“Can you?”

Jane laughed. "I'm not a complete incompetent even if I can't make policemen cry."

“I thought your mother-in-law had offered to get him a car," Shelley said.

“She didn't exactly offer. She dangled the possibility in front of me, but she was planning to get a new car herself and give him her old gray battleship of a Lincoln. He'd rather die than be seen driving an old-lady car like that, and I can't say that I blame him. So I. convinced her I'd get him a car and she's getting him a computer instead."

“You can afford it, can't you? After all, you get Steve's third of the pharmacy profits and they seem to be doing well. Didn't they just open another one?"

“Yes, but I'm still putting half of it into the kids' college trusts, so my budget is pretty tight. The scary thing is, it's only three years until I face the same thing with Katie, and in the meantime my poor old station wagon will have to be replaced. It's practically an antique now.”

Shelley shuddered. "Imagine our girls driving!”

Jane bit her tongue to keep from replying. If Denise turned out to be the same kind of driver her mother was, the neighborhood had a great deal to fear. Shelley's natural competitiveness reached its highest and worst point when she got behind the wheel of a car. The act of turning a key in the ignition triggered something wild and savage in her otherwise ladylike soul.

Shelley, guessing Jane's thoughts, grinned. "So what kind of car?"

“Uncle Jim's letting me know. He's been taking Mike with him, pretending he's looking for a car himself, and finding out what kinds Mike likes."