“One twelve this afternoon.”
Hannah thought back to her activities of the day. “I was at work, baking in the kitchen. He must have known he was leaving. Otherwise, he would have picked up his dry cleaning after work. But he knew by then and he didn’t call me!”
“That appears to be the case,” Michelle said carefully. “Perhaps he didn’t have his phone with him.”
“Ross always carries his phone. He calls it his electronic leash and he says he doesn’t like it, but he has to keep in constant touch with the television station.”
“Maybe he was on his lunch hour then and he just happened to pick up his dry cleaning,” Michelle suggested another possibility.
“No. I called to check on it yesterday, Michelle. It wasn’t ready then, but they told me that I could pick it up any time after three today.”
“Did you mention that to Ross?”
“No. I was planning to pick it up after work today, but Ross beat me to it. And he didn’t even know if it was ready. He must have called them and told them to rush it, that he needed it right away.”
“That means he knew he was leaving before one today?”
“You got it.” Hannah sighed deeply. “There’s only one conclusion I can draw, Michelle. Ross simply didn’t bother to tell me that he had to go to New York until he was actually leaving and that means he didn’t think that I was important enough to tell.”
Michelle took a moment to digest that, and when she did, she shook her head. “You could be wrong, Hannah. He might have wanted to tell you earlier, but he was too busy rushing around, trying to get everything that he needed to take with him. Not to mention that he had to coordinate with P.K. That might have taken a while.”
“Maybe . . .” Hannah knew she sounded doubtful, “but how much time does it take to make a phone call? It could have been as simple as, Honey, I’ve got to fly to New York for a special assignment. I just wanted you to know right away. I’ll call you back later to explain. That would have taken him just a few seconds and then I’d have known.”
“That’s true.” Michelle conceded the point. “Maybe he just didn’t want to upset you and he was putting off calling you.”
“Upset me?” Hannah stared at her sister in shock. “Telling me wouldn’t have upset me. Not telling me did!”
“Okay, but he might not have known that. You’ve only been married for a little over a week. And you got married in a real rush. I realize that you knew each other in college, but you didn’t really know each other as adults.”
Hannah thought about that for a moment. “Okay. That’s true, I guess.”
“Ross might have been afraid that he’d have to spend a long time on the phone explaining things to you, and he simply didn’t have that kind of time. And no husband wants to tell his wife something that’ll make her angry with him.”
“True . . . but, Michelle, I don’t resent the fact that he had to leave on business, and I thought Ross knew that. I’m sure he realizes that I have my own life to run, and he has his own life to take care of. We’re married, yes, but it’s not like we’re joined at the hip.”
Michelle laughed. “Maybe not at the hip, but . . . never mind. Maybe he did try to call you earlier and you didn’t answer.”
“If he had called, Lisa or Aunt Nancy would have told me.”
“Yes, if he called The Cookie Jar. But maybe he didn’t want to bother you at work, and he tried to contact you on your cell. Did you check your cell phone to see if you missed any calls?”
“No. Tracey didn’t teach me how to do that.”
“Let’s do that now. You get your cell and I’ll check it for you. And then I’ll show you how to do it yourself.”
A few short minutes later, Hannah had her answer. Ross had attempted to call her three times. He’d even tried to text her to tell her that he was leaving.
“I feel like a real fool!” Hannah admitted, once Michelle had shown her the missed calls and the unread text message from Ross. “No wonder Ross couldn’t reach me! I left my cell phone in the truck when I went in to have lunch with Mother at the Red Velvet Lounge.”
“You forgot to bring it in with you?”
“No. You know how Mother is about taking phone calls during social occasions. She thinks that answering calls in front of other people is rude. And since I didn’t expect any calls or text messages, I decided not to carry in my phone.”
“And when you got back to your truck, you didn’t check it?”
“That’s right. I turned it back on, but that was all I did. Thanks for showing me how to check it, Michelle. Tracey probably taught me how when I first got my phone, but there were a lot of new things I had to learn and I must have forgotten that one.”
“I’ll show you how to put your phone on vibrate. Then all you have to do is put it in your pocket and it won’t disturb anyone else by ringing. When you feel it vibrate, you’ll know that a call or a text came in, and you’ll remember to check it later.”
Hannah watched carefully as Michelle showed her how to go to the OPTIONS program and put her phone on vibrate, and how to take it off vibrate when she wanted it to ring. “I think I’ve got it,” she said gratefully.
“Good. Now you’ve got one more thing to do.”
“What’s that?”
“You’d better get changed. You already know how irritated Mother gets with people who take phone calls during social engagements. And she gets even more irritated with people who arrive late.”
*
When Hannah and Michelle arrived at the Lake Eden Inn, two minutes before the allotted time, Dot Larson was working at the hostess stand.
Dot greeted them with a smile. “Your mother requested a private booth and I gave her the one on the far end. She said you’d be here at six-thirty and you’re even a little early.”
“We figured we’d better be on time,” Michelle said as Dot picked up two menus and stepped out from behind the stand.