Page 6 of Aaron (Dresden Pride #1)

“Are you going to go into town later, Frank? I have some mail that I need to get out if you’re going.

” He said that he had to go into the post office anyway, and that would work out for him, too.

“Good. I do hope you’re not ordering from that shopping channel again.

The last time we had so much stuff, it took us forever to get rid of the boxes. ”

“I only bought the one thing and I’ll have use for it.

” It was a handy-dandy cardboard cutter that he’d ordered for the holidays.

When he’d go a little crazy ordering things for the boys.

He knew they were grown men, but he never thought of them that way if he didn’t have to.

He would start buying Christmas items for them about January and not give up on that idea until the day before the big day.

He loved Christmas almost as much as he did his birthday.

And they’d get him so much for his one day that he’d be happy for it a month before it came around.

He figured he was in such good shape because he walked everywhere he was going.

Like just today, he had not only walked to the post office, but he’d gone to the library and the grocery store too.

Frank did help out at the store some, but he’d been run off by Harlin when he said he was smashing the bread while loading up bags.

Not that he’d meant to put the bread under the eggs that had been bought, but he’d been talking and forgot what he’d been doing.

There was nothing that he could do at the library, so he only checked out books and talked a bit.

They had a computer system in the place, and he wasn’t sure if he could run it without messing up the entire system that ran through the seven other libraries that were connected to it.

No, he didn’t help out there. But he did enjoy a good book, and while there, he’d read over the newspaper for the bigger cities so he’d have something to talk about with someone when they stopped him.

Frank thought of himself as a man who knew just a little about everything, so he could hold down his end of the conversation.

“Mr. Sharps. It’s been a while since you’ve been to this end of town.

How’s that lovely wife of yours?” He said Milly was holding her own and tried to think who the man was he was talking to.

“It’s Landry, Bo Landry. I’ve never forgiven my mom for naming me that, but you remember me, don’t you, sir? ”

“Yes. I do. Heard you got yourself a wife of your own. How’s life treating you now that you’re all settled down?

” He told him how his wife had left him for another man a few years ago.

“I’m sorry to hear that. She must not have known you were about the best there was when it came to having a husband, now, did she?

I’m sorry as I am to hear that for you.”

“I’m about over it now. Every once in a while, it’ll hit me how she left me for Baxter, and I get a little teary and upset, but like I said, I’m about over it now.

” He nodded, so Frank found himself doing the same thing.

“Your lovely wife came to see me a couple of days after she left. I was wallowing in my own self-pity when she got me going and back at work. I don’t know what I would have done without her being around me those first few days.

She, surely as I’m standing here, made sure that I kept my job and my dignity.

You tell her that I said that, too, would you, Mr. Sharps? ”

“I will. You should go around and see her. I bet she’d like that.

” She more than likely had done what he’d said she’d done and wouldn’t want any credit for him keeping his job.

His Milly was like that. “I know that she’s a might busy lately, what with all the canning and jelly making that she does.

But you make it a point of going to see her, and she’ll be happy for it.

My Milly is a good woman to have in your corner. ”

“That’s for sure. Well, I’ll be going. You tell her what I said and that I’ll be around to see her when I have the time. She’s a good person and I’ll love her to the end of time for what she did for me.” Bo walked off, and he looked a little taller to him.

Thinking about his Milly and what she’d done without saying a word made him think that it was about time he picked her up some posies. She had some in the yard, but he loved bringing her home some blooms that she didn’t have there. Just to cheer her up.

Frank ended up getting her not just a pretty vase full of flowers but also a box of chocolates. They were her secret passion that nobody knew about but himself. Or maybe their daughter, LouCinda, but she’d not remember after all this time. At least he hoped she wouldn’t.

On his way back to the house, he saw and talked to a great many people.

He’d been living here nearly all his life, and he had seen so much change going on that he had to think about it sometimes.

By the time he made it back home, he was glad that he’d had the flowers and chocolates delivered.

There’d be no telling what they’d look like with him toting them around all the time.

They were sitting pretty on the counter when he walked in the back door.

“You old goat.” Milly kissed him on the cheek before looking at him sternly. “I don’t know if you’re buying them because you did something terrible, but I don’t care. They brightened up my entire day, and the other treats? Well, we’ll have some of those after dinner tonight, just the two of us.”

“I’d like that. Very much.” He got himself a glass of water and drank it down. “It sure is powerful work running around town like I have a job.” He told her about Bo Landry. “I felt bad for not knowing that she’d left him.”

“I told you, but it was so long ago now. But he’s better off without her.

She hooked up with that Baxter person, and now he’s left her.

I hear they had three kids, too, between them.

What a sad state Bo was in. My heart just broke for him.

I’m glad I was there when it happened. Might have lost his job and the house if not for me shaking him off and getting him going.

Poor man. I hope he finds someone soon, I surely do.

” Frank asked her what he did for a living.

“He’s a teacher over at the big college.

Not where Darius goes, but the larger one in Columbus.

I heard that he has quite a name for himself as a good teacher. ”

“Good for him.” He had a feeling that his wife kept tabs on him, so he’d not be getting himself into any more trouble.

She was like that, his Milly. Taking people under her wings and making sure they were doing better than they thought they might.

He asked her about the meeting she’d had this morning.

“I’m going to quit the book lovers club.

All they want to talk about is what someone else is doing.

I go there to talk about the latest book that came out, not gossip about what their neighbors are doing to whom else that might be around.

Goodness, you should hear them, Frank. It’s like a bunch of hens clacking together and having fun. ”

“You like a little gossip too, don’t you?” She said that these women were vicious in their talking about what they knew. “No, you’d not cotton to that. A little gossip is fun, but when they start acting like it’s meanness in them, there ain’t no point in hanging around them no more.”

They talked about the upcoming bake sale that the Boy Scouts were having and how she was going to donate some of her pies for them to auction off.

It helped pay for their camping trips, and he was glad to be a part of it, too.

He’d go to buy back the pies that she donated so she could put them in the freezer again. He loved bake sales.