The Devil Has Dimples Read Free Page A

long time.
    Not even my ex before the divorce.
    I didn’t know that hugs could be comforting, caring,
calming.  Until now.
    Stopping my tears, I wiped my cheeks.  Grant St. Romain
moved away from me, and I looked up into his face.
    I was a goner.  Jock?  Did it really matter?
    His eyes were mesmerizing, deep brown pools flecked with
traces of gold and surrounded with thick black lashes that any woman would
covet.
    He released his hold on me.  It was all I could do not to
grab him and make him wrap his arms around me again.  I didn’t know this man,
but I wanted his arms around me so bad it hurt.  Or at least for another minute. 
Or forever.  At this stage, I wasn’t particular.
    He walked back behind his desk and sat, ever the
professional, but curiosity gleamed in his eyes.
    Twisting the handkerchief in my fingers, I noticed that it,
too, was pink.  I gave a brief smile as I clasped it tighter in my hands.  “No,
I didn’t know.  It came as a complete shock.”
    “Again, I’m sorry.”  His voice was compassionate, caring. 
Different from the stern quality it had when he first found out I was Maudie Cooper’s
daughter.  “Where do you want to go from here?”
    Home.  I wanted to go home and crawl in bed, throwing the
covers over my head.  Instead, I crossed the room and sat in the chair, leaned
my head against the back, and closed my eyes. I needed to think.
    But my mind was still whirling with the news.  I was
adopted.
    Snapping my head forward, I glanced at Grant St. Romain.  He
stared at me intently. Waiting.  Patiently.
    “You said in your letter that there were conditions. 
Exactly what are they?”
    Grant reached for his phone, punched a button, then spoke
into the receiver.  “Alice, bring me Maudie’s file.”
    He cleared his throat.  “I want to read the will to you,
word for word.  I know what it says, and I don’t particularly agree with
everything Maudie put in her will, but it was her decision.”
    The doorknob rattled, and pounding on the door followed. 
Grant rose to unlock it.  He raised an eyebrow in my direction.
    Once the door opened, Alice shoved a file into his hands,
glanced around the room suspiciously and sent me a scathing look.
    Feeling a guilty flush rise up my neck and into my cheeks, I
sunk deeper into the leather chair.
    She slammed the door forcefully, so I guessed I was still not
on her list of favorite people.
    Grant opened the file and searched for the will.  Finding
the specific paper, he began to read aloud.
     
    “I, Maudie Cooper, being of sound mind and body, do
hereby bequeath all my worldly goods and possessions to my only child, Sara
Elizabeth Cooper, known as Sara Elizabeth McLaughlin, if she will do the
following:
    Sara, you must live in my apartment for the next six
weeks.  You may not spend more than twenty-four hours out of town.  You must
run my business, Tuesdays through Saturdays at my usual hours during this
period, except for national holidays.  Once this requirement is met, at the end
of six weeks, you may keep or dispose of my belongings and investments as you
see fit.
    If you should not choose to follow my instructions, then
everything will be liquidated within one month of the delivery of this will. 
The proceeds will then be given to create a college scholarship in my name at
Boggy Bayou High School.”
     
    Grant put the will back into the file, closed it and leaned
back in his chair.
    “That’s it?”
    “Yes.  That is what I was directed to tell you.  If you meet
the conditions that Maudie set forth, then you inherit everything.”
    “But...I wanted some...answers.”  I started to twist the
pink hankie in my hands.
    “What sort of answers?”
    Numb, I stood and walked to the window.  It faced a
courthouse square.  Boggy Bayou was a charming little town.  Several old men
sat whittling and spitting while sitting on a park bench.  A young woman pushed
a baby stroller.  A squirrel ran along the power line.