Taking Her Time Read Online Free Page B

person attitude, as if she were the only crime-killer in the universe. Norma probably hadn’t forgotten the skunk episode; she wouldn’t hesitate to put Carly in jail for any misadventures that Tucker might cause.
    Tucker had always been able to sweet-talk Norma. She believed anything he said, including how the beagle opened the door of Simon’s motel room, and that Tucker was with Carly when she saw the dead man and screamed. People just believed Tucker, because he was “solid.”
    â€œThanks. Permed it myself. Don’t know why everyone has to go to the beauty shop. You can buy a box of the stuff at the drugstore,” Norma said before putting the police car in gear and pulling onto the highway.
    Carly took one last look at the motel and decided that she wasn’t going to cry anymore. She needed to kill time before Tucker got home from work, and she needed to let everyone know how heartbroken she was that he owned her grandmother’s house. There were ways to put pressure on Tucker, but first she had to unravel the mystery of why Anna Belle hadn’t left it to her. She decided the local MidTown Cafe was just as good a place as any to start.
    It was there, over pasta salad, that she discovered Ramona Long had married a minister; she was now the mother of five children and involved with every community event, a real town leader. In fact, Ramona was such a mover and shaker that she was expected to run for mayor in the next election.
    Sally Jo, the waitress, took her break and slid into Carly’s booth. She counted her tips and sat back to look at Carly. “Tucker has a girlfriend,” Sally Jo said carefully. “People like him. And they’re not quite certain about you anymore. You’ve changed. Or that’s what they say.”
    â€œI grew up here. I have a right to be here—in my grandmother’s house.”
    â€œAnna Belle missed you. You should have come back more often. It broke her heart when you divorced Tucker. She was never that close to your mother, though she loved her. Your mother always was a bit uppity and your father…well, Billy Walker had a temper. It was just as well you married Tucker when you were caught at the Last Inn Motel.”
    Carly leveled a stare at Sally Jo. She wanted everyone in Toad Hollow to know that she wasn’t giving up her grandmother’s house without a fight. “I love that house. It holds dear memories for me,” Carly said. “Tucker has no business in it. Whatever he did to get Anna Belle to sell to him, instead of saving it for me, probably wasn’t—”
    â€œTucker wouldn’t take advantage of Anna Belle, Carly, and you know it. He kept that place up—”
    â€œAh. For a reason. To get himself into her good graces.”
    With a long sigh, Sally Jo collected her tips, slid them into her pocket, and stood. “What a crock of you-know-what. The guy deserves a break, a house and a wife. You’re not getting my sympathy, or anyone else’s.”
    â€œHe’s not sweet, you know, Sally Jo.”
    Sally Jo laughed knowingly. “Sometimes ‘sweet’ isn’t what a woman wants.”
    â€œI am going to get my grandmother’s house back.”
    â€œThen you’re going to have to go over Tucker to get it.”
    â€œThen I will.”
    Â 
    Tucker groaned silently when he saw Carly’s rental car parked in his driveway. He leaped off the back of Arlo’s truck as it slowed, slid on his T-shirt and unbuckled his tool belt, holding it in his hand. At six o’clock in the evening, he was tired, sweaty and needing a break from everyone who cautiously watched him for some reaction to Carly’s threat. He stood looking at the woman leaning against her car, the dying dappled sunlight burnishing her sun-streaked hair. Her arms crossed as she stared at him.
    â€œGo on home now and tell your parents that nothing is going to happen,” he