The Diva Digs up the Dirt (10 page)

“I don’t think so. I could clobber Natasha for starting this nonsense. I thought I’d have two weeks of leisure. Now I’ll be getting up before the crack of dawn for construction.”

“I’ll be glad when you can park safely inside your own yard, though. It always worried me when you had to walk for blocks in the dark after work.”

I gazed at the expanse of concrete. I hoped the garage would prove to be worth it after all.

When the meat had finished cooking, we sat down to eat. I pondered how I could gently broach the subject of his wife. Other than talking about vegetables and concrete, though, I couldn’t think of anything that wouldn’t upset him. I was itching to ask questions about Mona, but I guessed she might be a giant thorn in his side. I was also dying to know what happened after I left. Had they really roped off the back of his yard?

I returned to the subject of my own yard; surely that was innocuous enough. Maybe I could work my way over to his marriage. “Think I made a mistake letting Troy tear it all up?”

“The homeowners on his show generally act appalled in the beginning, but it turns out well in the end.”

“I wonder how much they cut. Those homeowners might not be as happy as the show indicates.” I couldn’t
stand the pretense any more. “Wolf, I’m so sorry that I dug up Anne’s handbag. I…” I wavered. I couldn’t say what I wanted—that I never meant to bring him harm.

Wolf stopped eating. “Can we not talk about that? I spent most of the day reliving the biggest nightmare of my life. For just a few hours, I’d like to think about something else.”

I could understand that. It had been thoughtless of me to expect him to dwell on his problems. I wanted to know more, and I believed I deserved to know. After all, I’d been accepting of his simple explanation up to this point. But if we were going to continue dating, I had a right to be in the loop. I just had to wait a little bit longer before I pressed him.

“I’m sorry.” Wolf sat back in his chair. “Maybe I shouldn’t have come tonight.”

“It’s fine. This has been a horrible day for you. Let’s just focus on something else.”

“I never thanked you for the rosebush.”

“I hope we’ll get to plant it soon. Did you water it?”

“No. Maybe Kenner will do it tomorrow if I tell him the request came from you.”

I laughed, relieved the tension had been broken. “I’d like to see that!” I couldn’t imagine dour Kenner immersing his hands in soil or caring about a plant.

“When Anne planted roses, she watered them with diluted beer.” Wolf sipped his iced tea and smiled at the memory. “I used to tease her about it, but it worked.”

“I’ve heard of planting fish under tomato plants, but beer is a new idea to me.”

“Something to do with the yeast. She had a lot of old-timey tricks when it came to gardening. It was her passion. She had a thing for ladybugs. She was always releasing ladybugs and praying mantises in our yard. They eat bugs or something.”

He was speaking of her in past tense. Still, I didn’t dare launch into questions. It wasn’t easy for me to wait and hope he would talk about her disappearance.

He didn’t seem to notice me. “We were married in the
azalea garden at George Washington’s River Farm. You know how women are about their weddings. I thought Mona would blow a gasket. She hated the idea of an outdoor ceremony, but the azaleas were in full bloom. It was unforgettable. Anne knew her plants.”

The pain in his eyes told me everything I needed to know.

“I could use some mustard.” Wolf rose and walked toward my house, while I studied our meal, noting that nothing required mustard.

He stopped, his head bowed, and turned to face me. I could see his discomfort. “I don’t want to be dishonest with you, Sophie. The worst thing is not knowing. It would be terrible if Anne were dead, but at least there would be a resolution. I look for her in every crowd, in every picture, on the news, and on Facebook. Until she turns up somewhere, or I die, I’ll be looking for her.”

He turned again and rounded the corner, headed in the direction of my kitchen. Maybe it would be good for him to have a few minutes alone. I certainly needed a minute to digest what he’d said.

For the very first time, I understood that there were three people in our relationship. Anne would always be there, unless he discovered what had happened to her and could move on. As hard as that was to hear, I appreciated his honesty. Wouldn’t I have felt the same way if Mars had disappeared?

Something scratched against the fence. Daisy whined, and whatever it was rustled in the dying light of day.

Daisy dashed toward the noise, running straight through the wet concrete. I heard a grunt on the other side of the fence as Daisy placed her front paws against the weathered wood.

“Francie?” I hissed.

Moving quietly, I skirted the wet concrete by balancing on the wood frame at the end closest to my house. Hopping off, I joined Daisy on the other side. I stepped on the old stump to peer into Francie’s yard. Her outdoor dining table had been set with hurricane lanterns. Open cartons of Chinese food were scattered about the table, and precisely on the other side of the fence from me, I could see Mars sheepishly rising from the grass and dusting himself off. In the growing darkness, I could make out Nina and Francie.

“Please tell me that you haven’t been eavesdropping.”

“Perish the thought!” said Francie.

“We’re just having dinner,” added Nina. “We would have invited you, but we knew you had other plans.”

Mars must have stepped onto a bench on Francie’s side of the fence, because I was suddenly face-to-face with him.

“Just know that you’re not alone,” he whispered. “Are you devastated?”

“By your nosiness?” I whispered back.

“Because he’s still in love with his wife.”

The notion caught me by surprise. It wasn’t as though I hadn’t known about Anne and accepted that he had loved her. But I never considered that Wolf might still be
in
love with her. Such a tiny difference in semantics, but in reality, the implications were mind-boggling. Wolf could never truly love me as long as he was still
in
love with Anne. Would he ever be able to be
in
love with anyone else? Would I always be second best?

