Rest in Pizza Read Online Free

shrugged. “Let’s just say that you might not want your name overheard on that particular call. The button factory. Remember it, Eleanor. It’s the only way you can reach me if it’s urgent.”
    “I won’t forget,” I said. It was certainly cryptic, but I knew better than to ask him any more questions about it. “Art, no matter what your troubles are, I hope everything works out for you,” I said as I tucked the card into the front pocket of my jeans.
    He stood and picked up our check before I could stop him. “Hey, you don’t have to buy my lunch every time you see me out, you know. Our friendship isn’t conditional on you treating me to free meals.”
    “I understand that I don’t have to do it, but it pleases me,” he said with a smile. “Why not indulge me and just enjoy it?”
    “Thanks so much,” I said.
    After Art was gone, Maddy came back. I had to wonder if she’d even called Bob at all, or if she’d been spying on us from afar.
    “That was quick,” she said.
    “I was about to say the same thing to you. How’s Bob?”
    “In court,” Maddy said. “I couldn’t get through to him. What did Art want?”
    I thought about retelling the conversation to Maddy, but I really didn’t want to get into my friendship with Art with her, especially with everyone around still staring at me. It wasn’t easy being Art’s friend, and I may have lost some business at the pizzeria over the past several months because of it, but I wasn’t about to let Timber Ridge dictate my friendships any more than I’d let Maddy do it. They could live with it, or stop coming by the Slice; either way, I was fine with it. “It’s not that important.”
    She shrugged, and then looked around the tabletop. “Did you already grab the check? I wanted some pie. Hand it over.”
    I had to laugh. “You’ll just have to live without it. Art picked up the tab this time before I could stop him.”
    “He bought us both lunch?” Maddy asked, and I wasn’t exactly sure how she felt about the prospect.
    I nodded. “Sis, if you have a problem with that, tip your waitress the cost of your meal. It doesn’t matter to me.”
    She just shrugged. “I don’t want to start any dangerous precedents,” Maddy said. “They might start expecting me to be a big tipper, and you know how much I hate disappointing people.” She glanced at her watch, and then added, “I hate to break up our little party, but it’s time to get back to the Slice.”
    “That hour flew by, didn’t it?” I asked as we approached the register.
    Maddy just shrugged. “We didn’t have an hour to start with, so yeah, it was quick. And don’t forget, we get the pleasure of helping keep an egomaniac in line for the trouble. Maybe next time we’ll stay at the Slice and eat.”
    “And miss all of this atmosphere?” I said, doing my best to smile. I’d backed my sister into a corner, and I knew it. She was helping Cindy out because of me, and I’d try to find a way to make it up to her.
    Mark Deacon, the owner of Brian’s and a longtime friend of ours, said as we approached the front register, “If you two left a tip on the table, you should go get it. Art covered it, too.”
    There was no judgment in his voice as he said it.
    Maybe I’d found someone else who took the man at face value, and did not base their feelings on rumor and innuendo. “Is Art a friend of yours, too?”
    Mark smiled at me. “Hey, everyone who comes through that door and pays for his food is a friend of mine,” he said. “How was lunch, by the way?”
    “Excellent, as always,” I said.
    “And it’s not pizza, right?” he asked with a grin.
    “You could come get a slice yourself sometime,” I said with a smile.
    “You know what? I just might take you up on that sometime,” he said. “As much as I love the food we serve here, there are times where I’d kill for something else to eat. Save a slice for me someday. I’m going to visit you both soon.”
    We all knew better