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“Yeah, Chase is the best husband I could have wished for my girl,” said Tex. And he wasn’t lying. Like all fathers, he’d occasionally despaired for his daughter, when she brought yet another strange male specimen into their home, deposited it on their mat, and announced that this was to be her boyfriend from now on. Most of these boyfriends had gone out of their lives as quickly as they arrived, with a few exceptions, who’d hung on a little longer. But it wasn’t until Chase had arrived on the scene that Tex had felt that now she had finally met the right one.

And then of course the long wait had begun, filled with even more tension and suspense: would it last? Would that headstrong daughter of theirs not turn her back on a good thing and dump this most promising son-in-law, like she had all the other, less worthy candidates to become Mr. Odelia Poole?

And just when life was smiling on them, and Odelia’s future happiness seemed safe and secure, this Ed Dexter came along and threatened to ruin everything!

Unlike Vesta, he didn’t think there was anything they could do about it. Odelia had never listened to her father’s sage advice before, and she wasn’t going to start now. But still. If there was a chance, no matter how small, that she could be convinced to listen to reason, they had to take it.

“Let’s go home,” Scarlett suggested. “If you can find our way home, that is.”

“All you have to do is look on your phone and you’ll know exactly where home is,” said Vesta. And to show them how it was done, she took out her own phone and fired it up. “Huh,” she said after a moment. “No reception. How about that?”

“No reception!” Scarlett cried, as if it was the worst fate that could have befallen her. “Are you kidding me?!”

“No, it says so right here. No reception.” She shrugged. “I guess we’ll just have to keep on walking, and put our faith in my women’s intuition.”

“Easy for you to say,” Scarlett grumbled. “We’ll never get out of these woods. We’ll be walking around here forever, and when they find our bodies, about a year from now, they’ll wonder why we were crazy enough to venture out here in the middle of nowhere in the first place!”

And they probably would have walked another couple of miles in circles, if not suddenly a familiar face appeared into view. It was Brutus, and the big black cat was accompanied by another familiar sight: Harriet!

“Oh, thank God,” said Scarlett. “It’s Harriet and Brutus! Quick, ask them where we are, Vesta.”

And then Vesta did just that. A lot of meowing later, she translated the cats’ words back to them. Basically it boiled down to: “We’re also lost—and we were so glad to see you guys, hoping you could get us out of this mess!”

CHAPTER 29

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Marge was seated on the porch swing, looking out across her domain, which was now a sort of devastated area. The snails were back in full force, and had by now eradicated what was left of the plants and flowers, and reduced Marge’s precious little haven of green and peace into a wasteland.

“Such a shame,” she said. “It was so nice and now look at it.”

“What I don’t understand is why these pests don’t come into our garden,” said Marcie, who was seated next to her on the swing. “Snails aren’t usually this territorial, are they?”

“No, they’re not.” She’d done a little research and the websites all said that snails and slugs are attracted to leafy plants, moistness, rotting logs, paving stones under which they can hide, and generally a humid and shady area with plenty of food. But they could find that stuff in Marcie’s backyard just as well, or Odelia’s. So why did they favor hers?

“Maybe you should ask one of them experts,” said Marcie as she took a sip from her cup of tea. “You know, a tree doctor or a botanist or whatever they’re called. They might be able to tell you what’s going on here.”

“It’s possible that we’re growing a certain type of plant that they like,” said Marge. “Or that our soil structure is different or something. Otherwise, I have no idea what’s going on.”

Both neighbors sat quietly for a moment, taking a nibble from the crispy ginger cookies Marcie had freshly baked, then Marcie piped up,“So what’s going on with Odelia and her billionaire?”

“Oh, that’s off,” said Marge. “I think it was just one of those things. A fling, you know.”

“I could have a fling with a billionaire,” said Marcie with a light chuckle.

“Not me,” said Marge. “I don’t really care about that kind of stuff.”

“Not that I’m not happy with Ted, mind you,” Marcie was quick to say. “But a billionaire, Marge. It’s the dream of every girl, isn’t it?”

“Not me,” Marge assured her neighbor. “Billionaires are people just like the rest of us, only richer, I guess.”

“Yeah, a lot richer.”