That Man of Mine (5 page)

M
imi was supposed to
meet Allie at The Bistro by the Beach, Whispering Bay's premier coffee house. It was located directly on the gulf, right next door to the town's newest business, Baby Got Bump. She briefly thought of stopping inside to say hello to Lauren. Ever since Lauren had married Nate Miller, Mimi hardly ever saw her except when she was dropping off Henry to visit Cameron or vice versa. She didn't blame her friend for wanting her privacy. Lauren and Nate had gotten engaged at her parents' fortieth wedding anniversary back in December, and then surprised everyone by eloping the following week. They were newlyweds and Mimi wished them the best of luck.

Not that they needed it. Nate was one of Whispering Bay's only two practicing physicians and a total sweetheart. Mimi was thrilled for Lauren. Not only was she happy in love, she was now successful in business, too. Baby Got Bump had been Lauren's dream child. The place had originally started off as a retro boutique, but after a year of dismal sales and some unexpected inspiration, Lauren had begun to design retro maternity wear instead. The Lilly Pulitzer-meets the Beatles look had gone viral, making Baby Got Bump one of north Florida's hottest new businesses.

Mimi's phone pinged for a second time. As much as she'd love to catch up with Lauren, she'd have to do it some other time. She was currently two minutes late meeting her sister-in-law. It was a one-on-one Mimi wasn't looking forward to, but she had to do it sometime.

She opened the door to The Bistro by the Beach. The entire place turned to stare at her. It had been less than twenty-four hours, and exactly as she'd predicted, all of Whispering Bay now knew about
The
Separation
.

She'd had to turn off her cell phone this morning due to the influx of calls. But then she'd remembered that as mayor, she couldn't really do that. What if the city needed her? What if Cameron or Claire got sick at school? So she'd turned her phone back on and screened her calls. Luckily, the city hadn't needed her. Her mother, on the other hand, had needed her six times in less than two hours.

Frida Hampton, the Bistro's owner and a good friend and fellow Bunco Babe was making a latte when she spied Mimi. She handed the latte to a waiting customer, then stepped out from behind the counter to give Mimi a hug. “What the hell! Why didn't you tell us what was going on with you and Zeke?”

“I had planned to make an announcement at Bunco Thursday night, but I guess I've been pre-empted.”

“You okay?” Frida asked. She tucked an unruly auburn curl into the blue scarf bandana holding back her hair.

“Sure, I'm fine. Or as well as anyone could be now that half the town knows my business.”

“Not half the town. The
whole
town.” Frida smiled sympathetically. “You're a politician now and people love a good story. Don't you watch
The Good Wife
?”

“Yeah, but there's no scandal here. No cheating, no prostitutes, no tampering with public funds. We're just a regular couple who happen to be separated.”

“A regular couple?” Mimi heard someone say. It was Betty Jean Collins, a member of the Gray Flamingos, as well as the receptionist for The Whispering Bay Gazette, the newspaper Mimi's sister-in-law Allie and local resident Roger Van Cleave had recently resurrected back to life.

 “Oh, hi, Betty Jean. Yep, Zeke and I are just a regular couple.”

“You're the closest thing this town has to Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. What I want to know is, who's the Angelina Jolie in this story?”

“There is no Angelina Jolie.”

“There's
always
an Angelina Jolie. Especially when there's a good looking man involved. And honey, your man is just about the best looking thing this town has ever seen.”

Mimi didn't know whether to laugh or cringe. After eighteen years of marriage, she'd gotten used to other women telling her how attractive they found her husband. Normally, she'd laugh it off, especially since this was Betty Jean and she was old enough to be Zeke's grandmother. Unfortunately, today she wasn't in a laughing mood.

“I promise you, there's no Angelina Jolie.”

Betty Jean gave her a hard stare. “So the rumors about Cindy aren't true?”

“Cindy? You mean, Cindy who works at the police department?”

“
Special friendships
among co-workers are the number one cause of divorce. I read that in
Redbook
.” Betty Jean frowned. “Or one of those lady magazines.”

Special friendships, huh? Not that Cindy wasn't attractive, but the thought of her and Zeke…well, it was just too ridiculous to give any serious attention. But that didn't mean people weren't still saying it.

“First of all, we're not getting a divorce. And secondly, what kind of rumors have you heard?” Mimi asked cautiously.

The older woman waved a negligent hand through the air. “The usual. That they're doing the hanky-panky.”

Mimi blinked. “Hanky panky?” She hadn't heard that term since the second grade.

“You know,” Betty Jean clarified, not bothering to lower her voice. “The horizontal mamba. Stuffin' the muffin. Slytherin' her Hufflepuff. Good lord, woman! How much more explicit do I need to be?”

Slytherin' her Hufflepuff
?

This time, Mimi
did
laugh. “Thanks for the heads up, but I feel extremely confident that Zeke and Cindy have nothing more than a strictly professional relationship.”

“They say the wife is always the last to know.” She pressed a hand against Mimi's forearm. “You just keep telling yourself whatever you need to get through this thing. Just wanted you to know that the Gray Flamingos aren't taking sides. Well, maybe a few of us are. Even though that man of yours is one long delicious drink of water, I'm definitely on Team Mimi.”

Team Mimi?

“Gee, thanks,” Mimi muttered.

“Got to go!” Betty Jean said. She took off with more energy than you'd expect from a seventy-something-year-old woman.

“Good grief,” Mimi said turning back to Frida. “I'm almost afraid to say it, but I think gossip agrees with Betty Jean.”

“Like I said, this is a small town and like it or not, you and Zeke are now a power couple. Expect a lot more of this until you two get back together.”

“Right.”
Until they got back together.

“So, are you here for lunch?” Frida asked.

Mimi nodded. “I'm meeting Allie to discuss wedding plans.”

