Page 27 of Whatever You Need

He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her into his side. “I’m always careful. I promise.”

“You are such a good boy.” Her expression melted into an adorable smile. “Come back when you can stay longer. I need more than just a few minutes, okay?” She patted his cheek gently.

He stood up, zipped his jacket and turned to me. “I can’t believe you and I have never run into each other before.”

“Amelia visits me every Sunday morning if you ever want to stop by,” his matchmaking grandmother offered up.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” He chuckled and backed away, but still kept his eyes on me. “Amelia. It was great running into you again.”

“You too, Detective. Be safe.” His eyes softened and moved down to my mouth where they lingered long enough to make me squirm. He shook his head and walked to the door.

“You ladies have fun and try to stay out of trouble. I don’t want to have to break out those handcuffs.” He flashed us both a wide grin and I wanted to slink inside the walls and hide.

A minute passed before Sophia stood up to grab her bingo bag. “You have some explaining to do, young lady.”

“Sophia…” I didn’t want to lie to her, but I didn’t want to tell her the truth either.

Joan, one of the older nurses, popped her head in. “Hey, I’m here to see if you want me to walk you downstairs.”

“You know what?” I stood up and ran my hands down the front of my legs. “I’ll take her.” The thought of going home to an empty townhouse wasn’t all that appealing. I grabbed my purse off the chair and held my hand out. “You ready to be my bingo partner, Sophia?”

“She cheats,” Joan said, as Sofia was slipping her shoes on.

“How the hell do you cheat at bingo?” I asked, locking the door behind me.

Joan adjusted her stethoscope around her neck as she fell into step beside us. “She tips the bingo caller twenty bucks.”

I stopped and looked down at Sophia. “Are you kidding me?”

Sophia adjusted her cardigan and continued to walk ahead of me. “Don’t listen to Joan. She loves to spread rumors. She’s just upset because she wanted today off and they wouldn’t give it to her.”

Joan turned down the other hallway; her shoulders were shaking with laughter. “You two ladies have fun.”

Residents and staff greeted us along the way. You could tell Sophia was a Tranquility Farms favorite.

We walked to the back of the room as she was greeted by a man named Archie who offered her a seat on his lap as he buzzed by in his wheelchair. She refused and told me that he offered all the ladies a “ride” and she turned him down every time because he had coffee stains on his pants and horrible breath.

We finally found two seats at one of the long rectangular tables and sat down in between Dolores and Shirly. I smiled and offered them a warm hello, noticing the dozen bingo cards taking up the entire table.

Sophia pulled out her blue and purple bingo dabbers and a bottle of what looked like lemonade. Shirly slid a Styrofoam coffee cup her way. Sophia looked over her shoulder and poured it into the cup. I picked up the bottle and smelled inside.

I leaned over and whispered so no one else could hear us. “Sophia, what is this?”

“It’s limoncello, but we can’t have booze here so keep it down.” She leaned over and asked Shirly, “do you have the brownies in your bag?”

Shirly adjusted the rollers in her hair. “No, last time Archie tattled on me and almost got me thrown out of the bingo hall. I tried to tell them I ate them for medical reasons due to my arthritis, but they said I didn’t have a medical marijuana card.”

Dolores smirked. “Maybe you should explain to Amelia how you got out of it.”

Shirly looked at Dolores. “Stop acting like you haven’t taken a ride on Archie’s wheelchair before.”

My mouth hung open as I looked around the room to see if anyone was paying attention.

Dolores adjusted her dentures. “Please, everyone knows that he can’t get his equipment to work right, even with the help of that little blue pill.”

“Will you two knock it off,” Sophia scolded. “I have a guest and you two need to stop acting likeputtana’s.”

I would have to look that word up later in my translator app, but I was going to take a wild guess that it wasn’t very flattering.

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