Twanged by Carol Higgins Clark Read Free Book Online

getting out of town for six weeks. On Wednesday they were leaving for their grandniece’s wedding in Pennsylvania. After that they’d drive west.
    “Some places it might get cold, you know. Maybe it is a good idea to bring your wool socks. They’re a little heavier and I know how you get when your feet are cold. Nothing worse than having cold feet.” Pearl sat down and started at him.
    “The only person we have to worry about getting cold feet is the groom,” Ernie grumbled. He turned to Pearl. “Pearl, you know I can’t work with you staring like that.”
    “I feel lonesome inside. I have no one to argue with. I’m not used to you working.”
    “With what I make on this we can take a trip to Florida this winter.” He turned back to the fiddle.
    “Two trips in one year. You’re the last of the big spenders.” Pearl laughed and got up. She leaned over to give Ernie a kiss on his bald head. Startled, he jerked and knocked the pitcher of lemonade all over the freshly stained wood.
    “Pearl!”
    “I’m sorry, Ernie. I’ll run and get some paper towels!”
    Ernie picked up the damp wood and shook his head. “More delays,” he said to himself. Talking to himself was a habit he’d picked up in childhood, and it had only gotten worse when he started his solitary business of building fiddles. “More delays. I’m going to have to strip and revarnish.” Ah nuts, he thought. I just hope that Chappy Tinka doesn’t show up and start bugging me again. What a pest!

7
    W hen Nora and Luke pulled into the driveway of their Bridgehampton home, they found Louisa and Herbert Washburn sitting on the front steps waiting for them.
    Louisa jumped up as if she had just won Lotto. “We made wonderful time getting out here!” she exulted.
    Ten minutes later they were accepting cool glasses of Chardonnay from Luke and plopping themselves onto a couch in the rear “living space” that ran the length of Luke and Nora’s airy home. Pine floors, white couches and chairs, a blond wood dining room table off the open kitchen area, and large windows that overlooked an expansive grassy yard complete with a pool and large trees bordering the property—all combined to give a feeling of elegant simplicity.
    “I’ve heard of that thumbtack family you know, hnnnnnn,” Louisa said. It never took long for a new acquaintance of Louisa’s to realize that many of her statements were punctuated with a nasal exhale and, if someone was close enough, a grab and shake of their elbow. As a result, many a drink had been spilled at cocktail parties.
    Louisa turned to Herbert, a nondescript man whose expression was like Switzerland—always neutral. After forty years of marriage he didn’t seem to notice Louisa’s grunts and grabs anymore. A vague look in his watery blue eyes often made people wonder if the lights were on but nobody was home. “Lambie,” she said.
    “Yes, dear.” Herbert was thin and mostly bald, a gray band of hair forming a horseshoe from ear to ear. He was a head shorter than Louisa, who was often seen affectionately smoothing out his little wisps on top.
    “Years ago. Didn’t we meet Hilda Tinka, this chap Chappy’s mother?” she asked, stricken by a sudden urge to attend to her own hair. Someone had once told her she looked good in an upsweep: then and there it had become her permanent hairdo. Right now she strained to tuck in any stray dyed brown strands that had managed to escape from the bun. Between shampoo days her maintenance consisted of sticking in more and more pins, to the point where she couldn’t make it through an airport X-ray machine without setting off the buzzer. But she was an attractive woman with soft features and warm brown eyes. “Didn’t we?” she continued. “Hnnnnnn?”
    Herbert scrunched up his mouth and blew out. His eyes remained in a fixed stare in the direction of the coffee table. Finally he answered thoughtfully, “Could be.”
    “That’s what I thought. Hnnnn.” She turned