Chapter 18 #3
“Annabeth dodged a scoundrel with you, didn’t she?”
Luke tapped her screen and said, “As much as I love watching my brother get dragged, Nadine, you’re about to eat crow.”
“What?”
Luke hit play.
“Nadine? This is Lucinda Armistead, calling to right a terrible wrong I caused earlier today. Dennis Luview is innocent. That baby is not his. I misunderstood and take full responsibility for maligning a perfectly good man’s reputation.
I am calling everyone I know in Luview to correct my mistake, and hope that you’ll take my words at face value and stop talking about him in a negative light. We all know how much you love gossip–”
Nadine let out a sharp inhale of offense.
“–and especially juicy gossip. But please do not start problems at Greta’s, or church, or the library, or any of your haunts. Thank you kindly.”
The message ended.
“Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear oh dear.” Nadine’s hands shook.
Luke looked at the phone before handing it back.
“She left that message about thirty minutes after the scene on the common. How long have you been spreading that video?”
Horror filled her face and her eyes darted everywhere.
“Well, one of the Forsythe boys has this popular TickyTocky channel and he asked me for it, so…”
Dennis just cleared his throat as Ana tried to assess the situation.
Nadine seemed to be someone of importance in the town.
The admin at the police department, Dennis said?
The town gossip? Whatever her importance was, Dennis and Luke were working on showing her she’d spread false information, and now she’d have to correct that.
Ana smiled and said to her, “Everyone makes mistakes, Ms…”
“Nadine. Nadine Khouri.”
“Ms. Khouri.”
“And you’re Ana?” Her eyes went to Ana’s belly.
“I am. And just to be clear, Dennis isn’t this baby’s biological father. I’m not hanging out with Dennis out of coercion.”
“Then what are you two doing together?”
Luke grinned at her. “They’re going out on their first date!”
Dennis looked like he was going to murder his brother. The police chief.
Nadine looked at Ana, who maintained composure.
“You’re dating him? Now?”
“Yes.”
“What about the baby’s father?”
“I’m not dating him.”
Nadine looked at Ana’s left hand. “No ring,” she said flatly.
Ana reached for Dennis’s hand, threading her fingers very intentionally through his and keeping a polite smile on her face even as her bladder began singing an aria.
“Dennis, I do believe we’re late for dinner.” She caught Luke’s eye. “Nice to meet you officially, Officer Luview.”
“That’s Chief Luview,” Nadine sniffed.
“Chief Luview.” She smiled at Luke. “I hope to get to know you better.”
“My word! Are you going after him, too? And carrying another man’s baby!” Nadine huffed.
“NADINE!” Both men chewed her out instantly, giving Ana a window into how Dean Luview must have sounded when he disciplined his kids.
“What?” Defensive now, she looked more bewildered than dangerous. “I’m just confused.”
“I’m married. You know that,” Luke chided her.
“And I’m just sick of being the object of gossip,” Dennis growled.
Ana quickly calculated the social and psychological landscape before her. Nadine was all bark and no bite, but she clearly had standing in the tiny community. If Aunt Lucinda had called her, she mattered here.
Which meant that Ana wanted to be on her good side, because she intended to be around Luview, Maine for a long time.
A very long time, if things went right with Dennis.
“Mrs. Khouri,” she began. “You heard what Lucinda said about Dennis, yes?”
“Of course.”
“It’s all true, but it’s true about another man.”
“Including the…” she looked around furtively, “...the condom part?”
“Yes.”
Eyes going wide, Nadine’s whole countenance changed.
“And,” Ana added, controlling the frame of this conversation, “I’m a bit embarrassed by all the attention.
I’m trying to move on in my life. Find happiness.
Prepare for single motherhood. Dennis and I have a happy past together and we’re reacquainting ourselves.
I’m sure you understand. You seem to be very insightful when it comes to the human condition. ”
Luke looked like he was about to gag.
