Page 2 of To Catch a Latte Thick as Thieves

“They’re an aberration.”

“Dad’s on his third marriage and Mom’s on her fourth.”

“See? They still haven’t given up on finding the right mate,” Mary said.

“Please.” Annie wiped the table with her napkin. “They’re professionals.”

“Hmm,” Mary hummed noncommittally. “You have a bigger dilemma than a purple hooped skirt.”

“I do?”

“Yes.” Mary plunked her cup onto the table. “I saw Stewart. He’s bringing his new girlfriend to the wedding.”

“Oh, good for him,” Annie said and meant it. She had broken off her relationship with Stewart months ago. He was a nice guy, but he wanted to get married and that just didn’t factor into Annie’s plans. She had decided long ago that she wasn’t the marrying kind.

“It’s not fine,” Mary said. “He has some ridiculous idea that seeing him with someone else will make you jealous enough to take him up on his proposal.”

“He told you that?”

“Yes.”

“Subtlety never was one of his strengths,” Annie observed. “I guess I’ll just have to dredge up a date and hammer it home to him that we’re finished.”

“Are you?”

“Yes,” she said with little regret. “After I broke up with him, I realized I never really loved him. Not as much as I should have.”

“So, where are you going to dig up a date in three days?” Mary asked.

“I don’t know? The cemetery?” Annie joked with a shrug.

“I wouldn’t. Corpses make terrible dates – they’re dead bores,” Mary quipped.

“Ugh! That was terrible.” Annie grimaced with a chuckle. Glancing over her sister’s shoulder, she checked to see that her staff had the shop under control. Annie wasn’t one to take a break in the middle of the day, but it wasn’t often that Mary escaped her domestic bliss, and she was loathe to pass up any time with her sister.

“How about Paul Lester from Dad’s firm?” Mary suggested.

“He has hair growing out of his ears,” Annie said. “Lots of it.”

“Billy Winchester?”

“Still lives with his mother.”

“Chuck Newton?”

“In jail.”

“What for?” Mary blinked.

“Grand theft auto.”

“What?”

“Apparently his wife got the car in the divorce, but he didn’t agree.”

“Oh. Well, Ken has a friend at work...”

A crash from outside interrupted whatever Mary had been about to say. Both women whipped their heads in the direction of the staircase that ran outside the window up to the second floor. Simultaneously, their jaws dropped open.

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