Page 82 of The Wilder Widows

“All good, here,” Marge said, climbing out the door and stepping to my side. “What did we hit anyway?”

“Fire hydrant,” Tom said, pointing to the front of the car.

I turned around for the first time to see the damage we’d done. The bumper of the car had settled over the top of the fire hydrant, and now I realized why we’d been unable to back away.

“Is that what I hit?” Doris emerged from the car and craned her neck around. “Oh, yeah! Would you look at that.”

“Were you driving?” the officer asked, and she gave him a sheepish grin. “I’m going to need your license and insurance information. Follow me.”

Worry filled Doris’s eyes as she walked back to the police car.

“I’m Marge. This is Alice.” Marge stuck out her hand, and Tom gripped it with his. The force of her handshake started him, and he looked down at her with a smile.

“Helluva grip.”

“First Lieutenant Marge Moretti... now Marge Burns. US Army. A marine?” she pointed to the tattoo on his forearm.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Glad to meet you.”

“As am I. Charmed, really.” Alice held out her hand and flashed him a coy smile. I felt the claws of jealousy ripping through me, but Marge caught her flirtation and snatched her by the back of the shirt.

“We’ll be over here so you two can catch up.” Marge leaned in. “When the coppers ask, the story is we swerved to miss a dog. Small. Brown. Came outta nowhere. Got it?”

I nodded.

“Good,” Marge said, and Alice cast a sultry glance over her shoulder while Marge towed her away.

“Your friends?” he asked.

“Yes. My best friends,” I answered. “The Wilder Widows.”

“Widow?” he asked, and I saw his chest cease movement while he waited.

“Yeah. Bruce passed away. Cancer.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” He said the words, but his voice held zero remorse.

“And you? Are you... married?” My own chest ceased moving while I waited.

“Divorced.”

“Oh. I’m sorry,” I said, but the same remorse was absent from my voice as well.

“So, what are you doing here, Sylvie? I thought I heard your parents passed away, and I didn’t think you had any other family in the area.”

Stumbling for an answer that didn’t end with ‘stalking you,’ I bit my lip and took a breath. “I was just in town showing the girls where I lived. Didn’t realize you still lived here.”

“Is that so?” A dark eyebrow rose in a challenge. Lying was never my strong suit, and Tom’s ability to see straight through me was doing me no favors right now.

“Yeah. Funny running into you here.”

“So, you weren’t circling the block for the past hour staring at my house?”

I opened my mouth to speak but instead ended up gasping like a dying fish. He’d seen us? Of course he’d seen us. He’s a military man, trained to notice and observe everything. A scalding heat raced to my cheeks, and I tried to decide which way I wanted to run.

“I kept seeing the same car over and over again. Finally decided to come out and investigate. Imagine my surprise seeing it run over a fire hydrant and then finding you inside it.”