“Thank you, but we’re good. It was nice meeting you and I hope I see you again.” Heidi Joy said, her eyes widening in desperation.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be around.”

I cajoled Muffy inside even though she wasn’t done sniffing the boys. Once I got her in, I dug my cell phone out of my purse. She looked up at me with a pout.

“I’m sorry! But I really need to call Joe.”

Muffy laid on the floor and set her chin on her paws with her you always say that look. Okay, so maybe I did, but this time was really important.

Joe’s phone rang until it went to voice mail. I almost left him a desperate-sounding message, but I worried that he’d drive down to check on me instead of just calling back. He was already in enough trouble with his job. Instead, I tried to make it light. “Hi, Joe. The good news is I got out of work all day at the courthouse.” Tears burned my eyes. I really needed to talk to him. “The bad news is I miss you.” My voice broke. “Call me.”

After I took a shower, I laid on the sofa to watch TV, hoping to take my mind off of Bruce Wayne Decker. I pictured him sitting in his empty concrete cell on a cot, a toilet in the corner. It hit me that it could have been me there if I hadn’t proved my own innocence in Momma’s murder. I could be sitting in jail right now waiting to go to trial so Mason Deveraux could prosecute me in front of a jury of my peers while William Yates defended me.

Who was going to prove Mr. Decker’s innocence?

I checked my phone for the twentieth time, wondering if I’d somehow missed Joe’s call. Sitting around my house moping wasn’t doing any good, so I decided to go to Violet’s house early.

The new neighbors were still moving in furniture when I pulled out of the driveway with Muffy. I had no idea how they planned to get all that furniture and those kids into such a tiny house, not that it was any of my business. I’d let Mildred worry about it.

My niece, Ashley, met me at the door with squeals of delight. “Muffy!”

“Hey,” I protested, watching her and Muffy race for the back door. “What happened to the days of you shouting Aunt Rose?”

“That was before you agreed to share your dog with her.” Violet called from the kitchen. I found her wearing a pink ruffled apron with “Happiness is Homemade” embroidered across the top. She was making a salad while Mikey sat on the floor eating cheese crackers from a small plastic bowl.

I opened the refrigerator and pulled out a pitcher of sweet tea.

Violet focused on chopping carrots. “How was your day?”

It was a trick question. If she’d heard about my courthouse drama, she’d want details. If she hadn’t, she’d be angry I hadn’t told her. I decided to test the waters. “I got picked for jury duty.”

Her head popped up and her eyes focused on me. “I didn’t know you had jury duty.”

I shrugged and grabbed a tomato. “I plumb forgot about it until Joe found my jury notice this morning.” I pulled a knife from her drawer and sliced the tomato in half on a cutting board. “Did you know you can get arrested for not showing up for jury duty?”

A frown puckered Violet’s mouth. “Joe was at the house this morning?” Her tone was accusatory.

I sighed. While this particular conversation was new, it was really a rehash of several previous arguments. “Yes, Joe was there, seeing how he spent the weekend with me, which you knew since we saw you at the park on Saturday and we were together.”

If possible, her lips pinched even tighter.

I stopped cutting and glared. “We’re not having this conversation again, Violet.”

Violet’s husband, Mike, walked in from the garage and ducked his head. “Don’t mind me. I’m heading back to change clothes.” He shot past us and down the hall.

Violet peered around the corner, her scowl deepening. “For heaven’s sakes, don’t come out in clean clothes, stinkin’ to high heaven. Take a shower, Mike!”

The shower water turned on down the hall.

Violet whacked the poor carrots with her knife as though she was beheading them. “Fine by me, Rose Anne Gardner, I’ll do all the talkin’ because I’ve already heard everything you’ve had to say.”

“And I could say the same, Vi.”

She blew a strand of hair out of her face, rolling her eyes. “Rose, Joe is your first boyfriend.”

“Yes, Violet, seeing how I don’t suffer from either short-term nor long-term memory loss, I’m very well aware that I never had a boyfriend until I was twenty-four.”

“Which means you’re inexperienced.”

Looking up, I grinned. “Not anymore.”

“Rose Anne Gardner!”

I crossed my arms. “Well you were the one who suggested a couple of months ago that I sleep with someone.”

“And I also said you shouldn’t sleep with just anyone. You need to find a boy with a nice solid family.”

“You don’t know anything about Joe’s family.”

She pointed her knife at me. “No, and neither do you, or you didn’t at least last time I heard. Has that changed?” Tilting her head, she waited with a smirk.

Her question sobered me. “No.” Joe refused to say much about his family other than he had a sister in Little Rock and his parents lived in El Dorado. In fact, he hardly said anything about his life before me. “Besides, what does it matter what his family’s like? I’m datin’ Joe, not his family.”