The Scoop Read Free Page A

to sit on the back veranda.
    She loved this time of day. The birds were starting to awaken, the potpourri of their chirping music to her ears. The flowers and shrubbery were still glazed with early-morning dew. Freshly plowed dirt from her neighbor’s garden seasoned the morning air, reminding her that summer was just around the corner. The bouquet of night-blooming jasmine she’d gathered last night sat in a vase on a wicker side table, filling her senses with its pungent odor. God, she loved this place. She couldn’t imagine living anywhere else in the whole world.
    Taking a big swallow of coffee, Toots went over her mental “get my ass in gear” list. She and Bernice had worked like troupers yesterday cleaning most of the house inside and out. Pete, her longtime friend and gardener, weeded the flower beds, spruced up the shrubs, cut the grass, then trimmed the dead leaves from her two angel oaks. The hummingbird feeders were replenished, dried corn sprinkled around for the squirrels in hopes they would stay away from her bird feeders, but that was a lost cause. She did this every year and saw no reason to stop anytime soon. She had a routine, liked sticking to it most days, but there was a yearning in her now, something she hadn’t been able to silence since Leland’s death. The best she could come up with was that a sort of restlessness was flowing through her veins. Was this what getting old felt like? Lost, with no sense of purpose? No! No! No! She would not allow herself a pity party by believing in that crap.
    Her best friends in the whole world were on their way for a visit. A dark mood was not on her agenda. She liked to count her blessings and reminded herself of all she had to be thankful for. At sixty-five she was healthy as a horse, according to her physical three months ago. She had a beautiful daughter who seemed to be thriving in Los Angeles. Her dearest friends were still alive. She had more money than JPMorgan Chase, at least today she did, and she didn’t see that changing anytime in the near future. Life was lookin’ good.
    She took a slurp of the now-cold coffee, lit another cigarette, and inhaled the toxins before releasing the acrid smoke into the fresh air. Ida would be on her ass like white on rice when she found out that Toots still smoked. Ida thought everything in life that felt good was actually bad for you. Breathing was bad for you, according to her. Mavis said Ida had something the professionals called OCD, obsessive compulsive disorder, whatever the hell that was. Didn’t anyone just get constipated anymore? Why did every disease have to be reduced to initials?
    New beginnings, Toots thought as she went inside to refill her cup. Brand-spanking-new beginnings. No husbands to fret over, not that she ever had, but for the first time in a very, very long time, Toots was on her own. She wasn’t sure if she liked the idea or not. She’d always had some distant family close by or, God help her, a husband to contend with. With Abby on the West Coast and her friends scattered across the country, Toots realized that the feelings she’d been experiencing were feelings of loss, of not being needed. Shit. Someone always needed something. She would simply find a new need, fill it, and live heartily.
    Never one to wallow in self-pity, Toots drank two more cups of coffee and smoked three more cigarettes before fixing herself a bowl of Froot Loops cereal doused liberally with extra sugar and whole milk. She laughed loudly at what she thought of as her wicked ways.
    “What on earth are you doing up at this hour laughing like a loon in my kitchen?” Bernice asked from the front door, where she’d been watching her crazy employer, whom she loved more than she had ever loved her own deceased husband.
    Toots almost jumped out of her skin. “Damn, Bernice, you scared the snot out of me! I didn’t hear the front door open. I might ask you the same thing. Why are you here so early?”
    “We have a