placed it over the ropes and walked over to the bag.
Clenching her fists and bending her arms, once again she raised herself to the balls of her feet and danced a circle around the bag. “I’m the champ,” she muttered, as she moved around. “I float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.”
She turned away from the bag and then turned back quickly. “What did you say?” she asked the inert bag. “What did you call me?”
She lifted her hands into a boxing position. “Well, you are going to be sorry you ever met Mary Margaret O’Reilly.”
She punched the bag with her right fist. It felt like she just hit a brick wall.
“Oh, crap,” she yelled, shaking her hand. “I think I broke it.”
She looked at the bag, still hanging serenely, not even swayed by her punch.
“This isn’t over between us,” she growled, rubbing her wrist. “I’ll be back.”
Chapter Six
The bell rang and Mary looked up from her desk to see Bradley walking in.
“Hi,” she said, standing up and walking over to greet him.
He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her. “I could get used to starting the morning this way,” he said. “You got any plans for the rest of your life?”
Smiling she shrugged her shoulders. “Well, I am getting married in June,” she said and then she smiled broadly, “early June. But after that, I’m pretty free.”
“I don’t think so,” he said. “After that I’m planning on keeping you very busy.”
She reached up and kissed him lightly. “I like that plan. So, what do you think of the remodel?”
Looking over her shoulder at the office, he nodded. “Nice,” he said, releasing her and stepping around the room. “Really nice.”
He slipped his coat off and tossed it on a chair next to the desk. As he moved towards the bathroom, she called to him. “Stanley has already checked out the toilet and installed a land-line in there, in case of emergency,” she said.
Continuing to the bathroom, as if he hadn’t heard her, he said, “Well, that’s a good idea. You never know when an emergency can arise.”
“Yeah, like running out of toilet paper,” she muttered.
“What did you say?” he called from inside the small room.
She hurried over to find him dismantling her toilet. “What are you doing?”
He had the decency to look slightly embarrassed. “Well, I’m just checking,” he said, and then he sighed. “Okay I know the odds of having someone plant another bomb on your toilet is probably a million to one.”
“A bazillion to one,” she replied, leaning against the door frame and when he looked doubtful, she added, “I looked it up.”
“Nevertheless,” he continued, as he turned off the water and lifted the top. “Until I’d checked it out myself, I would always worry. So, you’re just going to have to put up with my paranoia.”
She nodded. “Did you know I have Dorothy call me if any packages containing food, especially tea, come to your office?” she asked.
Lifting his head quickly and bumping it against the toilet, he turned to her. “What?”
“If someone sends you tea or any kind of food, I asked Dorothy to let me know,” she said. “I know the odds are a million to one.”
“A bazillion,” he interrupted, a grin spreading across his face. “I looked it up.”
Chuckling, she nodded. “Nevertheless,” she replied with a mocking smile. “I understand.”
He stood and walked over to her, but she stepped back. “You’re not going to touch me until you’ve washed those hands,” she stated emphatically, “I know where they’ve been.”
The ringing phone interrupted their conversation and Mary hurried back to her desk to answer it. The caller i.d. showed it was a call from the Brennan household. “Hello? Oh, hi, Katie. No, it’s not a bad time at all.”
Bradley walked out of the bathroom, wiping his hands on a towel and Mary motioned him over. “No, I haven’t seen the weather forecast,” she said into the phone and then paused,