I teetered off the stump and fell backward into the wet cement. Groaning, I tried to sit up without using my hands so I wouldn’t damage more of the slick concrete but Daisy immediately jumped onto the concrete, knocking me back. Her nose went down and her rump went up—universal doggy language for “Let’s play!” She barked happily.

“Soph!”

I twisted around to see Wolf running toward me.

“Are you okay?” He skirted the concrete exactly as I had, stood on the narrow strip of grass in front of me, and held out his hands.

I stood up with his help, the wet concrete weighing me down. Fortunately, Wolf began laughing. I couldn’t help myself, I slid my finger over a gob of concrete and wiped it on his nose. We laughed hysterically, no doubt releasing tension and stress. Tears ran down my cheeks.

When I let go of him, Wolf said, “Hey, Mars! Get over here, and help me smooth out this cement.”

“How did you know?” I whispered.

Wolf kissed me, sweet and light and a little bit grainy from the concrete. “You’re totally oblivious about the men around you. Your discovery of Anne’s purse buried in my backyard triggered all the old suspicions. I knew your friends wouldn’t leave you alone with me.”

Of course, I wasn’t as unaware as he thought. But I’d done my level best to put a damper on the situation with Mars. I honestly didn’t think anyone else had noticed, except perhaps Nina.

The spotlights on my house turned on, illuminating the mess Daisy and I had made. Wolf grimaced. “You’d better hose that stuff off Daisy before it sets on her. Or on you.”

Mars, Nina, and Francie charged around the corner of my house. When their laughter subsided, Mars and Wolf found tools left by Troy’s crew and started smoothing the impressions we had made in the concrete.

Nina and Francie were all too happy to spray down Daisy and me with the garden hose. It reminded me of being a kid and playing in the yard. After the brutally hot weather we’d had, the cold water actually felt good. Daisy shook herself damp, but I dashed to the house and changed into a dry T-shirt and shorts.

When I returned to my yard, Mars and Wolf had finished smoothing out the concrete. As soon as they saw me, a cheer went up.

“Finally!” said Francie. “She’s here! Hit it.”

Only then did I realize that Wolf held Mochie in his arms. He kneeled and dipped Mochie’s paw into the concrete of the garage floor. Next to him, Mars pressed Daisy’s paw into the newly smoothed concrete.

“Don’t look so worried.” Nina held up a butter wrapper. “We massaged butter on their signing paws so the concrete wouldn’t stick.”

After oohing and aahing over the paw prints, we carried Mochie and the dinner dishes into the kitchen.

“Anyone for dessert?” I asked.

It was a universal no. They all headed for the door. Nina and Francie were wet from hosing Daisy and me down, and spots of concrete clung to Mars and Wolf. The whole gang left in a hurry.

Before I washed the dishes, I took a few minutes to be sure Mochie’s and Daisy’s paws were clean. I certainly didn’t want them ingesting any concrete.

Wolf dominated my thoughts as I tidied the house. I had realized that he still loved Anne, but until Mars put it so bluntly, I hadn’t considered that Wolf was still
in
love with his wife. No wonder he’d been so touchy. He wasn’t just dealing with the worst thing that had ever happened to him, he was coping with the very real fear that his wife was dead. I had found the evidence that forced him to revisit his hope that she was possibly still out there somewhere—alive.

He had come for dinner, seeking relief from his own thoughts and the terrible reality of his situation. What an inconsiderate dolt I’d been to think I could weasel information out of him.

I slid between cool, crisp sheets, more tired than usual because of Troy’s early arrival. I hoped he and his crew wouldn’t be quite as early the next morning.

The phone woke me from a deep sleep. The minute I answered, the caller hung up. I was too tired to check the
caller ID. With a most undignified grunt, I turned over and fell back asleep, only to be wakened moments later by an annoying banging sound.

Daisy and Mochie flew off the bed. I managed to sit up and could hear them thumping down the old wooden stairs. Grabbing a cotton bathrobe, I stumbled downstairs and found them waiting impatiently by the front door.

I picked up Mochie and opened the door to find Francie.

“Good gracious, you look awful. No wonder Mars divorced you.”

“You woke me up.” I motioned her inside and shuffled toward the kitchen. “Good grief, it’s not even seven yet.”

“I tried to call but you didn’t answer.”

Eh, wasn’t worth explaining. “What’s so important?”

“Olive called. They’re digging up Wolf’s backyard. I think we’d better check on him.”

Moving as fast as I could, I opened the door to let Daisy out in the backyard, then remembered about the mess and missing fence. I called her back in, fed her and Mochie, then flew up the stairs to dress. Francie was right, I looked a mess. I didn’t have time to deal with what was clearly a bad hair day. I threw on a simple yellow sundress and white sandals. Twisting my hair up, I used a big banana clip to hold it in place and let the ends fall over it. Not the best look, but it would have to do. I grabbed hoop earrings and put them on as I raced down the stairs.

Francie had made tea and poured it into travel mugs for the two of us.

“You’re a doll!”

“Don’t get used to it. It’s just that I’m worried about Wolf.”

“I haven’t had a chance to walk Daisy. She’ll have to come with us.”