Deathtrap by Dana Marton Page B

got all controlling.” She gave a small smile. “He stood up to my mother. She was a hundred percent against the surgery. He was the one who supported me through it. I don’t know if I’d be alive today without him.”
    “And he’s handsome,” Wendy grudgingly admitted.
    “Yes.” There was that. He didn’t have Bing’s rugged good looks, but the nurses used to swoon over him. “He was independent and helped me be independent. I thought moving out from my mother’s house meant independence.” She shook her head. “I’ve never been in love before. I was a silly young girl, just desperately wanting to be in love and feel all grown up. He gave me that feeling. At the beginning.”
    “He needed you too, you know.”
    “It was one of those codependent relationships.” Sophie could see in hindsight what she hadn’t been able to see back in the day.
    “And that stopped working once you were no longer dependent on him.” Wendy’s fingers flew to her mouth. “I’m sorry. I have no right to analyze or judge or anything. And I’m not judging, I swear. Look at my messed-up life. The father of my baby is… The point is, I have the relationship skills of a gerbil. Justin Sr.—never mind. May a fiery meteor hit him, wherever he is,” she said with feeling.
    Okay, so that had been a rocky relationship that involved drugs on his part, toward the end, a lot of verbal abuse, and probably some physical, Sophie suspected, although Wendy never talked about it. “Good riddance. You can get any man you want.”
    They walked out of the store and stopped at Sophie’s car.
    “That’s just it,” Wendy said. “I don’t want just any man. I have Justin now. I want a man who could love me for more than my job, someone who could be a father for Justin. That’s tricky.”
    “Wonderful things are on their way.”
    “That and death and taxes. Sadly, only the last two are certain.”
    They talked some more before they parted, Sophie’s spirits lifted by the meeting. They didn’t see each other nearly as much as they would have liked these days. The baby kept Wendy pretty busy, and work ate up most of Sophie’s time. She’d taken on a lot. She was determined to pay off her medical bills.
    The Rottweiler waited for her outside the back door when she walked in, his eyes never leaving her for a second as she moved around in the kitchen, as if she were a great mystery to him. She felt the same. He pulled back when she moved to the door—a good thing, otherwise she wasn’t sure if she’d be brave enough to open the sliders to feed him.
    Once he ate and drank, she tossed him the rubber chicken she’d picked up at the store. “It’s just a small gift. Don’t read anything into it.”
    Since the day was the warmest they’d had so far this spring, she left the sliding door open to let some fresh air in and pulled the screen door into place instead.
    The dog grabbed his new toy and ran into the shed. He seemed to like it in there. But by the time her decaf coffee finished brewing, he was back on the deck, stretched out and sunning himself. He looked as pleased as peaches, watching her as she moved around inside.
    “One more day,” she told him. “But that’s it. Sorry…Peaches.”
    Even if he stayed only another day, she couldn’t keep calling him “dog.” Everyone deserved a name, and he didn’t seem to mind the one she came up with.
    Her phone rang, and she picked it up, recognizing the name of one of her clients on the display. “Hi, Meredith.”
    “Hello, Sophie, savior of my business, queen of the virtual universe.”
    The fulsome enthusiasm behind the words made Sophie laugh. “You need a new web tool.”
    “Yes,” Meredith said, this time miserably. “I’m going to have to start collecting sales taxes on online sales.”
    “I’m guessing you need it yesterday.”
    “The day before yesterday would be better.”
    “Let me see what I can do. How about if I have something back to you for testing by