Poison and Parmesan by Michelle Ford

Author:Michelle Ford [Ford, Michelle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kinglet Books
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Tony nursed a tumbler of tequila, if the bottle next to him was any sign. Brianna grimaced at his drink of choice, then pushed the door open wider. This was her chance to chat with Irma’s son alone. She couldn’t squander it.

“Hi, Tony,” she said when he looked up. “Are you doing okay?”

“Just having a drink for Mamma,” he said in the sort of slow voice one had after multiple drinks. He chuckled. “Not that she would have approved. Teetotaler, that one. Except for her daily medicinal limoncello.” His face darkened. “Such a hypocrite. If she hadn’t been my mother, I—”

Tony blinked when he remembered Brianna was standing across from him. He took another swig of the tequila and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. Brianna cautiously slid into the chair across from him. Her heart pounded at Tony’s truncated words. What had he been about to say?

He tilted the bottle toward her. “Drink?” he asked.

“Not right now,” she said. Tequila was good in a margarita with friends to Brianna’s mind, not guzzled straight. “Thanks, though. I’m sorry about your mother.”

“She was old.” Tony stared into his glass. “She was going to go at some point. Ha, I bet she was pleased to have gone first between her and Moira. They loved to compete with everything. Crummy prize, though.”

“It’s never easy, nor expected,” Brianna said gently. “Death often takes us by surprise.”

“Poison was definitely a surprise.” Tony sloshed more tequila into his glass.

“Completely,” Brianna agreed. She cast about for something to say. “So, when you’re not attending weddings on Oak Island, what do you do?”

“I’m a project manager for a tech company in Vancouver.” Tony swirled his tequila in its glass. “It’s small—you haven’t heard of it. It’s a good job, though. I like it.”

He said this announcement with such flat insincerity that Brianna immediately understood the opposite: Tony desperately disliked his job.

“That’s good to hear,” she said. “What do you do when you’re not working?”

She hoped she didn’t appear to be chatting up the older man. She was trying to appear friendly to weasel information out of him, not attempt to date him. Luckily, Tony seemed too inebriated to misinterpret any accidental context.

“Oh, this and that,” he said vaguely. He sat up straighter and met her gaze. “When I retire, I’m moving to the Bahamas.”

“Wow.” The pamphlet Brianna had found in Tony’s cabin flashed into her mind, as well as Magnus’s speculations about Tony’s ability to retire soon. “That would be amazing. Have you been before?”

“No, but I know I’d love it. The sun, the sand, the atmosphere—it’s exactly my sort of place.”

Tony hummed the start of a song. Before Brianna could place it, he opened his mouth and unexpectedly belted out the first words of a popular Jimmy Buffett tune.

Brianna gave him a few polite claps of her hands and pasted on a smile. “Nicely done. You’ll fit right in when you get to the Bahamas.”

“If I ever do,” he said. His shoulders hunched, and he sank into the table as if melting.

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