“Sure. I’ve been married lots of times. I was married to my first husband for thirty-seven years. He passed away, then I married Myron Fogel. He was a handsome devil, but he made noise at the breakfast table, so I divorced him. I know it was picky of me, but I couldn’t take another minute of him slurping his cereal milk. After that there was Gus. He had a heart attack. It was Gus who left me the Caddie. I was engaged to a real live one in Vermont when I broke my hip. I came down here to be near my sister while I was in rehab, and Wilma Nelson wrote and told me that the old coot I was engaged to had been taking other women to the bingo game in Mt. Pleasant. I guess I know what that means, so I sent him his ring back. It never fit right anyway.”

“I’m sorry,” Daisy said.

“You don’t have to be sorry,” Elsie told her. “At my age you never expect to keep a man for long anyway. Men my age are dropping dead like flies.”

Daisy finished the last of her brandy and set the glass on the television. “I have to go,” she said. “I have to get up early tomorrow. I don’t have the paper route anymore, but I still have to cross the children.”

Chapter 9

Steve had coffee made and bacon frying when Daisy and Elsie came back from crossing the high school kids.

“I could eat a horse,” Elsie said. “That bacon smells great.”

Daisy poured herself a cup of coffee and poked at the bacon, while Steve cracked eggs into a second fry pan.

“I’m moving back to my town house,” Daisy said. “This house isn’t any safer than my own now that everyone thinks I’m your live-in girlfriend.” She felt her voice waver when he glanced over at her. “It was very nice of you to let us stay here for a while.”

“It wasn’t nice at all,” Steve said. “It was self-serving. I was ecstatic when that goon broke your door and forced you to find another place to stay. I was completely besotted. I’d resorted to sleeping out in your parking lot, for crying out loud.”

“I don’t get it,” Elsie said. “I thought you two were getting married.”

Steve dumped the scrambled eggs onto a plate. “Daisy wasn’t enamored with the idea.”

Elsie shook her head and grunted. “What a ninny.”

“I have good reasons not to want to get married right now,” Daisy said.

“Like what?” Elsie asked her. “Don’t you love him?”