Love in a Nutshell - Janet Evanovich [19]
“I’m sorry to say, then, that your meal has all the earmarks of a pity party.”
Kate smiled at Ella’s answer. They had become friends as teenagers, sneaking Strawberry Breeze wine coolers behind the then-abandoned train station. Ella had always been the brainy one of the pack. Kate had gone on to a middling college and lots of parties. Ella had cruised through Harvard and then moved on to Stanford for law school with every intention of becoming a professor. She’d changed course a couple of years ago and joined her family’s law practice in town. Ella’s family had been lawyering in Keene’s Harbor since the late 1800s.
Kate dug around in the bottom of the bag for a chip. “I’m going to continue to think of my meal as decadent pampering.”
“A handful of chips is pampering. A bag is pity-scarfing. I heard that plastic crinkling. What’s going on?”
“I’m never going to get this house fixed. What do you know about warped floorboards?”
“Sounds like you’ve got a water leak. The water gets trapped under the wood, causing it to expand, and it buckles to relieve the pressure.”
Kate sucked in her breath. “Great. A water leak. I’ll call a plumber tomorrow and see if he can find the problem.”
“So,” Ella said, “not to change the subject, but I had lunch at Bagger’s yesterday. How’d you get Matt Culhane to give you a job?”
Kate refilled her wineglass. “Equal parts desperation and determination. And the end result seems to be a whole lot of suffering on my part.”
“I don’t see how a person could suffer too much with Culhane to look at,” Ella said.
“The suffering comes from running Hobart, the dishwasher from hell. As for my boss, I’ll admit he’s a stellar decorative item, when he’s around. But really, after Richard, I’m not looking at men as anything more than decorative. There are good substitutes for any of their other uses.”
“Ouch! That’s a little bitter.”
And a lot easier to say to Ella than it would’ve been to Matt when he was handling her cauliflower, but Kate was determined to keep her head on straight.
“I’m going to continue to think of it as a practical attitude,” she said. “As a species, men are great—some of my favorite people. But I need to sort out a whole lot of stuff before I date, let alone do anything else, ever again.”
“Okay, I can agree with that. I’ve taken the celibacy pledge until I can bring in enough work to support the salary Dad insists on giving me. Not that there’s anyone around here to date, in any case. Except Matt Culhane,” Ella added in a teasing voice.
“So, anyway, how’s work?” Kate asked.
“Pretty much how you’d expect it to be when working with a father, a brother, and two cousins. Wonderful, except when it’s not. And then, at least we all still love each other. The other day—”
Kate was distracted by the crunch of tires on the gravel drive out front of the cottage. She set aside her wineglass and stood.
“Hang on,” she said to Ella. “I think someone’s here.”
“Out there? You’re kidding.”
The drive to The Nutshell was a good, winding stretch off the road just inland from the shore. People didn’t end up at her door by accident.
“Wish I were,” Kate said.
A ratty black T-shirt emblazoned with the words SEX AND BEER in fat white block print, and plaid flannel sleep pants so worn that they were frayed over her knees weren’t exactly “meet the visitor” wear.
Then again, who could possibly be visiting her? Her wine buzz was swept away on a sea of adrenaline.
“Don’t hang up,” she whispered to Ella.
“Why would I? And why are you whispering?”
Kate nudged aside the lighthouse-themed curtain that covered the front door’s window and peeked outside. A pair of truck-height headlights shone directly into her eyes. She let the curtain drop and turned the door’s dead bolt.
Her visitor’s vehicle had come to a stop. “Don’t know,” Kate said to Ella. “I’m just a little edgy. You’re the only one who’d be out here, and you’re there.”
“Okay, you have a point,” Ella said. “Should I dial the police on my cell?”
“A lot of good that