This woman had spirit, strength, confidence. He could tell already. “Anything else I should know about dining here?” he asked, teasing her.
“Order the pie.”
“What kind of pie?”
“Any kind of pie.”
“Okay…I’ll have pumpkin.”
“I’ll have the carrot cake,” she said to Judy.
“Wait a second,” Isaac said with a laugh. “You just told me to order the pie.”
“I know. Their carrot cake isn’t the best. But I’m in the mood for cream-cheese frosting.”
Isaac found his smile lingering. Much as he didn’t want to like Rena O’Connell, he couldn’t help himself. She was refreshingly quirky and outspoken.
Choosing between Elizabeth and Reenie wouldn’t be easy, he decided. No wonder his brother-in-law was working so hard to keep both women. Flying back and forth between Idaho and California. Splitting his earnings between two households. Making up lies to cover lies to cover lies…
How the hell had he managed it for so long? A double life had to wear a person down after a while. Had Keith planned on leaving Reenie and never gotten around to actually walking out? Had he cheated on her, then let the situation spiral out of control? Or did he consider what he was doing some kind of challenge? Was he laughing at the gullibility of one wife while he was in the arms of the other?
“Can I get you anything else?” Judy asked.
“No, thanks,” Isaac replied. He turned back to Reenie as Judy moved away.
“Are you always so direct?” he asked Reenie.
“Pretty much. Why? Does it intimidate you?”
“Not at all.”
“That’s more than I can say for most men.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Men seem to prefer demure women who let them take the lead, or at least create the illusion of letting them lead.”
“You’re saying you wear the pants in the family?”
“Not at all. Keith and I are equal partners in our marriage. I’m just saying that I don’t hesitate to speak my mind.”
“And he’s okay with that?”
“He loves that about me.” She flashed him another grin.
He chuckled, thinking about the little girl he’d met at the house. Isabella had definitely inherited her mother’s spunk. Reenie might be small, but she was a force to be reckoned with. She could probably handle what was coming better than Liz could. But would the crisis rob her of that vital quality he found so unique and appealing? He hated the thought of that.
“What do you want to know about small towns?” she asked.
“First tell me a little about yourself.”
“Me?”
“A writer needs to understand the perspective of his source. It shades the meaning of what that source might say.”
She briefly considered this. “Okay. I’ll be thirty in two months.”
Isaac cringed a little at this news. They wouldn’t get through her birthday before the truth came out.
“I was born in Dundee.” She rearranged the salt-and-pepper shakers and condiments as she talked, even used her napkin to wipe the grime off the salt container. “My parents still live here, along with my only sibling, an older brother.” Focusing on someone over his left shoulder, she set her napkin on the edge of the table for Judy to take and waved.
Isaac turned to see that she’d spotted a young cowboy who’d come in earlier. “Friend of yours?”
“A former student.”
“You’re a teacher?”
“I was until I had Isabella. It was tough enough to work full-time with two kids. Three made it nearly impossible. I prefer to be with them, so I quit.”
“Fortunately, your husband seems to make enough to provide for everyone.” And he did mean everyone. How did Keith support two families without either wife missing the funds he siphoned off? Softscape must pay very well.
“We…squeak by,” she said.
Considering the diamond bracelet Keith had given Liz for their anniversary, the four-thousand-square-foot house they lived in, and the expense of belonging to that ritzy tennis club, Keith was obviously not splitting his checks evenly. Why was he spending so much more on one family than the other? Did he prefer Liz to Reenie? Or was he living some sort of yuppie fantasy life with Liz that required fancier trappings? It was even possible that he loved Reenie more than Liz and tried to make up for it with his generosity.
“I’m interested in how couples deal with their finances in small communities,” he said, steering the conversation in a direction that might reveal how Keith operated.
She surprised him by wrinkling her nose.
“Is something wrong?”
“I hate to be critical, but I hope that isn’t what your book is about.”
Once again her frank response tempted him to smile. “Not interesting enough?”
“’Fraid not.”
“It’s fascinating to me.” Morbidly so, he thought, and his smile quickly faded.
She accepted the glass of water Judy brought. “You must have been an accountant in a former life.”
“A scientist,” he said.
“That explains it.”
“You’re saying accountants—and scientists—are boring?”
“Not boring, exactly. Just preoccupied with the minutiae of life.”
Isaac couldn’t help being slightly offended. “Someone needs to worry about the details.”
“I guess. Anyway, there’s hope for you. You’re more of a jack-of-all-trades, right? Scientist, computer type and novelist.”
He shifted uncomfortably. “Right.”
“What do you want to know about small-town couples and their money?” she asked.
Still tempted to defend scientists, Isaac struggled to regain his focus. “Are married couples from rural areas really more traditional in the way they handle their income?” he asked. “Or is that changing? For instance, do you and your husband have joint bank accounts or separates ones?”
“We have a household account that’s joint. My husband also has an account of his own.”
“Why did you choose that arrangement?” Isaac guessed the idea had originated with Keith, but he was curious to know why she’d gone along with it.
“He likes to invest anything we have left over. He works hard, so I don’t begrudge him that. It doesn’t amount to much, anyway. We go over the numbers all the time. Especially recently. I’ve been wanting to buy this farm, and…well…” Her bottom lip came out in a quick pout that reminded him once again of her youngest daughter. “Let’s just say we’ve been talking a lot about money.”