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On her day off, Stella took the boys to meet her father and his wife at the zoo Within an hour, the boys were carting around rubber snakes, balloons, and chowing down on ice crearandparent&039;s priiven her sons only this one set, she let them have free rein

When the reptile house beca the controls of the next stage to Granddad

"Your mom&039;s always been squeamish about snakes," Will told the boys

"And I&039;o ahead I&039;ll wait"

"I&039;ll keep you company" Jolene adjusted her baby-blue ball cap "I&039;d rather be with Stella than a boa constrictor any day"

"Girls" Will exchanged a pitying look with each of his grandsons "Come on, men, into the snake pit!"

On a battle cry, the three of theood with thelad we&039;re living close now, and they can see each other regularly"

"You couldn&039;t be happier about it than we are I swear that man&039;s been like a kid hiet here He couldn&039;t be uess we bothup"

"It&039;s good you&039;re lanced at Jolene as they walked over to a bench "You never say anything about her You never criticize"

"Sugar pie, I bit ue to ribbons more times than I can count in the last twenty-seven years"

"Why?"

"Well, honey, when you&039;re the second wife, and the step you can do Besides, you grew up to be a strong, shtest, reen earth What&039;s the point of criticizing?"

She does you, Stella thought "Have I ever told you I think you&039;re the best thing that ever happened to my father?"

"Maybe once or twice" Jolene pinked prettily "But I neverit repeated"

"Let s that ever happened to me And the kids"

"Oh, now" This ti" She dug in her purse, dug out a lace hankie "That&039;s the sweetest thing The sweetest thing" She sniffled, tried to dab at her eyes and hug Stella at the same time "I just love you to pieces I always did"

"I always felt it" Tearing up herself, Stella pushed through her own purse for a more mundane tissue "God, look at the mess we&039;ve made of each other"

"It orth it Soood as some sex Do I have mascara all down my face?"

"No Just a little " Stella used the corner of her tissue to wipe away a smear under Jolene&039;s eye

"There You&039;re fine"

"I feel like aon before I start leaking again"

"Work-wise it couldn&039;t be better It really couldn&039;t We&039;re about to hit the spring rush dead-on, and I&039; friends at school Actually, between you and ot a crush on this little curly-headed blond in his class Her naet red when helike your first crush, is there? I remember mine I was crazy for this boy He had a face full of freckles and a cowlick I just about died with joy the day he gave me a little hop-toad in a shoe box"

"A toad"

"Well, honey, I was eight and a country girl, so it was a thoughtful gift all in all He ended upand had to wear the h I could&039;ve hidden a horse under it and rode to the church It was covered with ruffles, so I looked like a hu cake"

She waved a hand while Stella rolled with laughter "I don&039;t knohy I&039; on about that, except it&039;s the sort of trauet, even after more than thirty years Now they live on the other side of the city We get together every now and then for dinner He&039;s still got the freckles, but the cowlick went, along with uess you know a lot of the people and the history of the area, since you&039;ve lived here all your life"

"I guess I do Can&039;t go to the Wal-Mart, day or night, without seeing half a dozen people I know"

"What do you know about the Harper ghost?"

"Hmm" Jolene took out a compact and her lipstick and freshened her face "Just that she&039;s always roamed around there, or at least as far back as anybody can re to sound insane, especially co frooodness" She snapped the co"

"There isn&039;t a lot to tell"

But she told her what there was, and what she&039;d begun to do about it

"This is so exciting! You&039;re like a detective Maybe your father and I could help You kno he loves playing on that computer of his Stella!" She clamped a hand on Stella&039;s arm "I bet she wasand buried in a shallow grave Or duht so"

"Let host, at least is whole Added to that, our biggest lead is the ancestor who died in childbirth," Stella reht" Jolene sulked a moment, obviously disappointed "Well, if it turns out it&039;s her, that&039;d be sad, but not nearly as thrilling as murder You tell your daddy all about this, and we&039;ll see e can do We&039;ve both got plenty of time on our hands It&039;ll be fun"

"It&039;s a departure forfro have to do with a rin?"

Stella&039;s eyes narrowed "And ould you ask?"

"My third cousin, Lucille? Youdinner in the city a couple nights ago and toldyoung man She didn&039;t come by your table because she ith her latest beau And he&039;s not altogether divorced froether divorced for a year and a half now, but that&039;s Lucille for you"

Jolene waved it away "So, who&039;s the good-looking young e"

"Oh" It ca ht you didn&039;t like him"

"I didn&039;t not like hi and difficult to ith We&039;re getting along a little better at work, and soure out if I want to see hiain"

"What&039;s to work out? You do or you don&039;t"

"I do, but I shouldn&039;t ask you to gossip"

Jolene wiggled closer on the bench "Honey, if you can&039;t ask lanced toward the reptile house to be sure her boys weren&039;t heading out

"I wondered, before I get too involved, if he sees a lot of women"

"You want to know if he cats around"

"I guess that&039;s the word for it"

"I&039;d say a ets lucky when he has a an Kitridge is one randy son of a gun&039; Like they do about an is people - woet loose, or why so about scooping?"

"No No, definitely not"

"Maybe he&039;s thinking about scooping you up"

"I&039;d say we&039;re both just testing the ground" She caught sight of herabout any of this in front of the boys, okay?"

"Lips are sealed"

In the Garden opened at eight, prepared for its advertised spring opening as for a war Stella hadout of supplies They had backups, seasoned recruits, and the field of coanized and displayed

By ten they were swa the showrooisters rang like church bells

Shein where she felt she was iven time She answered questions froons and carts when the staff was too overwhelet to them, and personally helped countless people load purchases in their cars, trucks, or SUVs

She used the tay on her belt like a general

"Miss? Do you work here?"

Stella paused and turned to the woed sweatshirt "Yes, ma&039;am, I do I&039;m Stella How can I help you?"

"I can&039;t find the colulove or I can&039;t find half of what&039;s on ed around"

"We did do so Why don&039;t I help you find what you&039;re looking for?"

"I&039;ve got that flat cart there loaded already" She nodded toward it "I don&039;t want to have to be hauling it all over creation"

"You&039;re going to be busy, aren&039;t you?" Stella said cheerfully "And onderful choices Steve? Would you take this cart up front and tag it for MrsI&039;erty" She pursed her lips "That&039;d be fine Don&039;t you let anybody snatch stuff off it, though I spent a good while picking all that out"

"No, erty?"

"I&039; fine How&039;s yourfine, too," Steve lifted the handle of her cart "Mrs Haggerty&039;s got one of the finest gardens in the county," he told Stella

"I&039; in some new beds You mind my cart, Steve, or I&039;ll come after you Nohere the hell&039;s the coluet you another cart, Mrs Haggerty"

Stella grabbed one on the way

"You that new girl Rosalind hired?"

"Yes, ma&039;am"

"From up north"

"Guilty"

She pursed her lips, peered around with obvious irritation "You sure have shuffled things around"

"I know I hope the new scheme will save the customer time and trouble"

"Hasn&039;t savedthe bill of her frayed straw hat against the sun as she studied pots of yarrow

"That achillea&039;s good and healthy, isn&039;t it? Does so well in the heat and has a nice long bloo season"

"Wouldn&039;t hurt to pick up a few things for hter while I&039;m here" She chose three of the pots, then ed to draw Mrs Haggerty into conversation They&039;d filled the second cart and half of a third by the tih the perennial area

"I&039;ll say this, you know your plants"

"I can certainly return the coot ahead of you"

Mrs Haggerty stopped, peering around again But this tis set up here, I probably bought half again as much as I planned on"

This time Stella offered a wide, wide smile "Really?"