Hot Buttered Yum (20 page)

Roni scribbled on the piece of paper lying on top of the
piano before putting her hands back to the keys. She played the stanza again,
shook her head, then tried it a different way.

That one brought a smile to her mouth.

She hurried and corrected the notes on the sheet before
playing it once more to make certain it was what she wanted. She nodded.
Perfect.

It was almost eight-thirty on Sunday morning and she’d been
at the piano for going on three hours. Ginger would be there any minute. Roni
had let her know that breakfast would be waiting. It was the least Roni could
do after asking her friend to stop by so early on a weekend morning.

She moved to another section of the piece she’d been struggling
with and ran her fingers along the keys as she worked through the notes in her
mind. She’d written a few concertos in the past, most of them while working
with other people. She’d also taken more popular songs and changed them up,
adding a classical spin. But lately she’d been experimenting with her own
stuff.

And she had to admit, she wasn’t bad.

The front door opened across the room behind her but she
didn’t look around. She’d left it unlocked when Lucas had headed back to the
hotel that morning.

“I have a quiche warming in the oven,” Roni said, still
concentrating on the music. She closed her eyes and played the last six bars again.
Yeah, that was it. “Make yourself at home. I’ll be done in just a sec.”        

She quickly scribbled the notes and played it again, then
moved to the next section.

Ginger didn’t say anything. She merely sat down next to Roni
on the bench.

“Mmmm,” Roni murmured as she erased a whole line of notes.
She was close to what she wanted, but wasn’t quite there yet. “You smell
terrific.”

Then she caught the scent of another perfume right behind
her.

She looked up and swung her head to the person beside her.
And her eyes went wide.

“Andie!” Roni shouted.

Her friend laughed out loud and then Roni, Andie, and Ginger
were all hugging and jumping and squealing like little girls. Roni felt like
she was a teenager again and she’d just arrived on Turtle Island for the summer
and met up with her friends. She pulled back a bit and looked Andie up and down.
Her hair was longer, and her curves were just as awesome as ever.

“You look terrific,” Roni gushed. “What are you doing here?
When did you get in?” The words poured out. They hadn’t seen Andie since October
when she’d made a quick trip down to spend the weekend for her mom’s birthday.
“I thought you weren’t coming in until the parade next weekend.”

Andie lifted a thin shoulder covered in pale-green cashmere.
Earrings with several long dangles tinkled together with her movements. God,
she was gorgeous. She was practically glowing. “I’m staying
through
the
parade now,” Andie said. “I took an early flight down this morning. I heard you
needed us.”

Roni went still. She looked from one friend to the other.
Then she felt tears speeding to the surface and she pulled the two of them in
for another hug.

“You came down from Boston because I wanted to talk?” Roni
spoke through a suddenly stuffy nose.

“I came down from Boston because you wanted to talk,” Andie
confirmed.

One more tight hug and Roni felt like she could speak
without emotion clogging her throat. She swiped at her eyes. “You are the
greatest.” She looked at Ginger. “And I assume you had something to do with
this?”

Ginger gave a quick nod. “I had a feeling this was going to
be a biggie.”

Roni swallowed. She wiped at her face again and then pulled
her hands away and stared at the wetness on her skin. She was crying. Good lord,
she hadn’t cried in years. She’d come close recently. A tear here or there. But
right now, she had tears streaming down her face.

She lowered her hands and smiled at her two best friends in
the world. Talking about Zoe would be hard enough, but as if they’d completely
understood what she needed, they’d just made it loads easier. “I love you
guys.”

They hugged once more and then Ginger stepped away. “I’ll
get the quiche,” she said. “I’m starving.”

“I’ll get the glasses.” Andie held up her hand and displayed
a bottle of champagne. “We’re having mimosas with breakfast.”

“Perfect,” Roni murmured. She glanced over at the piano.
“Just let me scribble out one last thing before I forget?”

“Sure.” Ginger and Andie both headed to the kitchen and Roni
returned to the piano.

“I have the table set up on the deck,” Roni muttered,
motioning with one hand in the air. “Just grab another place setting and we’ll
eat out there.”

