"Mohr, L C - Fortune's Cookie" - читать интересную книгу автора (Mohr L C)

Oh, yes. "I had a visitor today."

"How nice."

"A Mr. uh..." I searched around my mind. "Drummer? No, Piper ... Pfifer! That's it -- Mr. Pfifer!"

But by this time I'd lost her attention. Cookie did not have a very long attention span. She was herding the girls toward the table.

"He was from an insurance company. Something about a policy you're taking out..."

Cookie ladled the steamy something into bowls.

"...on me. For a million dollars?"

Three heads turned toward me.

"Mommy's husbands are always insured," Billie said between slurps.

"Oh? Exactly how many husbands have you had, my love?" I asked gently.

Jillie tsked and raised her eyebrows. "You're number three."

"Our daddy was the first," Billie said. "He left Mommy dissolute."

"Destitute, Dear." Cookie smiled at her proudly, then pulled me into the corner. "They were very young -- only twenty-two months old -- when their father died, and they don't remember Mr. Ferguson, whom I married about eleven months later. We were only married a year when he..." she took a deep breath. "When he was killed in that freak accident." She sighed and looked up at me. Her eyelashes fluttered shyly. "Is there a problem?"

I had become distracted for a moment by Cookie's habit of speaking in months instead of years. That made me four hundred and thirty two...I shook my head to clear the calculations.

"Of course not. I just wish you'd have mentioned it to me first, my pet." I tried to smile back. "It came as a bit of a surprise," I said, not quite sure if I meant the extra husband or the insurance policies.

"Did Mr. Pfifer tell you when I'd be getting the settlement check?" Cookie asked.

I stared at her.

"I haven't received the check on Bernard's insurance yet." She smiled fondly at the twins. "We're putting it directly into the girls' college fund. They'll be going off before you know it."

Devoted stepfather though I was, I must admit the thought absorbed me for the rest of the evening.

** ** **

The next morning I elbowed aside a few commuters and managed to get a seat next to Jeff. He looked at me, then narrowed his eyes and smiled. "I know you're still a newlywed, Bill, but you should try to get more sleep."

I attempted to smile back.

"What's wrong?"

I shook my head dismissingly. "I never realized how noisy two ten-year-old girls could be. Cookie insured me for a million dollars. They chatter until midnight and start up again at dawn." I worked at keeping a smile on my face.

Jeff's smart. He cut through to what was on my mind. "A million, huh? Doesn't surprise me. She's a smart woman. It makes good sense. Before you know it the girls'll be off to college. Do you know what tuition costs these days? And suppose you weren't around to help her?"