Pamela Morsi by Love Overdue Read Free Book Online Page B

John, wouldn’t have been pleased about.
    “Why should a bright, intelligent woman go around pretending that she’s an idiot?” he’d asked her early on in their time together.
    “The world is simply an easier place when people think you’re too dumb to understand it,” she explained. “When people see that you know what you’re doing, they have no qualms about second-guessing or offering critique.”
    Still, because John hated it, through the years she’d tried to be more true to herself. But now...well, when a woman needed to hide her motives, it was always best to appear too stupid to have one.
    Viv stopped at the most familiar tombstone and used the excuse of dust to run a loving hand across the top of the granite.
    “Good morning, darling,” she said. “I’m back with the pruning shears for these moss roses. I knew I should have planted perennials, but I thought it might be a waste.” With a hand on the stone, she dropped to her knees. “I brought someone with me.” Glancing over at Dew she added, “I’m hoping he won’t take it into his mind to poop on you.”
    The dog, apparently seeing her move to the ground as an invitation, hurried over, tail wagging, to sit right beside her. He rolled over on his back, offering his tummy for her attention.
    “Silly mutt,” she said. “I wasn’t talking to you.” Still, Viv obliged him with a belly scratch. Enough so that the dog’s eyes closed in rapt appreciation and his right leg moved in concert, as if attached to her fingers with a string.
    She couldn’t keep from grinning. “He’s not my dog,” she assured the stone. “I’m just walking him.” She urged the dog to his feet. She unhitched his leash and shooed him away. “Go! Play!” she ordered. “And try not to dig anybody up.”
    As if following her directive explicitly, Dew tucked his body low to the ground and began racing around the cemetery in large circles. Stopping suddenly to gaze at her before taking off again. It was almost as if he were daring her to chase him.
    Viv laughed. “He’s a funny little dog,” she said. “And he seems smart, too. He belongs to the new librarian, of course. I nearly choked when she asked if a pet would be welcome in the accommodations. I’m too much like my mother, I suppose, but I’ve always believed that animals should be outside or in barns. Even that dog we got Scott lived in his doghouse or on the porch. It’s like inviting dirt and fleas right into the living room! But I knew from the sound of her voice that if I said no pets she simply wouldn’t have come.”
    Viv retrieved her scissors from her bag and began to deadhead the blossoms that were past their prime and trim up the leaves that were growing so well they threatened to obscure the name and dates chiseled into the granite.
    “I guess it could be worse,” Viv said. “She could have a big old cat. That’s like buying a billboard to say, ‘I’m an old maid!’ A dog at least indicates that a woman still craves affection.”
    Trimming the moss rose was a two-minute task. She stretched it into five and then spent another five carefully cutting the grass that grew nearby with the precision of a haircutter. The fine-bladed bermuda had spread over the grave like a scab on a wound until the hard-packed earth beneath it was almost completely hidden. The memory, however, was still fresh for Viv. She had come here every day since her husband had been buried. She intended to keep doing that until she lay beside him again.
    “His name is Dewey, Melvil Dewey,” Viv continued, glancing over at the dog as he made mad dashes around and around. “That’s kind of clever, don’t you think? It shows some creativity and a bit of humor. I mean she could have called him Rover or Blackie. Anyway, she’s certainly attractive enough and she seems to be smart, I just want her to be fun.”
    Perhaps hearing his name or simply tiring of his game of circles, the dog trotted over to sit beside her. He