Scandal by Patsy Brookshire Page A

don't really mean that. It's just that it's been such a long time I've been afraid that
he'd come back home. Never knowing. Looking over my shoulder, wondering if he was going to
show up and wreck something."
    She set the glass down and tugged at the bedding. I lifted the covers, and she pulled her
legs and body back onto the bed. I plumped up her pillows and with a little groan she lay back
down.
    "Do you think you can go back to sleep now? If you don't sleep I wonder about you coming
with me tomorrow. With Len and me," I amended, "to pick up Sam. We could always bring him to
you."
    "No. I'll be okay. I need the trip."
    As I leaned to turn the bedside lamp off, I saw a twinkle, dim but lighting the corners of her
eyes.
    "Besides, someone has to chaperone you two. That boy is up to no good. You mark my
words." The twinkle faded and I clicked off the light. "Thank you for helping me. Lena's a basket
case and most of my friends are on a quilt retreat. I felt so alone."
    "Glad to help," I whispered but I don't think she heard me, because the next noise from her
bed was a light snore.

Chapter 21
Magda's Morning After
    When I woke the morning after the bear found Tommy, I felt drugged. I lay there gathering
my bearings until my body propelled me to the bathroom. I needed to scrub off everything that had
happened yesterday. As I stood under the shower nozzle with the hottest water I could handle
pouring over me, my head began to clear. The nightmare was over. Soaping up a washcloth, I
washed Tommy's touch, from my face to my toes, down the drain. Yesterday had been the final
straw in a lifetime of nightmares with him.
    The Quilt Show was coming up and I had responsibilities.
    Annie was moving around in the kitchen. I heard cupboards being opened and shut, then
the smell of coffee. I prefer tea in the early morning but I was relieved to not have to make any
decisions. Coffee would do fine. Annie's quilt needed finishing, and I needed to teach her how to do
that. While I dressed I mentally put fabric together, laid out batting and put a backing on it. I
imagined it about ready for CanDoIt, the name I'd given my quilting machine.
    I pulled on tan pants and a pink sweater, the brown walking shoes I always take to the
beach, and accessorized with shell earrings and a heart necklace.
    Annie was buttering toast. "Coffee there for you, Magda, if you want it." She pointed to the
cup at my place, with bowl and spoon. The tablecloth was one of my flowered pieces of fabric, a
large square of thin cotton printed with roses of pink and red.
    Tommy had sneered as he was readying to leave this last time. "I'll be glad to be rid of all
this girlie cloth with little flowers."
    I'd looked around after he left, and dang it, I did have lots of flowered fabric. I bought more
but he never got to see it. I suppose that's for the best.
    "I'll be glad," I'd snapped back, "when I don't have to listen to you sneering at me,
either."
    He'd been surprised when I said that. I usually just go quiet when he attacks my
quilting.
    I noticed what Annie was wearing. "Lord, girl, do you think that neckline's low
enough?"
    She tugged at the neckline of the dark blue sweater, trying to bring it up so not quite so
much cleavage was showing.
    "That doesn't help much. I like your skirt, love the way it sways, and florals are my favorite,
but, a skirt to the beach?" I went into my room and brought her a camisole. "Save the boobs for him,
I'd rather look at fabric." I threw it to her.
    She sat down at the table and laid the lacy camisole in her lap. Took a sip of her coffee.
    "That guy's got you in a tailspin," I said while I filled my bowl with Wheat Chex, poured on
the milk, sprinkled on some sugar and ate with an appetite that surprised me.
    Annie mumbled through a bite of toast, "Yeah. I guess."
    I couldn't say that I was any better. I should have been thinking about Tommy and was
wondering how Sammy would like me in pink? Were we crazy, or what?
    Hormones. I'd thought I