Free Flamingo Diner by Sherryl Woods

any woman are private,” Matt replied. “That’s a lessonyou should learn, kid. Never kiss and tell. Now let’s get on over to the house.”
    “I have other plans with my friends.”
    “They can wait,” Matt said, his gaze unyielding.
    Jeff tried to stare him down, but he was no match for a cop’s steady gaze. “Yeah, whatever,” he said finally.
    He started to walk away, but Matt clapped a hand on his shoulder.
    “One more thing,” he said. “If these were your real friends, they would have been here today.”
    “Like I told Andy, they didn’t even know my dad.”
    “But they know you, and they could have come out of respect,” Matt said pointedly. “That’s what real friends do. Maybe you ought to think about that before you get too tight with these people.”
    “Lay off, okay?” he said, still defiant. “I’m not a kid and you’re not my boss.”
    “Maybe not,” Matt agreed, keeping his gaze perfectly level. He knew how disconcerting that could be when someone had something to hide. “But you step out of line, and I can make you regret it. Your mom and your sister and brother don’t need that kind of grief right now, know what I mean?”
    “Whatever,” Jeff said, but he looked just a little shaken.
    “I’ll see you at the house, right?” Matt called after him, still not letting up.
    “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Jeff said with a one-fingered salute.
    Matt forced himself to ignore the gesture. “It’s a ten-minute drive,” he told Jeff. “I’ll give you fifteen before I come looking for you.”
    “I said I’d be there,” Jeff said.
    Matt nodded slowly. “I’m trusting you to keep you word.”
    “Yeah, whatever,” Jeff said, but when he climbed into his car, he turned it toward home.

6
    R osa should have felt gratified. There had been so many people at the funeral, so many sincere expressions of sympathy. Every word spoken to her had been filled with very real dismay over her loss. Even the mayor had come by the house to offer his condolences. Though Rosa listened skeptically, for once his remarks seemed to be genuine, rather than calculated for maximum political benefit.
    “Don Killian was a tremendous asset to this community,” Owen Habersham said, clasping Rosa’s hand in his. “Whenever I had a problem, I knew I could come to him for clear thinking.”
    Rosa had always felt the same way about her husband, had thought he felt the same about her. So why hadn’t Don come to her with whatever devastating problem had been on his mind at the end? She’d always believed there was nothing they couldn’t discuss, nothing they couldn’t work out.
    The early years of their marriage had been filled with trials—business struggles, a miscarriage, the loss of his parents, then hers—but they had met each test together. Even before they’d married, there had been a few serious ups and downs. One rift had almost broken them up permanently, but they’d mended it and been stronger than ever.
    She sighed at the irony in the mayor’s comment. If her husband had been thinking clearly, would he have killed himself? She was ashamed of his actions, even more ashamed that she hated him for them. One act, one instance of craziness, had destroyed everything she’d felt for him, all the love in her heart. It had turned her into a liar and a hypocrite. She was keeping her suspicions—her certainty—that Don had purposely driven into that lake from the police and, more important, from her family. She simply couldn’t bring herself to add to the devastation that Emma, Jeff and Andy were already feeling. And even now she felt a tremendous sense of loyalty to Don. She wanted to protect his reputation, which was more than he’d seen fit to do when he’d decided to drive into the lake.
    Hearing so many people say such nice things should have been gratifying, but it wasn’t. She felt like a fraud, as if she didn’t deserve their sympathy because she was so horribly angry with the man they were