“… yet?” Janet was saying.

“No. He got in a little before lunchtime, looking like death warmed over. He went straight to bed. I didn’t ask.”

“What’s going on with Linda?”

“I don’t know. I’m trying not to interfere.”

“Has he talked to a lawyer yet?”

“As near as I can tell, he doesn’t want to consider it.”

“Oh, for chrissakes.”

“Janet…” His mother’s warning tone. God help the child who swore or blasphemed in front of her. Even if that child was a forty-six-year-old mother of three.

“Sorry.” A chair scraped the floor. “But really, Mom. She could be clearing out their accounts while he mopes over here.”

“If she does, he’ll have to deal with it. I’m not pushing him into a divorce, and I’m not telling him to go back to his wife. I’m keeping my mouth shut.”

He was about to stomp down the rest of the stairs and announce himself when Janet said, “I can’t believe you! When I was thinking about splitting up with Mike, you were falling all over yourself with advice!”

Russ stopped, one stockinged foot poised over a stair tread. Janet? Almost left her husband? Didn’t anyone tell him anything?

“Sweetie, you know I love Mike like he was a son. Any advice I gave you was meant to help the both of you. It’s not the same with Russ and Linda. It’s no secret I never really took to her.”

No shit, Russ thought.

“If I start bad-mouthing his wife, who is it fixing to get hurt when they get back together?”

“You think they’re going to get back together?”

“I’d like to think…” Her voice trailed off. Even with the last turn of the stairs and the living room between them, Russ could hear his mother sigh. “Your brother is the closest thing I’ve ever seen to a real-life Horton the Elephant. He meant what he said and he said what he meant…”