“No, dear, you do enough. We’re fine today.”
“And you’re sure Dotty will be home soon?”
She nodded. “I think I’m just going to go lie down until she gets back.”
“Okay. We’ll show ourselves out.” He gathered up his phone and my keys and motioned for me.
I walked over to Caroline. What was the proper etiquette here? Shake her hand? A kiss on the cheek? I felt like I might break some bones if I hugged her.
Not that she’d want a hug from me.
“Thank you for…the water,” I finally said, making no move to touch her in any way.
She smiled softly, like she got how weird the whole situation was.
“You’re very welcome, Jane. Feel free to stop by…for water anytime.”
I smiled, but didn’t quite laugh. It was all just so strange.
I turned to leave her, but she placed a cold hand on my sleeve. “I mean that. Please come by with Stick again. I enjoyed the company.”
“I…I’m not sure…”
“I’ll bring her by again,” Stick said from behind me.
“Only if you want to,” she said to me, a sadness in her eyes.
“That would be nice,” I said. I leaned closer to her. “I only hesitated because I wasn’t sure I’d need any more driving lessons from Stick.”
“Oh, is that what brings you out this way? I’ll bet he’s a good instructor.”
I thought of how he’d distracted me in Chesney with talk of his father so that I wouldn’t freeze up at the traffic lights. He was a good instructor, but I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of knowing I thought so.
“There’s lots more I can teach you,” he said. He was standing right behind me now, almost touching. He held out my coat to me, his arm brushing mine.
“You help a lady on with her coat, Stick,” Caroline said in that teacher tone.
“She’s fine,” he said, and tucked my coat over my outstretched hand. “She’s got two hands.”
Caroline gave a long-suffering sigh, and shook her head at Stick, but there was warmth in her face, and this time her soft smile reached her eyes.
I put my coat on (just fine by myself, thank you very much), and followed Stick out of the kitchen.
At the doorway I turned back and looked at Caroline, still standing in the middle of the large room, looking small and frail.
I gave a tiny wave, which she returned.
“I’ll come back,” I said.
“Thank you.”
I turned and walked out of the Stratton family home.
Chapter17
I let Stick drive home.He even tried to hand the keys back to me when I gave them to him, but I shook my head and moved to the passenger side.
It wasn’t that I was mad, or so mad that I didn’t want to drive. And I wasn’t so overcome with emotion of the idea of Caroline Stratton dying that I wouldn’t properly be able to shift Yvette.
