A Penny for Your Thoughts by Bess McBride Read Free Book Online Page A

just dropped Trish off. We had dinner.”
    “How is she?”
    “Good. She’s good. You know. School’s starting again in a few days, so...back to the grindstone, I guess.”  
    “What did you say she was studying? I don’t remember.”
    “Mom, you’ve got the shortest memory. I swear. She’s a graphic arts major.”
    “Oh, that’s right. Sorry. So how’s your dad?”
    “He’s fine, Mom. You know Dad.”
    “And Lyla?”
    “She’s fine, too, Mom. She and Dad just got back from Mexico. They went to Cabo for a few days.”
    “Are you kidding? Leaving you there alone? Why didn’t you go? I didn’t know they were going to Mexico.”
    “Mom, I’m twenty one! Way old enough to be on my own. You know? Twenty one?” Travis chuckled. “I didn’t want to go. Trish had to work, and I didn’t want to go without her, so I stayed.”
    “Oh,” Penny replied, imagining warmer sunny beaches on the Mexican Riviera, her tall, handsome, blonde ex-husband and his equally tall, beautiful and blonde wife. They’d been such a mismatch. He’d seemed so self-assured, so confident...the complete opposite of her young, immature and confused self. Why had he ever married her, she wondered.
    “At any rate, all my parents seem to be running off to beaches and abandoning me,” Travis said over a chuckle. “How is it down there?”
    “Here?” Penny fought her way out of the mists of memory. “Fine...you know. It’s really very beautiful here. You would not believe today though.” Against her better judgment, she told her son about the menacing phone call, the bank robbery and meeting Matt.
    “Do you remember him?” she asked.
    “Not really, Mom. I was only...what? Maybe five or six?”
    “Oh,” she replied nonplussed. It seemed inconceivable that someone could forget Matt, but that was probably her own rose-colored memory at work. Matt taught Travis how to ride his bike for the first time. Travis once adored Matt, but that had been long ago.
    “Mom, tell me about him later. I’m worried about the phone call. That doesn’t sound good.”
    “I think it was just a prank, and not a very nice one. I’m going to try to forget about it.”
    “You don’t think it has anything to do with...”
    “With?” Penny prompted with a knot in her stomach.
    “I’m sorry, Mom... Anything to do with your client?”
    “No, absolutely not! That’s not possible...as far as I know. Who would do such a thing?”
    “Calm down, Mom. Calm down. I’m just asking. Did you happen to tell the police about that?”
    “No, it has nothing to do with this. I can’t believe that.”
    “Okay, okay,” he said soothingly. “Well, take care of yourself. How long have you been there now?”
    “Two months,” she sniffed.
    “Well, you’re picking up an accent. I thought you should know.”
    “Really?” she squeaked.
    “Yup! I can hear it. You’ve developed quite the genteel Southern drawl.”
    “Oh, stop,” she murmured, her cheeks turning pink. “I have not.”
    “Yes you have. They’ll never understand you when you get back to Michigan.”
    “Michigan. It seems far away right now. At any rate, I think half the state has come down here for the winter.”
    “Is that where they went? I always wondered where everybody went when it got cold. And I thought they all came out to Southern California.”
    Penny laughed, putting the past behind her and feeling comforted by the sound of family. She vowed to call her mother the following day.
    “So, tell me about this Chief Williams guy.”
    Penny shrugged. “Oh, there’s not much to tell. We went to college together. Since we were both a little older than the average student, I guess we bonded. He was in criminal justice, and I was working on my teaching certificate. You and I spent a lot of time with him. He took us rafting on the Missouri River, golfing...though you were too little to enjoy that. We went to Glacier National Park and Yellowstone. It was great.”
    “So what