Read Bartholomew 02 - How to Marry a Ghost for Free Online

splitting wood and blowing leaves in the fall yard cleanups later on but the old folks around here don’t like the idea of a woman

    2 8 P
    Hope McIntyre
    caretaker any more than they like Mickey’s being turned into the Old Stone Market.”
    “She runs this place and takes care of people’s yards?” I was astounded.
    “Oh, you haven’t heard the half of it. She used to clean their houses too before she had the baby.”
    “The baby,” I repeated.
    “Six months old. And she’s got an eighteen-year-old from a disaster of a relationship with some guy in the city.”
    I stared at Franny as she went by, balancing plates of toast on her forearms.What was this woman’s secret? She’d had a baby six months ago and here she was walking around with a bare midriff and a stomach like a washboard.
    “Hey Roof, can you come give me a hand here?” Franny was distributing the toast to the various tables. “I’ve told the SLRA they can hold their monthly board meeting in the back room. I hate their guts but I figure it’ll be good for business if people see they’ve given me their stamp of approval. I need to set up a table in back.”
    “What’s the SLRA?” I whispered as Rufus prepared to follow her.
    “The Stone Landing Residents Association. Mostly New Yorkers with weekend homes around here. It’s the same story wherever you go. They’re some of Franny’s best customers but she resents the hell out of them. Most of them have barely been here ten years whereas Franny’s lived here her whole life. The Cooks have owned property in Stone Landing longer than any of us and Franny’s the eleventh generation. Her family was among the original settlers. They have nine fucking acres whereas most of the SLRA members only have quarter-acre lots.”
    When I walked back inside, Franny was coming toward me carrying a trestle table upturned and balanced on her head. As

    How to Marry a Ghost
    P
    2 9
    she lowered it to the ground, there was a demanding wail from behind the counter.
    “Damn!” Franny brushed past me. “Eliza’s awake. I’m going to have to feed her before the SLRA arrive.”
    “You keep the baby in the shop?” I blurted out.
    “Where else am I going to keep her?” Franny looked at me and shrugged. “We live above the store but I can’t keep running up the stairs to check on her. Hey Roof, you want to take her up and change the diaper?”
    “Can’t say I want to,” said Rufus amiably enough. “Eliza’s explosions are mega stinky. Franny, this is Lee Bartholomew. She’s over from England. She’s the daughter of a friend of my dad’s.”
    Well, that was one way of putting it.
    “Pleased to meet you,” said Franny, giving me a quick smile and handing the baby to Rufus. “The diapers are beside the changing table in the bedroom. Bring her back down when you’re done and I’ll feed her at the till. I’m a real pro at working that cash register with one hand while I cradle her.”
    Which, to my amazement, was exactly what she did, perched high on a stool behind the counter while the baby suckled at her breast. I found myself waiting with bated breath to see what would happen when a customer came in and caught a glimpse of her bare breast.Was I a prude to expect her to breast-feed in private? And how often did you find guys in their twenties who were prepared to change diapers? But then as I was fast discovering, Rufus was quite an unusual young man.
    He was in love with Franny Cook. I’d known it the minute we walked in the store, maybe even before that from the slight catch in his voice when he mentioned her name. Now it was unmistakable as he stood watching her while she fed the baby. He had the same soft tender expression in his eyes as his father did when he

    3 0 P
    Hope McIntyre
    looked at my mother. Franny might be a good ten years older than Rufus but he just couldn’t take his eyes off her.
    It was clear she took advantage of his devotion.When she finished feeding Eliza, she put her