Roni replayed the last few bars she’d been working on and
then worked furiously to get the correct notes on the page. When she finished,
she sat up straight and looked around. She was alone in the room, and another fifteen
minutes had passed.

Ginger and Andie were both on the deck, as was all the food.

“You found the avocado and strawberries I’d cut up,” Roni said
as she stepped through the sliding glass door. She squinted against the
brilliance of the sunlight.

“You had the bowls stacked beside the juice in the fridge.
They seemed to be there for a reason.” Andie fussed with the linens and
silverware Roni had set out.

Roni had cleaned the kitchen after Lucas had left that
morning, so while she’d been at it, she’d pulled out her grandmother’s china
and the napkins she had picked up in India to celebrate her twenty-fifth
birthday. They’d been used only a handful of times.

“Is that your neighbor?” Ginger stood at the railing,
looking out across the yard.

Roni jerked her head around. Sure enough, Mrs. Rylander was
beating a path from under Roni’s deck, back across the yard to her house. “Hang
on,” Roni murmured. “I need to talk to her.”

She ran in to grab the tea set Mrs. Rylander had brought
over the previous morning, then took off down the back steps. She caught the
woman about fifty feet away.

“You’re fast for an old lady,” Roni said.

“Oh!” Mrs. Rylander squawked and whirled around, bringing her
hands to her chest. “You’re not supposed to see me,” she accused.

Roni laughed with the pure pleasure of the moment. She’d put
a small table and two chairs under her deck months ago so the woman wouldn’t have
to stand when she came over to hear Roni play, and Mrs. Rylander still wanted
to pretend that she didn’t sneak across the yard most mornings.

“I’m sorry.” Roni tried to sound apologetic. “Let’s pretend
it’s not morning and I didn’t just finish playing the piano.” She wrapped her
arm through the woman’s elbow and turned her toward her smaller house. “I
wanted to bring you your tea set back. I also wanted to ask if you enjoyed your
little ride yesterday.”

“What ride?”

“Uh … the one down my stairs?”

Pale eyes turned to hers and Roni noticed for the first time
that her neighbor looked closer to her age today than she normally did. The creases
around her eyes seemed deeper, and her mouth was turned down. Also, her skin had
a sallow color to it.

“Are you okay, Mrs. Rylander?” Roni reached out, intending
to make sure she wasn’t running a fever, but Mrs. Rylander jerked her head
back.

“Of course I’m fine. I was just out for a walk.”

“I know.” Roni patted the arm in hers. “Your walks must be
interesting, given the fact you take the same path every morning,” she murmured
wryly.

Mrs. Rylander twisted up her face. “If you want to insist on
pointing out that I like to listen to you play on occasion, then I’ll point out
that you had company overnight.
Thankyouverymuch
.”

Roni chuckled again, enjoying her neighbor, and smiled even
wider when she heard the happy sound of her laughter echoing back to her. “It
was a good night,” she conceded.

“Should have been. That man may not be my Henry, but he’s
close. He’s a very good-looking man. And whew,” Mrs. Rylander waved her free
hand in front of her face. “The muscles on that one. They sure are nice.”

Roni thought about how those muscles had pinned her up
against the shower wall yesterday morning. “That they are, Mrs. Rylander. That.
They. Are.”

The older lady cut her eyes over at Roni then, before
glancing behind her at the way they’d come. When she turned back, Roni thought
she saw a bit of loneliness clinging to her features.

“You seem to have more company this morning too,” Mrs.
Rylander murmured. “You’re quite the social butterfly lately.”

“My girlfriends are here.” Roni glanced at her deck herself.
“We’re going to have a long-overdue talk.” She had the urge to invite Mrs.
Rylander over, but she needed this time with her friends.

She needed to tell them about Zoe.

And she wanted their take on this situation she’d found
herself in with Lucas.

“Would you like to come over for breakfast someday, Mrs.
Rylander?” Roni asked as they stepped through the gate separating the two
yards. “I could fix pancakes or waffles, or—oh!” Her eyes rounded. “How about
eggs Benedict? I haven’t fixed that in years.”

Charles had always wanted eggs Benedict when he’d stayed
over at her apartment. That hadn’t happened too often since one or both of them
was usually traveling. They’d rarely been in the same city together. But Roni loved
to cook. She’d become quite the expert on hollandaise sauce over the years, and
she thought she might still be able to whip up a batch.

