The Red Hat Society's Acting Their Age (16 page)

“Oh, I get it. Now that you’re all fancy and prissy you want some young stud, is that it?”

She punched his shoulder. “Would you listen to yourself? You’re talking nonsense.”

“Is it that Bailey kid?”

“Aaron Bailey?” Stunned, Aggie barked a laugh and stepped backward away from the bed. “Stop it, Roy. Aaron’s not even thirty years old.”

“He lives on Mia’s block. Damn pantywaist stays home all day with the kids while the wife brings home the bacon.” He stood, tucked his shirt into his jeans, zipped his zipper and snapped the snap beneath his belly.

Grabbing for his arm, Aggie ran after him as he started from the bedroom. “Where are you going?”

“Out.” He jerked free of her grasp.

Aggie stopped in the living room and crossed her arms. “Roy Cobb, don’t you do anything we’ll both regret.”

The front door slammed.

Aggie went to bed alone but didn’t doze off until Roy tiptoed into the room three hours later, reeking of root beer.

The next morning, Leanne told Eddie she had a doctor’s appointment in Amarillo and that Mia and Aggie had agreed to cover for her at work. Only her yearly physical, she assured him, when he asked what was wrong. She felt so guilty lying to him. Ever since she’d begged off from going to his football reunion, the questions in his eyes had intensified. More than once, he had asked why she was so quiet, why she suddenly spent so much time away from the house.

Eddie gathered some loose change from the bedroom dresser and dropped it into his pocket. “How long are you going to be gone?”

“I’ll be home long before supper.” She buttoned her coat. “Will you?”

He raked his fingers through his wavy dark hair and said defensively, “I’d planned on it, why do you ask?”

“I’m not the only one spending a lot of time away from the house these days.”

His eyes narrowed. “Maybe that’s because, even when you’re here, this is a lonely place, Lea. I can’t stand the quiet.”

Leanne pushed her purse strap up to her shoulder. Now was her chance. She should just say the words, tell him she felt incomplete. But she couldn’t do it. He thought that was all behind them. She had, too, until recently. More than once, Eddie had made it clear to her that she was enough to make him happy; he didn’t need anything else. How could she tell him that she didn’t feel the same? “Let’s not get into that again, Eddie.”

“Okay.” He grabbed his coat from the back of a chair and walked across the bedroom without putting it on. Pausing beneath the doorway, he looked back at her, and she glimpsed the wounded look in his eyes before he cloaked it with anger. “Didn’t you have your yearly physical a couple of months ago, Lea?” Before she could answer, he left the room.

Leanne closed her eyes. She heard the front door slam.

An hour and a half later, she sat across the desk from her old friend Jay, partner in the Amarillo law firm of Roanoke and Wilde. Back in college, he had dated Leanne’s roommate, and they’d become friends in the process. In fact, their friendship had endured though she and her old roommate had stopped corresponding more than a decade ago.

“Given the foster mother’s abuse,” Jay said, “I think a judge might be more inclined toward leniency.”

Leanne looked up from the spiral notebook where she scribbled. “Even though it’s the girl’s third strike?”

“Yeah. That is, if she can back up the abuse claim with evidence. Maybe a witness or two.” He leaned back, his expression curious. “So, you’re researching a novel? I never knew you were so creative.”

She tilted her head and smiled. “A woman can’t tell all her secrets. Gotta keep a man guessing.”

Jay chuckled. “You sure know how to do that.”

“I’ve always been a closet writer.” Leanne shrugged, amazed and a little concerned that the lies slipped from her mouth so easily. “Maybe the book will never get published. It’s just something I want to try.” She laughed and closed the spiral. “You know . . . before the vision goes.”

They both stood and Jay smiled across at her. “If only we could go back to the good old days, right?”

“I don’t know.” She cocked a brow. “You look pretty suave with silver in your hair, Jay.”

He blushed. “Suave, huh?”

“Yeah.” She laughed. “Besides, I’m not sure I’d want to go back. I hit a lot of bumps getting to where I am now. I was too stupid to dodge them, you know?”

He rounded the desk. “The parties were fun, though.”

Not for her, but Leanne guessed she’d kept her feelings well hidden back then. She had hated all the excessive drinking in college. Not that she’d joined in on that part of the action.

