“Do what?”
“Be friends.”
Elizabeth gave her a long look. “Honey, Rhett Valentine is a good man. He simply wasn’t my true love. And I wasn’t his.”
An awkward silence grew and grew.
“You think I’m terrible, don’t you?” One more good thing about Elizabeth, she wasn’t a word mincer.
“You couldn’t be terrible if you tried,” Pepper answered simply.
“Oh, believe you me, I’ve had my moments.” She smiled faintly. “Except that’s when I tell myself, ‘Elizabeth, you know what? There’s not a woman alive who hasn’t.’” She straightened, rapping the table with her knuckles. “But you seem confused. You know what I do when I get clouded thinking these days?”
“Have a drink? Four drinks? A lobotomy?” Pepper held Kitty tighter. It was either that or start pacing. “Nothing in my life makes sense.”
Elizabeth cupped a hand to her mouth and called to the barista, the woman behind the counter with the pink shoulder-length hair parted down the middle. “Hey, Delfi! Can you brew one of your famous cups of Earl Grey? I have a friend who needs a reading.”
Delfi glanced at the clock with her preternaturally wide, unblinking eyes. “There is time.” She signaled to a hand-painted beaded curtain depicting Botticelli’sBirth ofVenus. “Enter there,” Delfi intoned in her softly modulated voice. “I’ll join in a moment. Begin emptying your mind.”
“I’d have better luck licking my own elbow.”
“Trust me, this will help. Delfi possesses remarkable insight,” Elizabeth said, reaching to take Kitty from her. “Well, trust me as much as you can trust an evil ex who has sinister designs on your future happiness.”
“I see where you’re going with this.” Pepper grinned despite herself. “When I step through that curtain I’m going to fall inside a big hole that’s been cleverly concealed by well-placed tree boughs, huh?”
“Darn, you found me out.” Elizabeth shook a mock fist. “But seriously, go on. I’ll take good care of your puppy until you get back.”
“Don’t you meanifI come back?”
“Muah-ha-ha.” Elizabeth mimicked a cartoon villain’s evil laugh.
Pepper stood and approached the curtain. She’d been kidding. Sort of.
