Page 16 of It Happened on the Lake

Harper did as she was bid, shuffling the deck and dealing out the cards just as the grandfather clock in the hallway bonged out the half hour. Eleven-thirty. Past Gram’s usual bedtime.

Unfortunately Olivia Dixon seemed wide awake tonight.

Silently Harper cursed her luck.

Why had Matilda picked this very night to suddenly take time off? It was almost as if that wily caregiver had guessed what Harper had planned and was determined to thwart her. Miserable bitch.

In Harper’s opinion, Matilda Burroughs was a pain in the backside. Harper lumped Matilda into the same categories as the cats: Disliked and Not Needed.

“What’s wrong with you?” Gram asked, frowning as she picked up her cards and placed them in her card holder. “You’re as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rockers.”

“Nothing,” Harper lied. Her grandmother might have had a stroke, but she was still sharp as a tack, could still read Harper like a book.

“Hmmm.” Gram moved the cards around in the holder, adjusting them to her liking. “If you say so.”

Harper wanted to argue. Yes, she was on edge. More anxious than even Gram guessed. The fact that, at the last minute, she’d been called to “Gram-sit” only made things worse. Lots worse. Harper scratched the back of her hand absently, then stopped when she caught her grandmother watching her.

“Seriously, Harper.” Gram’s voice had grown soft. “If something’s bothering you, you know you can tell me.” She smiled. “Trust me, I know how to keep a secret.” One eyebrow raised over the top of her reading glasses. “I’ve kept my share.”

“Nothing’s wrong.” Harper forced her most bland expression.

“If you say so,” Gram repeated. Sighing when Harper didn’t respond, Gram motioned to her pack of Salems lying on the table next to her favorite ashtray and Grandpa’s lighter. “Would you be a darling?”

“Sure.” Harper rounded the table, plucked a long cigarette from the pack, and placed it between her grandmother’s lips before helping her grandmother light up. As Gram drew deep on the filter tip, Harper clicked the lighter shut and set it down.

Gram let out a cloud of smoke and sighed. “Ahh . . . A horrible habit, I know, but so . . .” She thought for a second and waved away the smoke. “Satisfying. In a naughty way, I suppose.”

“If you say so.”

“Don’t ever start,” she warned, taking another long drag and pointing a finger across the table. “Seriously, Harper.”

No worries there, Harper thought as the seconds ticked by and she played cards distractedly.

“Oooh. Got that one!” Gram picked up a card from the discard pile, the cigarette dangling from her peach-colored lips. She stared at her granddaughter over the rims of her readers. “You’re not on your game tonight, Harper. That was a sloppy move. Worse than a play by Louise Chilcote, the mayor’s wife. And, believe me, she’s the worst!” Gram snorted as if disgusted at the thought of the woman with the flaming red hair back-combed high on her head.

“I’m just tired, I guess.”

“Umhmm.” Gram sucked on her smoke and adjusted the cards on the tray in front of her. “I can smell boy trouble a mile away, you know.”

“No trouble,” Harper lied.

“Is it Craig Alexander?” she asked. “I can tell he has a crush on you.”

A crush? Really? And ick, no!Not Craig, the groundskeeper’s rangy son with his shaggy blond hair and cocky attitude. “I said, ‘no trouble.’”

“Umhmm. Right. If you say so.” Gram didn’t push it. But she didn’t hide the skepticism in her eyes when Harper made another stupid play. Gram swept up the discarded Jack of Hearts with some difficulty and said, “Gin!” with satisfaction. Then, “Another hand?” she asked, fumbling to stub out her cigarette in the ashtray.

“Shouldn’t you go to bed?”

“You want me to?”

“No, it’s not that, but Matilda said—”

“Oh, bah! Who cares what she said?” Gram’s lined face twisted in irritation. “I’m a grown woman, not a four-year-old!”

“I know, but Matilda told me you should be on a schedule, you know, for your physical therapy and pills and—”

“Matilda can go stuff herself!” Gram let out a disgusted huff. “A drill sergeant, that’s what she is!” She snorted, then softened a bit. “Besides, I so enjoy your company, Harper. I’m glad Matilda was called away, for whatever reason.”

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