“I guess we should start without him,” Edith said.
“No,” I replied irritably. “He is supposed to be taking on a portion of the mayoral duties. He doesn’t just get to sleep in then take all the credit for our hard work.”
I called his cell phone, tapping my pen on my notepad, annoyed. “Of course he’s not answering.”
“You know how men are,” Edith said, patting me on the arm. “Maybe the two of you can go have lunch, and you can give him the rundown later.”
“I am not sacrificing my time to make him look good because he couldn’t bother showing up for a meeting that I reminded him multiple times about,” I declared. “Absolutely not.” I stood up, grabbing my bag.
“So we’re not going to have the meeting?” Dottie asked.
“Of course we’re having the meeting,” I told her, smiling. “We are going to have it at Hunter’s house.”
* * *
The Svensson brotherswere leaving for school or work, depending on their ages, as I pulled up at the gate.
Garrett smirked when he saw me through his windshield and hit a clicker, letting me swing the decrepit station wagon through the tall iron gate and down the wide drive flanked by old-growth white pines. The huge, sprawling stone mansion of the historic Harrogate estate loomed in front of me as I parked the car with a jerk in the roundabout. Hunter’s black Tesla gleamed in the early-morning sun.
“I declare,” Bettina said as Edith helped her shakily out of the back of the car. “Meg, you really should treat yourself to a better car.”
“If you made up with Hunter, I’m sure he’d buy you one,” Dottie said.
“Not after we surprise him.” I shoved my hip up against the passenger’s door, trying to make it latch close then gave up and made a mental note to buy some duct tape. “I do not need to rely on Hunter for favors.”
“As Ida always told me, if you’re not getting any enjoyment out of sex, then you’re not doing it right,” Dottie said earnestly.
“I’ve been developing a great smoked-beet lubricant,” Edith told me as I helped her up the tall stone front steps to the solid oak front door.
“Don’t use it,” Bettina warned. “You smear that thing on, and it looks like a murder scene in your bed. I thought I had started my period until I remembered I was postmenopausal. You ruined my good sheets,” she said irately to Edith.
“It’s better than that stuff you’re buying online,” Edith retorted as she mashed the doorbell while I wondered why in heaven’s name I had thought coming here was a good idea.
“I actually think it’s great for anal,” Dottie chirped. I gritted my teeth.
“The yam one you gave me was too thick.”
“I guess he’s not here,” I said after a few moments and no sounds from inside.
“Why don’t we all go to Hazel’s and grab a—”
Dottie screamed and almost fell back in my arms as the door swung open, and Hunter, half naked with a crazed gleam in his eyes, stood there with a knife.
“You’re going to give one of these poor women a stroke!” I scolded Hunter as he bit back a curse and threw the knife in the umbrella stand.
“Help me bring her inside.”
“I’m fine! I’m fine,” Dottie insisted. She reached up to cup Hunter’s jaw. “I just had a spontaneous orgasm.”
That was how the meeting started, and it went downhill from there.
“I’m sorry. I completely forgot what time it was,” Hunter said, lying through his perfect teeth. Not that the horny seniors on the composting committee cared.
“You know how it is taking care of all these children,” Hunter added.
“And you are a saint for doing it,” Bettina said, fawning over him.
“You didn’t forget; you just didn’t want to show up,” I retorted.
