The Grand Finale Read Online Free

Mrs. Dugan swab away the dirt and blood was one thing. Having Jake Sawyerminister to her wounds was another. It was disturbingly tender and caring and absolutely unwanted. Berry clenched her teeth, narrowed her eyes, and hoped she looked menacing.
    “What are you doing here?” she asked Sawyer.
    “Damned if I know,” he said. “I was sitting down there at the curb and couldn’t get myself to drive off. I kept getting this mental picture of you standing out on the highway, thumbing a ride with a pizza box stuck under your arm.”
    “So?”
    “So I didn’t like it.” His dark eyes searched hers. “You’re really in a bind, aren’t you?”
    “I’ll figure something out.”
    Jake’s mouth quirked into an embarrassed grin. “I have a confession to make. That was my neighbor’s cat in the tree. She gets up there all the time.”
    Berry’s eyes opened wide. “You acted like I was a Peeping Tom.”
    “Well? Were you peeping?”
    “Only a little!”
    She felt her blood pressure rise. It wasn’t her fault. She had been in that tree doing a gooddeed, and he’d practically flaunted himself at her. She sprang out of the chair and stood with her fists on her hips.
    “What was I supposed to do? You got undressed right in front of the window. Don’t you believe in shades? What are you, some kind of exhibitionist?”
    “I just moved in. I haven’t had time to put shades up. Anyway, there aren’t any neighbors for miles.”
    Berry turned on her heel and glared at the three ladies who were “tsking” behind her. She frowned and gave a look that said, One word out of any of you and it’s back to the train station.
    Jake held his hands up. “Wait. I didn’t come up here to discuss your voyeuristic tendencies.”
    “Voyeuristic tendencies! Of all the…You are the most…I am not!”
    Berry closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. She opened her eyes and made a flamboyant gesture with her arm, pointing to the door.
    “Out!”
    Jake took a seat in the vacant rocking chairand accepted a cup of cocoa from Mrs. Fitz. “Boy, she sure can get riled,” he said.
    “Yeah, ain’t she a pip?”
    That was the perfect description, Jake thought. Berry Knudsen was a pip. He’d dated lots of women and none of them had been exactly right, and now he realized none of them had been a pip .
    Berry spun around and flapped her arms at Mrs. Fitz. “Mrs. Fitz, anyone can see this man is leaving. We don’t serve cocoa to men who are leaving.”
    “Nonsense. He’s all settled in here.” Mrs. Fitz pressed her lips together in satisfaction. “Don’t he look nice and comfy.”
    Mildred Gaspich brought him a plate of chocolate chip cookies. “We just baked these fresh tonight.” She turned to Mrs. Fitz. “Goodness, it’s nice to have a man in the house.”
    “Makes me want to put on some fresh lipstick.” Mrs. Fitz laughed. “Too bad I haven’t got any.”
    Miss Gaspich put her arm around plump little Lena Fitz. “That’s okay. Pretty soon you’ll have money to buy some lipstick.”
    “Berry’s hired us,” Mrs. Fitz explained to Jake.“We were just about scraping by on our social security checks, living in the Southside Hotel for Ladies, and then they decided to renovate the building and turn it into fancy condominiums. We couldn’t afford anyplace else. We looked real hard, but there just wasn’t a room cheap enough. Finally, they evicted us. We were temporarily holed up in the train station when we saw Berry’s ad in the paper.”
    Mrs. Fitz grinned. She was five feet tall with short steel-gray hair that had been permed into two inches of frizz. She was apple-cheeked, with an ample chest and dimples in her elbows and stout knees.
    “We know we’re a bunch of old ladies,” Mrs. Fitz said, “but we figured the three of us together might be able to hold down a job. Sort of a package deal.”
    Miss Gaspich pulled a kitchen chair close to the rocker. “We walked all over town for days trying to get a job