Aurora 07 - Last Scene Alive by Charlaine Harris Read Free Book Online

don’t you say one word about it, Aurora. Perry’s a young man; he doesn’t need any burdens. He needed to put all his resources into the effort of getting well and staying well. And getting married!”
    I clamped my mouth shut. After a moment, I asked Sally how her chef salad was.
    And that was the way it went the rest of the meal. We stayed superficial.

    In addition to Catherine’s old car, there was a black Taurus parked in my driveway. The rental company must specialize in Tauruses. Tauri? Sitting on its gleaming hood was Robin Crusoe.
    I got out of my car slowly, uncertain about how I felt about seeing Robin again after all these years. I’d forgotten how tall he was, at least six three. And he’d filled out quite a bit. I remembered Robin as being weedy thin when he’d lived in my mother’s townhouse. His hair was as bright a red, and his mouth as quirky, and his nose was the same sharp beak. He was wearing dark glasses, which he whipped off and stuck in his pocket as I approached. He stood—and stood, and stood. I put the Great Day bag on the ground, and kept walking toward him, and he held out his arms. I walked right into them. I wrapped my own around him.
    Robin said, “I didn’t know if you’d throw something at me or not.”
    “It was a toss-up,” I admitted. I leaned back to look up at his face. “I’ve been brooding and pouting.”
    He smiled down at me, and I smiled back. It was hard to resist smiling at Robin.
    “How was L.A.?” I asked.
    Robin’s mobile face darkened and all of a sudden he seemed ten years older.
    “Unbelievable,” he said. “I learned a lot. The thing is, I didn’t want to know most of what I learned.”
    “You’ll have to tell me all about it.” I recalled his changed circumstances, his relationship with Celia Shaw. “If you have any free time, that is.” I released him and stepped back.
    “Will you show me your house?”
    “Yes.” I unlocked the door and punched in the security code. I half-expected Robin to say something about the security system, but he must have gotten accustomed to them while he lived on the West Coast.
    “Catherine!” I called. “I’m here with a friend.”
    “Hey, Roe,” she called from upstairs. “I’m just about done.”
    Robin looked at the bright kitchen, done in cream with orange touches, and went into the hall, admiring the built-in bookcases and the hardwood floors. The den, which was warm in dark blue and deep red, drew a compliment, and the dining room and living room got a nod.
    There was one smallish bedroom downstairs, and he glanced in its door.
    “What’s upstairs?” he asked.
    “Two bedrooms and a small room Martin kept his workout stuff in,” I said.
    “I’m sorry, Roe,” Robin said.
    I kept my gaze averted. “Thanks,” I said briefly. “Would you like to see the patio? We added it on after we moved in, and I wonder sometimes if it wasn’t a mistake.”
    As I was about to open the kitchen door, the cat flap vibrated and Madeleine wriggled through. “I’ve never seen that fat a cat,” Robin said, clearly impressed. “Is this Madeleine?”
    “The one and only.” I’d inherited Madeleine after Robin left Lawrenceton, but I remembered writing him about the big orange cat.
    The patio forgotten, Robin bent to hold out his hand to Madeline. She glared at him after she sniffed it. Pointedly, she turned her back to him and waddled off to her food bowl. It was empty, and she sat in front of it with the air of someone who could wait all day. She would, too. I got out her kibble and filled her bowl. When food was in front of her Madeleine ignored the rest of the world, and she dove in as eagerly as usual.
    Catherine came downstairs, her feet heavy on the treads. Catherine was the most consistent

    “help” I’d ever had. Mostly women came to work for me, showed up on time at first, and then drifted on to some other job. Sometimes they’d tell me; sometimes they just wouldn’t show up.
    Cleaning houses