Pie Town Read Online Free PDF Page B

plotlines.
    “Enough to know better than to jump in bed with that Adam Chandler again, I’ll tell you that.”
    Christine released the brake on the wheelchair and pointed her patient in the direction of her room. “Well, maybe what Erica and Adam have is real love and it just takes two or three times to get it right.”
    “You should quit watching soap operas, Mrs. Henderson, it will turn your brain into mush,” Malene called out to the woman as she was being wheeled down the hall.
    “You should know better than anybody, Malene, that my brain is already mush.” Mrs. Henderson’s voice trailed away.
    Malene smiled. She picked up the phone again and dialed the number of the grocery store. “Deli, please,” she said, and she was connected to the bakery section.
    “Hello, it’s Malene Benavidez.”
    “Oh right,” the woman on the other end responded. “No red icing,” she recalled. “Did we get cut off or something?”
    “Yes,” Malene answered. “I’m sorry. It was my fault. I had to take care of something. Okay, so it’s a full sheet cake, chocolate with white icing. And it should say, ‘Happy Birthday Alex.’ ” She paused. “Do you have any little toy guitars?” she asked, thinking about the gift she and Roger were getting their grandson.
    “Nope, just cowboys and balloons, a princess, and a couple of Disney characters” came the reply.
    “Can you make a guitar?” Malene asked.
    “You mean out of icing?”
    “Yeah, can you draw guitars on the cake?”
    There was a sigh on the other end. “I can’t, but I can get Ronnie to do it. He’s real good at making pictures on cakes. He’s an artist. He comes in early. I’ll leave him a note.”
    “Perfect,” Malene said.
    “ ‘Happy Birthday, Alex.’ Chocolate with white icing. No red. And some guitars somewhere on the cake.” The girl in the bakery confirmed the order.
    “Guitars on the corners, yes, and that’s it,” Malene noted.
    The phone line went quiet, and Malene figured the girl was adding up the cost or writing down instructions. She didn’t interrupt.
    “It’ll be ready for pickup Saturday morning.”
    “Thank you,” Malene said and hung up the phone. When she turned around, Roger was standing in front of her, on the other side of the nurses’ station.
    “Hey,” she said, looking surprised to see her ex-husband. He stopped by Carebridge on occasion, but usually he called first.
    “Hey, Lena,” he replied, calling her by the nickname he had given her when they were teenagers.
    “You arrest Daddy?” she asked, wondering if that was why he was there to see her. She picked up a couple of folders and placed them in a file drawer beside her. “I can’t make bail, so he’s just going to have to wait it out behind bars.”
    “Nah, I didn’t lock him up. He promised to keep his pants on from now on.” Roger slid his hands into the back pockets of his pants. “Besides, I didn’t want to have to do all that paperwork.” He paused and then commented, “You didn’t look too happy when you drove off.” He was grinning.
    Malene shook her head. “I really don’t know what I’m going to do with him.” She straightened up the papers around her. “I still don’t know why he bought that new car. The one he had was fine.”
    “You know Oris. He likes a new Buick,” Roger replied.
    “Yes, I know Oris. I know Oris better than anybody, and I know he doesn’t have the money to go buy a brand-new car.”
    “Oris has got more money than most,” Roger noted. He glanced around, nodded at a few patients who were sitting close by. He called out their names, since he knew everybody at Carebridge. “I still think he’s got some squirreled away that he hasn’t told you about.”
    Malene had been managing her father’s affairs since her mother died, and that had been not long after Angel was born, when she and Roger were married and they thought they would be able to handle anything. Her brother had joined the army just