After leaving the office, Leanne headed for a coffee shop where she purchased an iced mocha and borrowed a phone book. She sat and searched the listings of every “Oberman” in Amarillo, hoping to find the number and address of Rachel’s classmate, the girl who, along with her mother, had witnessed Pam Underhill’s abuse. She wanted to call and set up a meeting. The directory listed only five “Obermans” and, when she studied the enclosed city map, Leanne narrowed her search to two addresses in the district close to Rachel’s school.

Using her cell phone, she dialed the first number. The elderly man who answered said he was Lacy Oberman’s grandfather. “Paula’s my daughter,” he told her.

Thinking that was easy enough, Leanne apologized for dialing the wrong number and hung up. The man had unwittingly provided Lacy’s mother’s first name. She scanned the listings again and found P. Oberman.

No one answered when she called so Leanne left the coffee shop and made a trip by a school supply store to pick up some things for Rachel. Books, paper and pencils, items to keep the girl’s mind occupied by more than MTV while she was still out of school.

Before leaving town, Leanne made a swing by the address listed in the phone directory for Paula Oberman, an apartment building within walking distance of Rachel’s school. Since nobody had picked up when she called, she didn’t expect an answer when she knocked at the door. And didn’t get one. Still, Leanne felt she’d made headway. Tonight, if Eddie wasn’t around, she’d call again.

Halfway back to Muddy Creek, Leanne began to suspect someone followed her. Slowing her speed, she realized the blue Mazda sports car tailing her belonged to Eddie. She pulled into a rest stop twenty miles from home. A couple of minutes later, Eddie parked behind her. They climbed from their vehicles at the same time.

Wind whipped hair into her eyes. Cars zipped by on the two-lane highway beside her. “What’s going on?” Leanne yelled. “Is something wrong?” She followed him to the nearest picnic table, ducking beneath the metal awning to escape the wind.

“You tell
me
, Lea.” He jerked off his sunglasses. “
Is
something wrong?”

“What do you mean?”

“You didn’t go to the doctor’s office.”

Her stomach dipped. Not because she’d been caught, but because her husband had followed her. It struck her as ironic that she was upset at his lack of trust. After all, she
was
deceiving him. Just not in the way he suspected. “You followed me, Eddie?”

A guilty look flashed across his face, but he quickly masked it with an accusatory frown. “Are you leaving me, Lea?”

Her pulse throbbed so loud in her ears, she didn’t hear the wind anymore, the rush of passing vehicles. Leanne shook her head and stepped closer to him. “Why would you think that?”

“You went by Jay’s office. Why? To ask about a divorce?”

“
Eddie
—”

“Then you stopped by the school supply store and an apartment building.”

“And that says
what
to you?”

He jammed his hands into his front pockets, shifted to stare at a windmill in a field across the road. “That maybe you got a job teaching again. In Amarillo. That you’re looking for a place to live.”

“For God’s sake, Eddie. I’m your wife, for crying out loud. Couldn’t you have asked me if I’m planning to leave you?”

“I’ve wanted to, but you won’t talk to me.”

Leanne drew her lower lip between her teeth. What he said was true. “We’re okay, Eddie,” she said softly.

“You don’t act like we’re okay.”

She crossed her arms. “I don’t appreciate being stalked. By anyone, but most of all you.”

“I’m not stalking you.”

“What do you call it? If after twenty-eight years together, you feel like you have to keep tabs on me, maybe we
aren’t
okay.” She turned toward her car.

Eddie grabbed her arm from behind, spun her around to face him again. “What am I supposed to think? It wouldn’t be the first time you walked out.”

“Is that what this is about?”

“You’re drawing inside yourself, just like before when you left me.”

“I didn’t leave
you
. My leaving . . .”

She turned to stare at the road, tried to steady her breathing. That one incident in their past had shaken Eddie to the core. Years ago, after she had decided she couldn’t take in a foster child, she had needed some space to get her head right. She hadn’t ever really dealt with losing their baby, so she took some time to do that.

Leanne looked up into the sullen gray sky. “That was twenty years ago, Eddie. We’ve been over it and over it. I thought you understood.”

“I thought I did, too, Lea. I thought we were both past it. But this feels like the same thing happening all over again. So apparently I
don’t
understand. I feel shut out. Why won’t you talk to me anymore?”

Tears stung Leanne’s eyes. “I want to, Eddie, but you take everything so personally.”

He shook his head. “What are you talking about?”

