Snake in the Glass Read Free

myself. “Look, I know it’s kind of a shock for her, going back to a place she hadn’t been in twenty-odd years, seeing all her relatives, all grown up now. It’s weird. It’s a pretty small town, in the middle of nowhere, and the place itself has barely changed at all, so I can imagine that she might feel she’s in some kind of time warp. I can certainly sympathize with that.” Especially because I had so few relatives myself, apart from Cam. “But I think she owes Cam something. Don’t you? I guess the fact that she couldn’t face him—even over the phone—makes me wonder just how committed to him she is.”
    Nessa looked down at her mug, swirling the tea round and round. “I think that she has some catching up to do, learning to deal with the real world, without her late husband’s influence. But I also agree that that should involve facing up to her responsibilities and talking to Cam herself.”
    “That’s what I thought. Oh, hell, Nessa, I know that Cam is kind of over the top about her. He’s never really been in love before, so maybe he’s been storing it up all these years. And if I were on the receiving end of that, I might run the other way too, even without Allison’s baggage. He can be pretty intense. It’s just that I don’t want to hurt him, and I guess I’m pissed at Allison for putting me in this position. It’s not fair.”
    “It isn’t, but neither is life. Would you like some more tea?”
    I looked at Nessa then and realized she was kidding me. “And sympathy? No, I’m good. And thank you for letting me vent. I must say I’m glad Cam won’t be back until tomorrow—I need time to think, when my brain isn’t quite so addled.” I swallowed the last of my tea. “Oh, by the way, we saw Allison’s Uncle Frank while we were in Ireland. He said he was coming to Tucson for the Gem Show, any day now.”
    “Really.” Nessa’s serene expression didn’t change.
    “Nessa! Did you know?”
    Was that a blush? “He might have mentioned it.”
    “Nessa, you sly dog, you. Carrying on behind my back.”
    “I wouldn’t call a few letters ‘carrying on.’ And a couple of e-mails.”
    I smiled at her. “Well, Nessa, old friend, you have my blessing. I like Frank, and I’m glad he’s coming back. Although how you two can manage any sort of relationship with several thousand miles between you is beyond me.”
    “One step at a time. And I don’t see that proximity has made your relationship with Matt any easier.”
    Matt Lundgren, Tucson’s chief of police, and I had had an on-again, off-again relationship for years—the “off” part came when his wife had returned from a so-called trial separation. The “on-again” part was the positive result of some unpleasant business that had taken place in my glass studio a few months back. “True. I should call him and let him know I’m back. I told Frank we should all get together while he’s here.”
    “I’m sure we will. So, tell me all about Ireland.” A neat deflection on Nessa’s part.
    “Cold! Most of the time I was wearing about seven layers of clothes, and it still wasn’t enough.” Nobody had bothered to tell me that Ireland in February would be freezing. And that they really weren’t into central heating over there. “Maybe cold alone I could have handled, but not the damp. Even the room at the B & B wasn’t a whole lot warmer than the outside.”
    Em, you are now officially a Tucsonan. I had missed my adopted hometown’s justly renowned “dry heat.” I might’ve grown up on the East Coast, but ten years in Tucson had changed my metabolism, and I just didn’t do cold and wet anymore.
    “We put the stone on Allison’s mother’s grave—that’s why Frank was there—and had a nice service, and there were all these relatives. I gave up trying to figure out who was related to whom. Allison was kind of overwhelmed, at least at the beginning, but after a couple of days she seemed to slip right back into