Groomer Has It by Katie Hagen

Author:Katie Hagen [Hagen, Katie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-03-23T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no!” I screamed into an embroidered pillow on Beverly’s couch that so cruelly read, Home is Where the Heart Is.

Beverly set a cup of tea on the little white coffee table and sat herself in a leather wingback chair. Carlie sprawled on a chaise lounge by a huge bookcase and looked straight out of Gone with the Wind.

“Did that just happen?” I groaned from beneath my pillow fortress.

“Oh, was that not what you had planned?” Carlie quipped.

I threw the pillow at her head.

“Where were you chickens anyway? I was eaten alive out there!”

Carlie picked up the pillow and traced the embroidery with her finger. “Old people scare me.”

Beverly huffed and crossed her arms.

“Not you Bev! Like angry ones. They remind me of Grandma.” She shivered.

“Grandma was nice,” I said defensively. “At least to me.”

“Exactly. Those vultures out there were wrong. You were the good one. You didn’t take her hand knit toilet paper cozy doll out to make mud pies.”

“Oh, right. That was funny.”

Carlie shivered again. “I was gonna save you but then that big guy in the overalls came over.”

“Henry,” Beverly sighed.

“That’s Henry! He’s the boyfriend that Vicki Perring stole?”

Beverly nodded sadly.

“Well good riddance Bev, seriously,” Carlie said, casually tossing the pillow back onto the couch.

“Oh, you only saw him all worked up. He’s actually very sweet,” she said wistfully.

Carlie and I rolled our eyes in unison.

I finally sat up and took a drink of the tea Beverly made. Picklepuss stretched out on the couch next to me and snored.

“Bev, what did Henry do for work?”

“He was a police officer. But for the last ten years or so he worked part-time as a security officer at the high school.”

“Oh yeah! I remember him!” Carlie laughed.

“I don’t.”

“Once again, you were the good one,” she winked.

“He must have started right after you graduated,” Beverly added.

“Yeah, I guess so,” I set my cup on the table. “Something Henry said is bugging me though.”

Carlie and Beverly both leaned in.

“He said that I should ask him about Ashley Trull.”

“Like ask him what?” Carlie asked.

I slumped back against the couch cushions and rubbed my temples. “I have no idea.”

Absentmindedly, I began to scratch Picklepuss on the hip. It was true that petting an animal lowered stress because I instantly felt a little bit better. I could have used her in L.A. when I was reeling from my many encounters with frou-frou doggy mommies.

Though there was still something that was threatening to raise my blood pressure that even a poodle couldn’t ease.

“Bev, you might as well take the rest of the day off. I don’t think we’re going to get any other appointments today.”

Bev took a sip of tea and then set it on the table. “I can’t see as we’ll have much time anyways.”

“Oh, was there something else you wanted to do? Because you know, Bev, that you can always take time off whenever you need to,” I smiled. Maybe this was a blessing for poor Bev. She’d finally have an excuse to retire.

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