“Something’s missing, Eddie. In our lives.” There, she’d said it. Leanne held her breath.

“In our marriage, you mean. Why wouldn’t I take that personally?” He looked away. “It doesn’t get more personal than that.”

“You’re twisting my words.” She touched his arm. “I knew you’d misunderstand and be hurt.”

Eddie pulled back. “Why did you lie and say we’re okay?”

“I’m not unhappy with
you
. I love you. But something’s not right. Don’t you feel it, too?”

He wouldn’t look at her.

“You still think I was making arrangements to leave you today, don’t you?” When he didn’t respond. Leanne turned and started for the car.

He followed her. “Where are you going?”

“I think we could use some time apart.” When she reached the car, she swallowed past the lump in her throat and climbed in. “I’ll be staying at Mia’s.”

He caught the door before she closed it. “What do you want? An explanation for my behavior today? Why should I explain anything? You’re the one sneaking around.”

“What I did in Amarillo had nothing to do with you.”

Shoving his sunglasses on, Eddie stepped away from the car and crossed his arms.

“Fine, then.” Leanne closed the door and reached for the key in the ignition. When the engine turned over, she took off, spraying gravel on his running shoes.

Chapter 12

M
ia closed the cash register drawer then counted out a handful of change to her customer. “There you go, Betty. Enjoy the latte.”

“I’m sure I will, Mia. You
are
coming to the Red Hat birthday luncheon for Mary Jane on Friday, aren’t you?”

“I’ll try. To be honest, though, I’ve been so busy I forgot all about it. I haven’t been a very good member lately.”

The hairdresser’s expression oozed with sympathy and encouragement. “You’ve had things on your mind the past year or so. I understand. But some socializing would do you good.”

Mia felt smothered by Betty’s compassion. She reminded herself that the woman meant well. They all did. Everyone who, for the past year and a half, had murmured,
how are you doing? You need anything? I’m here for you, honey
.

Betty sipped from her cup and asked in a half-whisper, “How’s Aggie?”

“I’m fine,” Aggie said as she came through the swinging kitchen doors wearing her new flare-legged khakis, trim-fitting V-neck sweater and butter-soft leather boots. She carried a tray of Rachel’s dirt cups, which she took over to the table where the Coots sat. “On the house,” she said, setting the cups of pudding in front of them.

The old men eyed the gummy worm topping with wary expressions.

“Well, I’ve just been so worried about you,” Betty said.

Aggie lifted her chin and asked, “For heaven’s sake, why? I couldn’t be better.”

“Well, you certainly
look
fabulous. Why you’ve been hiding that drop-dead figure underneath baggy clothes all these years is a mystery to me. And your
hair
. . .” Betty pouted. “My feelings are a little hurt you didn’t come to me, but I have to admit that whoever colored it knew what they were doing. That shade of auburn is perfect for your complexion.”

“That’s so nice of you to say.” Aggie bloomed with happiness beneath Betty’s shower of compliments. She touched a hand to her shimmering locks and said, “I have Leanne and Mia to thank for that.”

And Rachel most of all, Mia thought, biting back a smile. Amazing what a healthy dose of admiration could do for a woman’s self-esteem. Mia loved the light that sparked in Aggie’s green eyes each time someone complimented her youthful new look. And every single person who had walked through the coffee shop door the past two days had done just that—praised Aggie’s appearance. The town was abuzz with talk of her makeover.

Betty leaned in closer to the counter when Aggie walked behind it and said to her quietly, “Girl, your transformation is incredible, but that’s also what has me worried for you. There’s talk in town that Roy’s been . . .” When the shop fell silent, Betty did, too.

Mia looked to the corner table where, only a moment before, the Coots had been guffawing and carrying on like a schoolyard full of adolescent boys. Now every eager eye peered in Aggie’s direction. Throats cleared. Coughs sounded. Tom Pellinger jabbed Henry Kroger with an elbow. Henry jabbed back.

Two explosions of pink appeared high on Aggie’s cheekbones. She took her apron off the wall hook and put it on. “Roy’s been what, Betty?”

The hairstylist glanced over her shoulder at George Humphrey, her father. No doubt the source of her gossip, considering how his bald head was as red as Aggie’s cheeks. Betty sipped her coffee and faced Aggie again. “You know I don’t pay attention to rumors.” When the bell over the door jingled and Eddie walked in, she added, “Speaking of which . . .”