A/N Thank you PerryLovesDella for beta checking & encouraging like crazy.

I Don't Want to Know

Chapter Two

"He's picking up the ring tomorrow afternoon." Phyllis told them.

"What time tomorrow afternoon?" A concerned Eve asked.

"I don't know."

Eve frowned. "I better see if I can get in this afternoon or early tomorrow to get my shots for my Costa Rica trip."

Ideal sighed. "Poor Seth. I really was starting to like him. Do you think he'll stay in town after Jessica says no?"

Phyllis didn't look too convinced. "Ethan didn't and he lived here his whole life."

"You don't know that that's what happened." Loretta protested.

"My niece swore she saw Ethan at the jewelry store in Craggy Neck not two days before he pulled up anchor and disappeared. She said he was looking for something classy, but practical - like the lady it was for."

"Funny, Phyllis, how your niece didn't think to tell you that story until after Ethan disappeared." Rolling her eyes, Eve groused. "Even if it is true, Ethan should have just gotten over it. Your best friend's wife is not one of those car contests where whoever keeps his hand on it the longest gets to keep it. You don't just get to claim her by virtue of outliving him."

"Still …" Leaning forward in her chair, with a bit of a smirk, Miriam Harwood asked. " … wouldn't you have liked to have been a fly on the wall for that conversation?"

"No!" Eve was quick to point out. "Having been the one to sit and hold Jessica's hand for eight hours after Frank died, listening to her go on and on about the hat that she had just bought him for the trip they were leaving on the next day and -" Eve winced. "- her insisting on going back in the room see his body again and again and -"

Continuing to talk, Eve tilted her head back to be looking at the ceiling so as to not ruin her eye makeup with her watering eyes.

Loretta reached over and put a few tissues from the box into Eve's hand so she could dab at her eyes.

" … then again because something just didn't make sense, while you lot called all around New York City looking for Grady because she couldn't remember the name of his new, new company, I can assure you, you would not have wanted to be a fly on the wall for that conversation."

Miriam had the good sense to at least look a bit chagrined.

Lest her getting weepy give the girls the wrong impression, Eve added. "And if I ever hear Lois Huey try again to say that she's Jessica's best friend when she tells the story of being there when Grady called to say Jessica's book was being published, I'll claw her damn eyes out."

Loretta remarked ruefully. "I never realized just how many accounting firms there are in New York City."

Phyllis added. "I never realized how many Grady had managed to get fired from in such a short period of time. He wasn't out of college that long."

Loretta shrugged. "I'm not surprised that Grady has trouble holding down a job as an accountant. He's great with numbers, but he's not willing to be … creative with them."

"He's an overgrown boy scout." Phyllis agreed. "But what can you expect? Look at who raised him."

A recovered Eve joined in. "I hired him and then I fired him. He doesn't know how to keep his trap shut. People don't want him telling them that all the things that they are trying to deduct are questionable expenses."

In response to the others' inquiring looks, Eve admitted. "He told me I couldn't deduct my face lift as an advertising expense."

Changing the subject, Ideal asked. "Should one of us say something to Jessica? Warn her? Maybe if it's not such a surprise, she can let him down gently and we won't have to find a new town doctor?"

Sounding dubious at her own suggestion, Loretta offered. "Maybe Jessica will surprise us."

Phyllis gave a little shrug. Looking entirely unconvinced, she offered. "They have been spending a lot of time together."

Miriam added. "I seem to see that car of his parked outside her house more often than I see it outside of his own house."

"I've noticed that too." Loretta agreed.

But Eve argued against Miriam's implication. "That's because he has a garage!"

Phyllis mentioned. "They went to New Mexico … not exactly together but during an overlapping time period."

Ideal joined in hesitantly. "I do see them together around town a lot."

Corinne chimed in. "They had lunch together today."

"You don't say." Loretta said.

Corinne told Loretta and the other ladies. "They were there at Mona's when I went to pick up our lunch order."

"Oh?" Miriam's ears weren't the only ones to prick up.

Corinne continued. "He had finished his lunch and was helping himself to her plate."

"No!" One hand going to her chest, Eve looked scandalized.

Seeing she had an interested audience, Corinne went into more detail. "They are always there together at the diner on Tuesdays when I pick up our lunch orders. It's like clockwork."

Glances were exchanged along with a few raised eyebrows.

"And today …" Enjoying having all eyes on her, Corinne drew it out a bit. "... today he paid for her lunch."

Ideal gave a little gasp. "He paid the bill!?"

"Oh well now you know it's serious or at least he thinks it is. Seth has always struck me as a little …" Loretta seemed to be searching for words.

Eve supplied them for her. "As if held onto the first nickel he ever had?"

"I was going to say thrifty New Englander, but ..." Shrugging, Loretta didn't argue.

After a moment to digest the new information, Ideal said it again. "Should one of us talk to Jessica? Say something about the ring?"

"No. Absolutely not." Eve told her.

"You don't think -" Phyllis tried but Eve didn't let her finish.

"- No!" Eve insisted. "My advice? As the one who sat in the chair holding Jessica's hand for eight hours until Grady arrived to take over … Pretend you don't know and if she asks later - deny, deny, deny."

"Eve! Now really!" Phyllis chided her.

"There is no upside to knowing this and certainly not in telling her. We all know the cliche about the messenger." Eve warned them.

"Maybe -" Miriam tried.

"- Let's get real." Eve interrupted. "Jessica still wears her wedding ring. She still moons around the house wearing that ridiculous sweater of Frank's with the fish on it even though it's too big and she has to cuff the sleeves. His old bicycle is still parked in the shed next to hers."

Eve's voice rose slightly as she continued. "She still has Frank's pipe sitting on the table next to his chair in the parlor and you lot really think there is any chance that Seth Hazlitt's presenting her with an engagement ring is going to end well?"

No one said a word in response.

Taking a different tact, a solemn Loretta suggested. "Should someone warn Seth? Tell him it's too soon? That she is not ready?"

The silence stretched out again as no one volunteered.

Eve was the one to finally speak first. "I'm certainly not going to be the one and I don't think that any of us really should be getting involved ... but … if someone were going to … I know who I would elect ..."

tbc