“Looks like she's here.” Frida pointed out the tall, leggy brunette walking through the door.

Allie scurried over to Mimi and gave her a swift hug. “Oh my God, I just got an earful from Betty Jean in the parking lot.” She gave Mimi a thorough inspection. “Are you all right?”

“I'm perfectly fine.”

“Well, I'm not. Plus, I'm starving.” She smiled at Frida. “Can I have my usual, please?”

When she wasn't at the Whispering Bay Gazette, Allie worked part-time for Frida at The Bistro. According to Allie, the small town paper was just beginning to turn a profit, the result of a lot of hard work done by Allie and Roger. But Mimi knew that profit wasn't enough to allow Allie to work exclusively at the paper. Working for Frida helped Allie make ends meet. So did freelancing for
Florida
! magazine.

“I'll have my usual, too,” Mimi said.

Frida gave them a sharp salute. “Coming right up.”

The usual for Allie was the tuna melt. For Mimi, it was Frida's turkey and Swiss on rye. Although to be honest, Mimi didn't have much of an appetite at the moment. They sat at a table along the wall featuring the big ocean mural that Frida's husband, Ed, a locally renowned artist, had painted. The mural was a talking point for The Bistro. It was a wall-to-wall depiction of Florida sea life, starring dolphins and manatees and flying swordfish. The tourists loved it. They also loved snapping pictures of it while waiting for their cappuccinos to brew. Those photos inevitably ended up on people's Facebook walls. It was modern day word of mouth and the best sort of advertising you could get.

 Allie let out a deep sigh. “I went to see Zeke last night.
After
I heard about the separation while I was in line at the Piggly Wiggly.”

Mimi cringed. The grocery store line was definitely not the place she'd wanted her sister-in-law to hear that kind of news.

“I'm sorry. I wanted to tell you in person. Zeke and I were going to tell the kids first, but, I don't know, it all just came out at the city council meeting. Or rather, Zeke blurted it out.”

“That doesn't sound like Zeke.”

“You're right. It doesn't.” Mimi rubbed her wedding band, which was securely back on her ring finger this morning. “I think he noticed I took off my wedding band and it must have set him off.”

Allie's eyes widened. “You took off your wedding band?”

“To do the dishes. Yesterday was crazy. It was my first city council meeting and I was running around the house trying to get ready. I just forgot to put it back on.”

“And you think that's why Zeke told everyone you were separated?”

Mimi shrugged. “I have no idea. It's just a theory. But, regardless of why he told everyone, it doesn't change the fact that it's true. You know we've been going to counseling, but it's not working. We just need some time apart to think.”

It had been over a year since Allie had moved back to Whispering Bay for keeps and discovered through Claire that Mimi and Zeke were going to marital counseling. Mimi had high hopes in those first few months, but instead of their relationship progressing, it had deteriorated to the point that they seemed more like polite strangers than husband and wife.

“I think being apart is going to make it all worse,” Allie said. Although she was thirty-one years old, she looked about thirteen right now. The exact age when Mimi had first met her sister-in-law. She loved Allie and she hated to see her upset.

“This sucks,” Mimi said. “Today was supposed to be about planning your wedding. Not hashing over my problems with Zeke.”

The little restaurant suddenly went quiet.

Mimi felt the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She turned in her seat to find Zeke standing by the door. He eyed the dining area and made a swift beeline toward them. “Mind if I crash your lunch?” he asked in a casually deceptive voice. As if either of them would say no.

Her heart began doing that erratic thing again. Going way too fast. Or maybe it was skipping a beat. At the city council meeting she'd chalked it up to Zeke's presence, but it wasn't normal to feel this way. In the beginning of a relationship, yes. But after eighteen years together? It must be a reaction to all the stress going on in her life. Yes, that was it. Seeing Zeke under these new conditions was definitely stressful. She'd have to let Doc Morrison check her out. Maybe even do an EKG or something.

Zeke took a seat and conversation in the restaurant resumed, but it was obvious the entire place was watching them.

“So, we're here to talk about Allie's wedding. Right?” he said.

Before either Mimi or Allie could answer, Frida practically ran to the table to take Zeke's order. Over the top of his head, Frida gave Allie a wide-eyed look as if to ask
what's going on?
Allie just shook her head. She supposed she'd have to get used to this reaction. From now on, whenever she and Zeke were together, people would begin to wonder. Were they back together? Or not? Maybe she should put a sign on her back saying
Still in Time Out
!

Mimi waited till Zeke ordered and Frida had left the table. “Have you and Tom set a date yet?” she asked Allie.

“The second Saturday in June. Tom's dad is going to marry us, but that's about all we have nailed down.”

“You're not getting married in the Church?” Zeke demanded. Tom's daddy was a Methodist minister but Zeke and Allie had been raised Catholic.

“Tom's divorced, so it probably wouldn't be appropriate,” Allie said. “Plus, I'm kind of a lapsed Catholic, so—”

“You can get married anyway you want,” Mimi butt in. “It's
your
wedding. Zeke and I are here to support whatever decision you and Tom make. Isn't that right?” she said to Zeke.

His brow shot up. “Sure. Right.”

“Okay, so we have the ceremony taken care of. What about the time? And the dress? And the reception, and the flowers?” Mimi pulled a notepad from her leather tote. “There's a lot to take care of and we have less than four months.”

“We don't want anything big,” Allie said. “Just family and close friends. Maybe we could get married around noon, and then do a simple lunch in the church hall?”

“A simple lunch?” Zeke said. “That sounds cheap.”

“Not necessarily,” Mimi said.

Allie glanced between the two of them. “Did you know Zeke is insisting on paying for the wedding?” she asked Mimi. “Which, by the way, is completely unnecessary. Tom and I are adults. We can take care of our own wedding.”