“That suits me,” Mary Beth said, making her own voice businesslike. There was only so much mush Melanie could tolerate in one evening.
“And you will accept a percentage of the rental in payment for managing the theater property. I expect you to sign a contract so there won’t be any misunderstandings that this is strictly a business arrangement.”
Mary Beth could only nod. That little extra was Melanie’s way of making sure her sister was taken care of.
“Are you there, Mary Beth?”
“Yes,” Mary Beth squeaked, and then she cleared her throat. “Yes, I’m here. And yes, I’ll be happy to sign whatever agreement you want.”
“Well, I’ll have my attorneys see to everything, and we’ll get it taken care of at the same time we do the closing, if that’s not a problem.”
“That’ll be fine.”
“Well, goodnight then.”
“Goodnight.” Mary Beth paused. “And Mel?”
“Yes?”
“I love you.”
Mary Beth heard the line click and then a dial tone, but she was almost sure that, right before then, she heard a soft, “Love you too.”
****
The following Saturday night, Frank Sanders showed up late for his usual poker game. He’d had a rotten day at the shop, and now his car was giving him fits. All he needed was to lose a bundle in tonight’s game to round things off.
The battered round table and mismatched chairs were the best features of Dave Avery’s cluttered den, but at least the place was comfortable. More importantly, Dave’s wife didn’t seem to object to having visitors most Saturday nights, and Dave and his friends had a regular place to play.
Once he was inside, Sanders shut the door behind him. “Sorry I’m late, guys.”
Squinting through his thick glasses, Eric nodded a welcome, but Scott was too busy raking in his winnings to do more than glance up and grumble, “About time.”
Murphy lumbered to his feet and made a low bow. “His Majesty arrives.”
Frank responded with a pained smile. “Funny.”
“Hey, Frank.” Dave pushed back the empty chair next to him and lifted one bushy eyebrow. “We thought maybe you got hit by a bus.”
Frank dropped into his seat and anted up with the others. “Wouldn’t surprise me.”
“Now you get to pay up on our little agreement.” Dave grinned as he dealt Sanders in. “Big bucks, remember?”
“Yeah, uh, that deal I was hoping for didn’t quite pan out. You’re going to have to settle for the usual until I win the lottery or something.”
Sanders picked up his cards. Queen, king and ten of diamonds. Four of spades. Eight of clubs. He and three of the others tossed a few bucks into the pot. Eric folded.
“Cards?” Dave asked.
“Three,” said Murphy.
“Yeah, three,” said Scott.
Frank put the eight and the four facedown on the table and slid them over to Dave. “Give me two.”
“All right.” Dave dealt them their cards. “And the dealer takes one.”
Eric chuckled. “Looks like it might be Dave who’s about to win the lottery.”
Dave grinned as he looked at his hand. “Yeah, that’d be the life. A big windfall, no matter where it’s from, sure wouldn’t hurt. I read this morning about some woman up the coast who found half a million in old jewelry. It’d been in the family for years, and nobody knew about it.”
Sanders kept his jaws clamped together and didn’t look up. Why couldn’t stuff like that ever happen to him? Even when he knew he was onto a sure thing, it always seemed to go wrong.
He picked up one of the cards he’d just been dealt. Ace of diamonds. His pulse picked up its pace, but he kept his face carefully blank. Maybe at last he was going to have something good happen. Scott and Murphy both threw in their hands in disgust.
“Heh heh, dumb luck wins every time, doesn’t it?” Eric shook his head. “Still, how could she not know? I mean, if those jewels were sitting around all that time. Must’ve had a pretty stupid bunch of relatives. Where was it?”
Sanders picked up his last card, still not looking at it. Jack of diamonds. Be the jack of diamonds.
“It was in the bottom of some old clock of hers,” Dave said.
Sanders froze. “What?”
“Yeah. The paper says it’d been there since before the Civil War. Can you imagine? Now the old biddy’s set for life.”
Frank’s fingers squeezed into a fist, crumpling his still unseen card. “Wh—where was this?”
Dave shrugged. “I dunno. Somewhere up the coast.” He rummaged in a pile of newspaper on the floor next to him and then tossed one section onto the table in front of Sanders. “Read for yourself.”