“I want it in the oven, if you don’t mind cooking it, that is. And I’d like you and Jim to stay for dinner and help me eat it.”
“Well, that would be nice. When you see Jim, ask him if he has other plans. I don’t, but you never know what’s on his mind.”
“And you don’t accept invitations without his say-so,” Val said quietly.
Estelle smiled. “Of course not.”
Val would never point out that Estelle often let Jim’s plans come before hers, because they were truly the happiest married couple she’d ever known, and it certainly wasn’t her place to point out what she considered to be a few small inequities in the relationship. She had wondered, since getting to know the Worths, how their marriage had survived for so long, when so many others did not. One thing she’d noticed repeatedly was that Estelle and Jim truly seemed to like each other. There were deeper affections between them—Val could sense that—but their liking was out in the open and pleasant to be around.
“I’ll talk to Jim about it and let you know.”
“Good.” Estelle returned to her flower arranging and picked up a perfect pink rose. “Oh, my, this is lovely. Honey, are you sure you’re feeling well enough to go over there today?” she asked with her back to Val.
“I’m sure. Talk to you later.”
“You take care now, you hear?”
“Yes, Mother.”
Estelle was chuckling when Val left the kitchen and then the house.
Reed felt at such loose ends that none of his normal activities held any appeal. He didn’t want to return to MonMart and sit at a desk, he didn’t want to go home and walk the floor again, nor did he want to stop in at the fire station. That really threw him. He always derived personal satisfaction and enjoyment from checking equipment and chin-wagging with any of the volunteers who happened to be there. Not today.
After leaving Val’s home, he drove around town with a knot in his gut and tried to find some focus. All he could think about were her cutting remarks, the ice in her voice, the disdain in her beautiful aqua-blue eyes…all aimed at him. If he had fallen over dead in her foyer, she would have stepped around his lifeless body as though it weren’t there. He was nothing to her, less important than the dirt under her feet.
How could that be? He had never been anything but nice to her. Did she sense something sexual in his feelings for her, loathe the idea and want to make darn sure that she didn’t encourage it?
Trouble was, she encouraged feelings of that nature without realizing it. The chemistry between them was overwhelming and nearly swamped him every time he was within fifty feet of her, even though she obviously noticed none of it.
Reed ended up back at MonMart, but he didn’t go into the superstore. Instead, he headed for the unfinished park behind it and took a long meandering hike. It helped.
Val called the house from her office at the Animal Hospital. “Estelle, Jim said prime rib for dinner sounded great. We’re on, okay?”
“Great. We’ll eat around six. I’m going to make mashed potatoes and gravy. You need some fattening up.”
“I happen to like being thinner.”
“Your clothes are practically falling off. You either have to put on some weight or go shopping.”
“Maybe I’ll go shopping. See you later.”
Jim came in just as Val was hanging up. “Did you call the paper yet? You said to remind you.”
“All taken care of. The announcement will appear in tomorrow’s newspaper and continue for a week. I think a week should do it, don’t you?”
“It should,” Jim agreed.
Michael Cantrell walked into the sheriff’s office and up to the deputy on desk duty. “I want to see my uncle.”
“Again? Don’t you have better things to do than hang around a jailbird?”
“He’s not a jailbird. He’s innocent.”
“Invisible, too, huh?” Several of the deputies loved kidding Michael about Guy’s invisibility story. Guy had told the whole story at a community gathering held in MonMart’s parking lot just before his arrest for the murders of his wife and her boyfriend. Guy had explained how the fire had started on Logan’s Hill, and how he’d been knocked unconscious by his wife’s lover, only to realize when he came to that he was invisible. He’d been splashed with his formula for the rapid healing of burn scars. Invisibility was an unforeseeable, temporary side effect of the formula, and he’d been as stunned by it as the townspeople, considering they had stared at him with their mouths open.
Michael flushed hotly. “He’s not invisible now.” He added defensively, “But he was.”
“Yeah, me too. Helps keep the laundry down.”
“You’re not funny,” Michael mumbled, red-faced.
The deputy chuckled. “Sure I am.”
Sheriff Holt Tanner came in. “Hank, let the boy see his uncle!”
“I was just funnin’ him, Holt.”
“Well, stop funnin’ him and move Guy from his cell to the visitor’s room.”
The deputy walked off, still chuckling, and Michael nervously shifted from foot to foot while waiting for word that he could go back to the visitor’s room. When the deputy returned and escorted him there, Michael saw his uncle sitting on one side of a long table in handcuffs. He took a chair on the other side of the table and waited until the deputy left the room and locked the door.
Then he said, with tears in his eyes, “Hi, Unk. How you doing?” Unk was what he had called Guy since childhood, since realizing that his uncle was a brilliant scientist and so was he. Well, maybe not brilliant yet, but he would be. Someday.
Although Guy didn’t feel in the least like smiling, he smiled for his fifteen-year-old nephew, whom he loved like a son. “I don’t want you worrying about me, Michael.”
“I know, Unk.”
“But I really appreciate your visits,” Guy said quietly. He forced another smile. “Now, tell me what’s happening in Rumor. Have you heard from your dad and his new wife? When are they due back from their honeymoon? And how’s Ma taking all of this? You’re still staying with your grandmother, aren’t you? Until your dad gets home? Tell me everything, Michael.”
“Mostly people are talking about your formula, even though no one understands it,” Michael said.
“You know something, Michael? I don’t understand it, either.”
Dinner was delicious. Estelle was a good cook and the prime rib was roasted to tender, juicy perfection. The numerous side dishes were as tasty as food could be, and Val truly tried to do justice to the wonderful meal.
But after a few bites of the small portions she had taken, her appetite was fully satisfied. She took a swallow of the iced tea Estelle had also prepared.
“I made an applesauce cake for dessert,” Estelle said. “I know you like that.”
“Estelle, I liked the whole meal. I’m full.”
“Well, I’m sure you can squeeze in a small piece of cake.”
“Absolutely, but not right now. You two finish eating. Just because I can’t get another bite down my gullet doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the rest of your dinner. I’ll sit here with my tea, all right?”
“Well, you’re too thin and you’re not eating enough, but I guess if you’re full, you’re full.”
“Leave her be, sweetheart,” Jim said. “She