Read Tales of the City 06 - Sure of You for Free Online Page A

B.”
    “She’s doing fine. Got her hands full with the kids, of course.”
    Wouldn’t she just, thought Mary Ann.
    “She wanted to come with me this time, but Burke junior came down with flu, and Brenda didn’t trust the housekeeper to manage without her.”
    “God, I know what you mean!” She seized his wrist lightly. “We have this Vietnamese woman. She’s really dear, but she can’t, for the life of her, tell the difference between Raid and Pledge!”
    His laughter seemed a little strained, and she worried that the remark had come off as racist.
    “Of course,” she added, releasing his wrist, “I can only speak one language myself, so…anyway, her family had a rough time over there, so we figured it was worth a little extra trouble.”
    “You have a kid or two of your own, don’t you?”
    “One. How’d you know?”
    His smirk came back to life. “I saw you with her on Entertainment Tonight. ”
    “Oh…you saw that?” It was good to know, anyway, that he’d seen her on national TV. At least now she knew he didn’t think of her as completely local. Even if that ET segment had been about local talk-show hosts.
    “She’s a cute little girl,” he said.
    For an unsettling instant she flashed on Shawna’s tarty makeup of the day before. “Well, she’s a lot bigger now, of course. That was over three years ago.”
    “Really?”
    “Yeah.”
    “I bet she looks more like you than ever.”
    She smiled at him benignly, hoping he wouldn’t make a big deal out of this. “She’s not my biological daughter, actually. We adopted her.”
    “Oh. Yeah.” He did his bashful wobble again. “I guess I knew that.”
    “I don’t see how you could, really.”
    “Well, maybe not.”
    “Her mother was a friend of mine. Or someone I knew, anyway. She died a few days after Shawna was born. She left a note asking me and Brian to take care of her.”
    “How wonderful.”
    “Yeah.”
    “That’s a great story. She’s a lucky little girl.”
    She shrugged. “Brian was a little more crazy about the idea than I was.”
    This unraveled him noticeably. “Still…you must…I mean, I’m sure it took some getting used to, but…”
    She smiled to put him out of his misery. “I’m learning,” she said. “It’s not terrible. It’s O.K., actually. Most of the time.”
    “How old is she?”
    “Oh…five or six.”
    It took him forever to realize she was joking. “C’mon,” he said finally.
    “She’ll be six next April.”
    “O.K. There.” He nodded to fill the dead air. “And…Brian?”
    “He’s forty-four,” she answered, though she found the question a little weird.
    “No.” He laughed. “I meant, who is he?”
    “Oh, I thought you knew. Brian Hawkins.”
    It didn’t register.
    “He was upstairs at Mrs. Madrigal’s.”
    Now he was nodding, slowly. “The guy who lived on the roof?”
    “Right. That’s him.”
    “Well, I’ll be damned!”
    His apparent amazement unsettled her. “You remember him, huh?”
    “I remember how much you hated him.”
    “Excuse me?” She gave him the sourest look she could muster.
    “Sorry,” he said. “I mean…you know, disapproved of him…”
    She was about to take him on, when the waiter appeared. “You folks had a chance to look at the menu yet?”
    “I’ll take the grilled tuna,” Mary Ann told him crisply. “And some orange-flavored Calistoga.”
    Burke cast a cursory glance at the menu, then flapped it shut. “Sounds great.”
    “Same thing?” asked the waiter.
    “Same thing.”
    “You got it.” The waiter spun on his heels and left.
    “O.K.,” said Burke. “Let me start over, if I can.”
    “Let’s just leave it.”
    “No. That sounded terrible.”
    “I knew what you meant, though. He was a real womanizer then.”
    “I liked him, though. I thought he was nice.”
    She realigned her silverware against the salmon tablecloth. “He is nice. He puts up with a lot, believe me.”
    He smiled gently. “C’mon.”
    She shrugged.