Free 2 Months 'Til Mrs. (2 'Til Series) by Heather Muzik

least she picked up her fork again.
    “Well, now,” she said, slightly breathless from the
intensity of laundering, “what are your plans for the rest of the weekend?”
    First it was relief that her mother wasn’t digging too
deep, but then she recognized this for what it was—a baited trap set before
her. “I have to get back to the city. I have some things to take care of before
going back to work on Monday.” Evasive and noncommittal.
    Her mother waited, staring at her, testing her
willpower before saying anything further. “Well, I just wanted to say that the
church is having a New Year’s brunch after the late service tomorrow. I thought
it would be perfect for you since you like to sleep in.”
    Invite and slam all in one nice tidy package. “Sounds wonderful,
but I really need to be on the road first thing if I am going to have time to
get… those things done… before Monday.” She had controlled her tone well
enough, but stumbling over what she had to do was pretty transparent.
    “That’s too bad,” Elizabeth said, shaking her head sadly.
She quickly brightened, though. “Why don’t we go to the early service instead
and have brunch at the diner before you leave?” Like this would make everybody
happy—it was about saving her daughter’s soul here.
    “It would probably be better if I left tonight
actually,” she eked out, knowing that now she was entirely transparent, counter-stepping
her mother at every turn, too quickly and too generally for her own good.
    “She doesn’t want to hang with the fogeys, Elizabeth,”
her father said helpfully, winking at his daughter.
    “I was just trying to be polite. I know she would
rather be out with people her own age, but seeing as how—would anyone like
dessert?” Elizabeth redirected quickly, perfunctorily getting up from her seat
and stacking the dinner dishes whether people were finished eating or not. When
she snatched Uncle Dick’s he was in mid-poke of a mushroom cap, and it
skittered off the plate and onto the table and then to the floor where he dove
for it. Catherine had never seen him move so quickly, not even when some kid
was trespassing on his lawn.
    Her mother completely ignored her guest, intent on
getting into the kitchen to begin the cleanup.
    “I don’t see what the big deal is around here,” Uncle Dick
said from under the table. “So she’s a lesbian. Most old maids are lesbians;
it’s always been that way ever since I can remember.” He got up off of all
fours a lot slower than he’d gone down, popping the mushroom into his mouth as he
resettled himself in his seat.
    Catherine heard her father’s jaw hit the table, or
maybe she imagined it, but when she looked his way his eyes were bugged out and
his mouth was definitely hanging open. She gave him a halfhearted,
one-shouldered shrug of embarrassment. Obviously he’d missed out on all the fun
gossip last night.
    “I thought you were—I mean, Fynn was a—what the hell
did I miss?”
    “Nothing Dad,” she said grimly, wishing now that she’d
just made an announcement to the whole party last night, a categorical denial…
or better yet, that she’d gagged her Aunt Judy and shoved her in the hall
closet through the New Year.
    “It doesn’t sound like nothing.”
    “It was Judy, dear, doing what Judy does best,”
Elizabeth called over the sound of the faucet in the kitchen.
    “Giving me a heart attack?” he hollered back.
    Elizabeth came into the room, drying her hands on a
dishtowel and slinging it over her shoulder in order to take a load of glasses
into the kitchen. “She’s harmless.”
    “She’s a menace.”
    “She’s my sister,” Elizabeth cautioned.
    “She’s still a pain in my ass.”
    “Can you blame her for wondering… really?”
    “Mother!” Catherine gasped.
    “I’ve never been one to lie to you and I am not going
to start now. The fact that you haven’t settled down after so much dating —”
    “I haven’t dated that much,” she