looked taken aback at that.
Okay, she’d actually been working on her master’s degree for nearly a decade and had barely started her PhD classes on the side as her then-husband had pursued his dream of being a college president and they’d moved three times. All of which meant Lilah had changed schools three times and worked full-time at a number of different college administration jobs, putting aside her own dreams and ambitions for a man who, in the end, couldn’t even be faithful to her and also couldn’t stand the idea of her being more educated and more successful than he was. What a mistake that had been.
“Lilah, darling, didn’t you say you have to be somewhere before six?” Eleanor reminded her.
“Yes, I do.” No more playing with the judge. Not now. “I have a meeting with the printer who’s making my posters for my classes.”
“You and the judge should arrange a time to talk later. You can answer all of his questions, give him a chance to make up his mind about this, once he has all the information. Perhaps … over dinner?”
Eleanor beamed at both of them, looking like a woman who was up to something.
“No?” Eleanor said finally, when neither of them seemed happy about the dinner suggestion. “Lunch? Maybe just … coffee? Lilah, darling, give him your business card and take one of his.”
They both dutifully produced and exchanged business cards, the judge looking highly skeptical.
“She’ll call you,” Eleanor promised, then took the judge by the arm. “Let me show you out. We’re so happy you could come by today. I’m sure a man like you is so busy. I know Wyatt is …”
Lilah watched the two of them go, then turned to look at her cousin’s two partners in crime, Kathleen and Gladdy, both hilarious and outspoken women who seemed to have lived their lives to the fullest. They, too, looked as if they were up to something.
Still, they were just three little old ladies.
How much trouble could they possibly cause?
Chapter Two
Ashe went straight from his odd meeting at the Barrington estate to the law offices of his friend and colleague Wyatt Gray, where he barreled in and found Wyatt frowning over paperwork.
“This is a joke, right?” Ashe said.
Wyatt feigned a look of a complete innocent, something the man hadn’t been since grade school at least. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“This favor you asked me to do?” Ashe glared at him. “It’s a joke. It’s some kind of payback. I know it is.”
“Why would I be setting you up for anything?” Wyatt asked.
“I have no idea.”
Okay, maybe Ashe did, because there had been a time when the two men had enjoyed pulling little pranks and generally giving each other a hard time. Like Ashe taking every note Wyatt had on one of his cases from Wyatt’s briefcase, leaving him with nothing but completely blank pages on his legal pad and inside his files. It was something Wyatt hadn’t figured out until he was actually in front of Judge Whittaker, trying to give his opening argument. The look on Wyatt’s face had been priceless.
Or putting red lace panties in his briefcase another time, right before Wyatt was heading to court. He’d nearly choked when he’d opened up the briefcase, again in court in front of the same no-nonsense judge. But still, that was years ago and no proof of any kind had ever been found of Ashe’s guilt in either case. They weren’t kids straight out of law school. They didn’t do this anymore.
Did they?
“You went to Eleanor’s, I suppose?” Wyatt asked. “I told you, she can be a little—”
“Strange?” Ashe said.
“Sometimes.”
“Your in-laws are even stranger,” Ashe insisted.
“They’re an interesting group of women. But they’re not like … dangerous or anything. I mean, they’re all eighty-something—”
“Eighty-something?”
“Yeah. They lie about their ages, all of them. I guess women never really stop. But there are no mental competency issues—”
“What about the one prancing around in the backyard naked?”
Wyatt stopped cold. “Eleanor was dancing naked on the back lawn?”
“No. Not her.”
“Kathleen? Gladdy? There’s a naked octogenarian at Eleanor’s estate?” Wyatt winced.
“No. She wasn’t old. She was young. Twenty-something.”
“And naked? Really? Naked-naked?”
“She was wearing a wedding veil. A long, sheer wedding veil, but other than that, yeah, she was naked.”
“Eleanor let someone have a naked wedding at her estate?” Wyatt laughed out loud.
“No. Not a wedding. Just a woman in a wedding veil, a guy with lights and a woman with a camera,” Ashe explained.
“What in the world were they up to?”
“I have no idea,” Ashe said.
Wyatt sighed. “See, when I told you those women were … different? This is the kind of thing I meant.”
“Random naked women dancing on the lawn?” Ashe was starting to think Wyatt was as puzzled and surprised as he’d been at what had happened. Either that or Wyatt was a better actor than Ashe realized.
“Have you actually had any mental competency testing done on these women?” Ashe ventured.
“No. They’re fine, they’re the best of friends, just as happy as can be together. And when you have relatives who are eighty-something, you want them to be happy. When they’re happy, Jane’s happy, and when Jane’s happy, I’m happy. We just try to … you know, go along with whatever they want.” Wyatt shook his head. “What do they want now? Eleanor said something about classes. I assumed it was something to do with weddings.”
“Divorce,” Ashe told him. “The classes are about divorce.”
“What does that have to do with naked brides?”
“I don’t know. They’re your relatives. I thought it was some weird setup for a joke. I was sure of it. And now I’m supposed to meet again with Lilah, the one doing the classes, to let her explain everything to me.”
Wyatt nodded. “She’s a distant cousin of Eleanor’s. She grew up here. We actually went to the same private school in first or second grade, Eleanor says, but I’m not sure if I remember her. Her parents moved to Florida ages ago. I don’t think she’s been back in town long.”
“She