“After your run someday?” Mrs. Rylander asked. She untied
her customary scarf from under her chin as they reached her back door. “I
usually eat earlier than that.”

Roni was giving up her run today—the first time she’d done
that voluntarily since she’d moved to the island, and she certainly didn’t want
to get in the habit of it—but she suddenly wanted to skip it again. For her
neighbor this time. She also wanted to use that time to try to wheedle some
information out of the woman about her kids. Was it true none of them ever
visited her?

Mrs. Rylander was clearly lonely. Roni wanted to help. Maybe
she wouldn’t solve anything, but if she could be an ear on occasion … she
wanted to do that for her neighbor. Just like Mrs. Rylander was there for her for
their beach talks.

“After I finish on the piano, then,” Roni suggested. “How
about Wednesday?”

“This week?” Those pale-blue eyes had a bit more life in
them now.

Roni squeezed her neighbor’s hand and then passed over the
tea set. “This week.”

Thin lips slipped into a hesitant smile and Mrs. Rylander
gave a small nod. “I would like that, I suppose.”

Before she could change her mind, Roni leaned in and gave
her a quick peck on her cool cheek. Mrs. Rylander stiffened, but she didn’t
pull away. They’d never had these kinds of moments before.

“Don’t come up the stairs by yourself,” Roni admonished, as
she turned to go. “After you get through eavesdropping on my playing, I mean. I’ll
come down and help you up.”

Mrs. Rylander blew out a huff. “You could invite that hunk
to stay for breakfast and he could come down and help me. I’m a feeble old
woman, you know?”

“You’re full of crap,” Roni tossed over her shoulder. She threw
up a wave. “It’ll just be me and you. He leaves before I get to the piano.”

“You might want to think about keeping him.”

Roni stopped at the quickly spoken words. She turned back.
“What?”

“Keep him,” Mrs. Rylander said with a sure nod. “He’s a good
one.”

A breeze picked up and skated across them, and Mrs. Rylander
brought a hand to her hair as if afraid her curls would get mussed in the wind.
The hair on the back of Roni’s neck stood on end.

“You think so?” she asked. She’d already decided that Lucas
was a good one. She didn’t know if that would be enough to “keep him,” or if
she even wanted to, but she had to agree with her neighbor’s assessment.

“Have you watched him this week?” Mrs. Rylander asked. “He
holds doors open for women.” The smile on the other woman’s face hinted that
she was drifting away to another place and another time. “And he talks
to
people. Not at them. He pays attention when others speak.” Her gaze emptied a
little and her smile flattened. “He sometimes reminds me of my Henry. The good
parts.”

A look of loneliness passed over the thinner, wrinkled skin
of the other woman again and Roni fought the urge to step back over and wrap
her arms around her. Maybe someday. But for now, an invite to breakfast seemed
like far enough to push.

“I’ll see you Wednesday morning,” Roni said.

The white head bobbed, and Mrs. Rylander gave one more
slight smile. “Thank you.”

Roni turned and fled. She didn’t want to think about the
sadness that had been reaching out to her as she’d stood on the woman’s patio.
Mrs. Rylander clearly had hurts in her past. So much so that she was now here all
alone.

A chill raced up Roni’s spine, and she couldn’t help but
wonder if Henry had somehow played into that. Mrs. Rylander had clearly loved
him, but there had been something else in her eyes just now when she’d
mentioned her husband. Something that had looked a bit like regret.

Roni skidded to a stop as she approached her deck and looked
up. Both of her friends stood at the railing, mimosas in hand, and sent up a silent
toast with their champagne flutes.

“When did that start?” Ginger asked.

Roni hurried up the steps. “Mrs. Rylander? She’s been
sneaking over for months. I thought I told you that.”

“You did. I didn’t think you two acknowledged the fact,
though.”

Roni grabbed her own drink and took a sip. Delicious. Then
she looked at her friends and stated, “There are a lot of things I haven’t been
acknowledging. I’m trying to change that.”

Her words set the tone and the three women settled down to breakfast.
They passed the quiche and fruit around the table, and then Andie lifted her
glass in a toast.