse and left. Aubrey placed the pull toys on a shelf with several others.

She looked down at her puffy toes. They looked like little white sausages. Frozen sausages. It was probably just as well that Jim had called in the morning to say he’d be gone. He was taking pictures of a wedding in Anadarko then he was going to drive to Binger to look for an old, one room school house someone had told him about.

Her cell phone rang, and Tess walked through the front door at the same time.

“Hello?” she said to Tess and into the phone.

Tess waved, Jim called her “Babe,” an endearment that sent a sweet little shiver down her spine.

“Must be your man,” Tess whispered.

“I finished a little sooner than I planned. How about I swing by and take you out for dinner?”

“I’d love to, but I’m not feeling all that great.”

Tess gave her a little push, almost knocking her off balance. “Tell him,” she whispered.

Aubrey ignored her.

“Do you think you might feel better tomorrow?”

Butterflies twirled in her stomach and her toes grew warmer.

“Yeah, I’m sure I’ll feel better tomorrow.”

They said their goodbyes and she pushed ‘end.’

“What?” she asked Tess. “I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true. I’m not feeling that great right now, and I will feel better tomorrow.”

Tess folded her arms across her chest and straightened her spine. Two indications that she was in “mother-of-teens” mode.

“You know he thinks you have a headache or cramps or even a date with another man.

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