The Other Side - J. D. Robb [139]
“Oh, I cried. I cried and cried, hoping Papa would change his mind, but he never did. Eventually, I let Mrs. Wheimer teach me what she could. Imogene and Adeline bought me all of Julia’s cookbooks . . . and of course as every fine chef is wont to do, I did a great deal of experimenting on my own while I waited—” She caught herself and looked ashamed.
“Waited for what, Odelia?”
She leaned in so close, M.J. could almost spit apple juice, then whispered, “For Papa to die.” She stepped back, aghast. “I’ve never said that out loud before. My stars. You must think I’m just a terrible person. Oh my.”
“No, no. I don’t. Really. I understand completely. I do.”
“I don’t!” An angry male voice from the other side of the fence was quickly reinforced with the scowling face of a man as he peered over the fence at her. “What the hell’s the matter with you? Are you nuts?”
Three
“What?”
He glanced down at her bowed arms, and she immediately dropped them to her sides.
“My apples! Now they’ll all have bruises,” Odelia exclaimed, falling to her knees to gather them up from around M.J.’s feet.
“Are you rehearsing for a play or something?” the man asked, giving her a better explanation than nuts—not that it was any of his business in the first place.
Unless he was standing on something, she gauged him at close to six feet, his dark hair clipped short and neat; the lack of fashionable facial hair a plus in her book. But it was the way his eyes flashed from angry to intrigued that popped her defenses in place.
“Why should I tell you?”
“Because my six-year-old son heard you talking to yourself, and now he thinks you’re able to speak to the ghosts that he thinks live in that old house.” He frowned again. “Come to think of it, what are you doing over there? I didn’t know the place was for sale.”
“It’s not, and I don’t have to explain anything to you.” She hesitated. “Sorry about your little boy though. I didn’t mean to upset him.”
The tough-soft paradox of her nature fascinated him. He shook his head. “He wasn’t upset. I was. He’s been obsessed with the ghosts since we moved in here two years ago. At least once or twice a week he’ll come in and tell me one walked across the yard looking for apples. I come out, there’s nothing here. I explain there’s no such thing as ghosts, distract him with other things like the doctor told me to, and he’s right back at it the next week. At least today he had someone else back here besides the ghost.”
Odelia giggled at her feet. “That’s my little friend, Jimmy. Sweet boy.”
M.J. glowered down at her aunt as she got to her feet and picked up her basket of apples.
“Like I said, I’m sorry about that.” She turned to go inside with Odelia.
“Ryan Doyle,” he said with a friendly smile, extending his arm over the fence to his elbow.
She turned back and glanced first at his smile and his outstretched hand, then at the unruly gone-to-seed-and-weed flowerbed below and decided just to wave a hand from where she was. “Hi. M. J. Biderman.”
“M.J?” he said and she watched in trepidation as a slow, sexy smile spread across his face. “M.J. . . . Maribelle Joy.”
Now in reflex mode, her molars ground against each other, and she growled as she stomped her right foot in disgust. She stared at him as if he were a hideous six-headed snake. “How do you know that?”
“That’s your name, isn’t it?” He laughed, the light in his eyes dancing. “Your mother told me. She said you were a little touchy about it.”
“Ridiculous names are the Hedbo curse.” She didn’t need to, of course, but she automatically held the screen door open for Odelia because her arms were full.
“And you married Biderman?” His eyes continued to twinkle with delight.
“No.” She grimaced at him, not wanting to enjoy the fact that he was enjoying himself at her expense. But her name was ludicrous. How could anyone hear it and not laugh? “I was born a Calvert. My father died. My mother married Larry Biderman, who adopted me before she divorced him and married Michael Moore, who I refused to let adopt me because he already had four kids and it was the only