The wooden door squeaked open and Alice Sweet appeared in the doorway. “Am I interrupting?”
He shook his head, pushed to his feet, and quickly gathered the clippings into a single pile. “Of course not. Come on in.”
A smile on her face, the woman should have looked exhausted after the day she’d had, but she looked…radiant. “I got tired of being on the receiving end of my children’s sense of humor and decided you deserved a reward for not poking fun at my stupidity.”
“Miss Alice, you are many things, but stupid isn’t one of them.”
“Tell that to the auger and my favorite old jeans.” Not till she extended her hands did he notice she carried a foil-covered pie. “Thought you might like dessert.”
“That’s very thoughtful of you.”
She shook her head. “Selfish. I’ve got a sweet tooth and didn’t want to behave like a sulking kid eating pie in my room.”
He lifted the foil off the pie and realized it was still warm. “I can’t picture you ever sulking.”
“I have my days.” Her smile remained intact as she glanced around the place, down at the table and then back up.
“Where are my manners? Would you care to join me for a slice?”
Her smile brightened. “Thank you, that would be nice. Sweet tooth, you know.”
He chuckled. “So I’ve heard.”
Placing the pie dish on the nearby counter, he pulled out two plates, then carefully cutting two slices, he turned, a plate in each hand, and almost dropped them when he saw her reading the top clipping. His throat tightened and his palms began to sweat. If she put two and two together, he could lose the best job he’d ever had. The closest thing to family he’d had in a very, very long time. Too long.
“I used to tease my Rachel she had a thing for tragic deaths. That kid would watch theSelenamovie, theLa Bambamovie, andTitanicso often, I wondered what the heck had I done wrong.”
He set one dish in front of her.
“You have dreams of being a detective or something?”
“Detective?”
She tugged the top clipping off the pile. “Yeah. Here.” She pointed to the story of a man convicted for the death of his wife, then moved her finger over to the next column and byline. “And here. One woman is found dead in a fire, and then a manis found dead from carbon monoxide poisoning. Do you suspect like the arson victim, it wasn’t an accident?”
Now he was completely confused. Reaching for the clipping, he looked at the story she’d pointed to.
“You’re frowning.”
“I, uh, was just thinking.” He straddled his seat like a man on a horse, poking at the pie with his fork. Scared to look up. “How much do you know about me?”
The sound of her fork touching the plate had him sneaking a peek at her. To his surprise, she was smiling at him. “You mean, did I look at your employment application?”
He nodded.
“I did. Right after I found out Ray had been swindling me.”
“Then you know?” He swallowed hard, almost choking on the barely chewed morsel of pie.
“That you’re an ex-con?” One brow rose up a little higher than the other before her head bobbed.
“Do you know what I was convicted of?”
She shook her head. “I’ll be honest. It was a while after Ray took off with so much of our money before I got around to looking at your paperwork. I’d given the sheriff what I had on the others who took off, but didn’t look at yours right away because you were still here. By the time I did go through more of the paperwork trying to get a handle on what the heck was going on, I had already gotten to know you. Knew I could trust you, so I didn’t really care what you’d done.”
“What if I’d killed someone?”
Her lips pressed into a thin line, she tilted her head, staring at him with eyes that felt as if they could read deep down to his soul. “Did you?”