“I most definitely am!” Nadine said, clearly susceptible to flattery. Ana wasn’t being disingenuous. She could tell that the old woman wanted attention, and used gossip to get it.
Why not give her positive attention that didn’t involve brokering other people’s foibles?
“Then I’m sure you understand what it’s like to stumble in life and work hard to get back up. Find some joy. Move forward.”
“If anyone understands that, my dear, it’s me.” Nadine looked at Dennis. “I apologize. I came in heated and should have thought it through.”
Behind her, Luke’s jaw dropped open. He looked like a cartoon character.
“Now, let me move my car and stop being a nuisance!” Nadine giggled. “Have fun going out to dinner. You’re having Indian?”
“Yes,” Ana said. “And I’m starving!”
Grimacing, Nadine stuck out her tongue. “I can’t stand that stuff. But I do like Korean!”
“Good for you!” Dennis said in a super-fake voice that made Ana want to smack him.
But it worked. Nadine pulled away, all waves.
Luke looked at her like she had just turned water into wine.
“I see why Dennis is so taken with you. You just charmed Nadine. Annabeth’s mother.”
“Who is Annabeth?”
Both men laughed through their noses.
“She’s been hitting on me since I got home,” Dennis explained, looking at her like he expected a jealous response.
“Ah.”
“For you to get Nadine to like you took some skill.”
“I’m a therapist,” she told Luke, who shot Dennis a glare.
“You never told us that,” he said in an accusing voice.
“Why would I?”
“You’re going to have a field day analyzing our family,” Luke told her.
“I’m off the clock in my personal life,” she replied, using a well-worn phrase for moments like this.
Luke shut his eyes and rubbed his forehead, then gave her a sheepish smile.
“Sorry. What I said is like when people find out I’m a cop and say, ‘Hope I haven’t done anything I could get arrested for, har har.’”
“Yep, you sounded that stupid, little bro,” Dennis said, deadpan. “Great job.”
“Feed that meter or I’ll give you a parking ticket,” was all Luke could come back with. Taking him at his word, Ana walked over to the meter, which adorably accepted change, and put thirty minutes’ worth in. Meters stopped charging at six.
“Bye, Luke. Go find a hot dog and some mustard and start a band.”
Luke’s reply was decidedly off-color. Dennis took her hand and walked them quickly toward Love You India.
“Is it always like this?” she asked.
“Intrusive? Inappropriate? The amplification of tiny details into major drama? Yes, yes, and yes.”
“Okay, then.”
As they approached the door to the restaurant, she smelled coriander and cumin, which wiped away the last few minutes of strangeness.
The scent reminded her of Cambridge and all the great meals she’d had at Nirvana, an Indian restaurant there.
But they didn’t have red heart plates, or heart-shaped water glasses.
Or elephant statues with red hearts painted on the sides.
“Hello! Dennis!” A woman in black pants and a white shirt, her thick hair in a braid, met them with menus. “So good to see you.”
“Hi, Davi. Two for dinner.”
Davi’s eyes dropped to Ana’s belly. “We have a dinner buffet tonight, if you’re interested.”
Dennis gestured for Ana to go first, the word buffet looping in her head like a chant that morphed into a craving. On the way to their table, they walked past steaming dishes, all promising to taste divine.
When they sat down, she looked at Dennis, and: “Buffet,” they said together.
Davi laughed. “Perfect. Something to drink?”
“Water,” Ana said, and Dennis ordered water and a chai drink.
“Huh,” he said, reaching across the table for her hand. “We definitely made the right choice.”
“That buffet!”
“Sure. But I also realized just now that taking you to a bar probably wouldn’t be much fun.”
“Why?”
He looked at her waist.
“Oh! Right. I can’t drink. But I play a mean game of darts.”
“Don’t tell Kell. He’ll make us go to Bilbee’s and play.”
“I’d like that,” she said softly, letting the reality of their attraction roll out in real time.
“Me, too.”
“Next date?” she asked.