Read A Touch of the Grape: A Hemlock Falls Mystery (Hemlock Falls Mystery series) for Free Online Page B

crazy."
    "I don't think that's the reason," Meg said thoughtfully.
    And so, Quill thought, Meg knows more than she's letting on.
    She knows John won't stay on in a business that couldn't—according to the numbers at least—make a profit no matter how successful it was. Wrong place, wrong time, wrong state, John had said. Even if you could run a hundred percent occupancy all year round, you still couldn't make expenses, John said.
    Sell the Inn, Quill.
    She'd have all her teeth pulled and then eat glass before she told Meg John's solution.
    "So why do you think he's leaving us?"
    "I don't think he's gone because you're driving him bananas. You drive everyone bananas. He's an M.B.A. A good one. This job never offered the kind of scope he can have with a good company. The reason he stayed in a dead-end job with an improvident partner all these years is the same one he's leaving."
    "It'd be nice if you would try and make some sense, Meg. Given the kind of day I've had, and all."
    Meg unhooked the copper whipping bowl from its place above her head and filled it with heavy cream. She whipped vigorously with her hand beater for a moment, then said casually, "If you ask me, he's stayed because he's in love with you. And he's leaving because he's in love with you."
    "For heaven's sake, Meg!"
    Meg shrugged. "This temporary —and by that I mean I don't care what John says, it's temporary—this busi ness slowdown of ours has forced his hand. If he could afford to take a pay cut he would. Just to stay near—"
    "Shut UP, Meg!"
    "—you, but he can't. Because of his sister." Meg stopped beating, tested the whipped cream with a critical air, then resumed her vigorous whipping. "Another thing is Myles. If you hadn't agreed to marry Myles, John would have taken a second job to make ends meet, rather than leave you. But" —Meg set the copper bowl down with a satisfied thunk! — "there you are."
    "You are a complete and utter idiot."
    "I have a sixth sense about these things."
    Quill was so annoyed, she barely registered the opening and closing of the dining room door. "You have NO sense about anything. You've been a complete and total idiot since you were six years old. No. No. Pardon me. It came much later than that. And I remember the exact precise time." Quill stood up and leaned over the whipped cream. "It was after you read Gone With the Wind. What kind of woman with any pretensions to adulthood takes Scarlett O'Hara as a role model?!"
    Meg flicked a handful of whipped cream in her face. Furious, Quill scooped up the butter (now somewhat liquid in the warmth of the kitchen) and drew her arm back for the best overhand pitch she'd made since the Connecticut Intramural Girls Softball Tournament in her freshman year.
    "Ladies? Am I interrupting?"
    Quill froze, her arm upraised, butter dripping onto her hair. The voice was male, with a smoker's rasp, and quite unfamiliar. She turned to face him. He was just shy of middle-aged. About forty-five, she thought. He wore a pale blue sports coat with gold buttons, gray linen trousers, and a dark blue cotton, button-down, Ox ford cloth shirt with white collar and cuffs. She was pretty sure she'd glimpsed a gold chain around his neck. She was very sure about the white patent leather loafers, since they winked in the overhead lights like a streetwalker's eye.
    "May I help you?" she asked coldly.
    "I wish somebody would. Name's Burke. Rocky Burke, owner/president of Burke's Central New York All-inclusive Insurance Agency. The Rocklike Broker for Rocky Times." He gave Quill an appreciative look, beginning at her ankles, traveling up her hips, waist, and breasts, and ending with her nose. "You can call me Rock, Cookie." Then, "I like a feisty woman."
    "Here, sport," Meg said. She tossed Quill a damp towel. "Insurance? You must be part of the broker's dinner booked for this evening."
    "Banquet. Broker's banquet. Little celebration for my five top salesmen this year. Yes, that's what I am. Came a little