"Casey Daniels - Pepper Martin 01 - Don of the Dead" - читать интересную книгу автора (Daniels Casey)

"I'm so glad!" She walked over to the chair in front of my desk and for a moment, I was afraid that she
was going to plop down right in my guest chair. I don't know why the thought bothered me so much.
Logic dictated that the chair was empty. But my eyes told me otherwise. When Ella stepped in front of
the chair, Gus wiggled his eyebrows and patted his lap. She perched herself on the arm of the chair, and I
let go the breath I was holding.

"I don't want you to get too hyper about it but remember, that's an important group, Pepper. There are a
couple members who are married to cemetery trustees."

I tried not to notice that while we were talking, Gus gave Ella's backside a careful examination. When he
was done, he nodded in appreciation and gave me the thumbs-up.
"That is so sexist!"

"Excuse me?" Ella's blank stare was familiar. It was just like the ones I'd seen so often on the previous
day's tour. "Did you sayтАФ"

"I saidтАж " I had no choice but to come up with an excuse. Half-baked or not. It was that or have her
think I'd flipped my lid. "I said it was sexist. Yeah, that's what I said. I said that it's not right to define the
women in the group by the men they're married to. Isn't that what you were telling me? When we talked
about what it was like back in the days when feminism got started?"

We had talked about the whole Stone Age feminism movement just a couple of days before. More
precisely, over salads at a nearby cheap-food place, Ella had talked and I had pretended to listen. She
looked pleased to realize that some of what she'd said had actually sunk in.

She beamed. "Exactly! I did mention that women need to be defined by who they are personally, not by
the men in their lives. But when I mentioned the Junior League, I didn't meanтАФ"

"Of course you didn't. I know exactly what you meant. See, I was paying attention."

"Better attention than my kids ever pay." Ella sighed. She was the mother of three teenaged girls so she
had earned the right. "I try to tell the girls, Pepper. I try to explain what the world was like back in the
sixties and seventies. But they don't listen. They think it doesn't apply to them."

Just like I was pretty sure it didn't apply to me.

Not that I was going to mention it. Number one, because of all the people I'd met since my comfortable
upper-middle-class world fell apart, Ella was one of the nicest. Number two, because she was my boss.
Number threeтАж

Well, Gus was making like he was about to pinch Ella's ass, so I suppose my third reason was that I just
wanted to get this whole thing over and done with. "A meeting with Jim, did you say?" I got out of my
chair and opened the door that led into the outer hallway. "We'd better get going."

"You don't have to. Not yet." Ella checked the watch that was on her wrist along with a half-dozen
beaded bracelets. "I do. He's going to want facts and figures and I'd better pull them together. From you,
I think he'll want a list of the tours that are scheduled for the rest of the month. If you could justтАж " She
motioned toward the mess on my desk.

And because she knew she didn't have to explain herself, Ella left.