Hit and Run by Sandra Balzo Page B

expenses – and counting – take center stage in her brain.

ELEVEN
    â€˜I told you so,’ Joy said to AnnaLise. After dinner had broken up, they’d taken their wine out onto the patio so Joy could satisfy her nicotine jones.
    While Joy’s cancer stick might be keeping her warm, neither the nearby space heater nor AnnaLise’s revisiting of recent conversations were doing the same for her.
    Their backs were to the newly-applied plywood wall, providing privacy that the glass windows couldn’t have. Not that it was necessary. The rest of the reunion had moved into the media room to watch a movie. Appropriately – or perversely
not
–
When Harry Met Sally
. It was a favorite of AnnaLise’s and would probably prove a good choice for cutting across the generations and tastes of the small but diverse audience, only the journalist hadn’t been in the mood for a love story. Especially one overlaid upon the real-time less-than-romantic farce.
    Noticing herself being somewhat slow on the uptake, AnnaLise had just registered Joy’s first foray. ‘Told me what?’
    Joy grunted. ‘That you shouldn’t turn your nose up at your inheritance. I just hope it isn’t too late for you, what with all these hyenas sniffing around.’
    â€˜They were invited to “sniff,”’ AnnaLise said wearily. ‘And besides, whatever Hart might leave to me down the line isn’t going to help much now.’
    â€˜We could do him in.’ Joy took a drag and blew out its residue as the door from the house opened. ‘Or, being the squeamish type, you could just ask him for a loan.’
    â€˜There you are.’ The words came from Dickens Hart himself. ‘Who needs a loan?’
    Joy gave AnnaLise a significant look, which she promptly ignored. ‘“Loaner,” actually. We were talking about my wrecked, and therefore
no
-car, situation.’
    â€˜You’re welcome to borrow the Porsche, if you’d like.’ Hart started to settle his butt on the corner of a massive wooden planter before standing up with a grimace to brush glass pellets off the seat of his pants. ‘Though I’d have to caution you against driving it in the mountains once the snow starts falling.’
    Which could be any day now. ‘Thanks, but I’ll be fine,’ AnnaLise said simply, then changed the subject. ‘How are you enjoying catching up with everyone?’
    A snort from Joy.
    Hart ignored her. ‘Very much, AnnaLise, and thank you for asking. It’s been like … well, a bit like
This Is Your Life
, what with Rose from my much younger days, Lucinda from early in the White Tail years, then your mother. And, of course, Shirley and Joy.’
    â€˜If I’d have known “Sweet Jail-bait” was going to be here,’ Joy retorted, ‘you can bet I wouldn’t be.’
    At the phrase ‘jail-bait,’ Hart threw a startled look toward AnnaLise before saying, ‘Joy, I don’t know what you mean.’
    â€˜Amazing that you don’t want AnnaLise to be aware of your little misstep,’ Joy said. ‘Yet you invited the only one who really knows what happened – Sugar, herself.’
    Hart said, running a practiced hand through his hair, ‘I happened to mention the weekend to her in passing, and it seemed rude not to include both Sugar and her lovely daughter.’
    â€˜Pig,’ Joy snapped.
    â€˜
Who
,’ Hart continued icily, ‘at least so far, aren’t repaying my hospitality by helping themselves to my wine or making crude jokes at my expense.’
    Joy dropped her cigarette and ground it into the patio block with a toe, seeming ready for a fight.
    â€˜Well, I’m going to head in,’ AnnaLise said, having had enough theatrics for one day.
    â€˜I’ll go with you,’ Hart said hastily. Her biological father was many things, but stupid wasn’t one of them.
    As