Anything for Her - By Janice Kay Johnson Page 0,63
looked forced.
But why, why would she lie about something like that? Why prop it up with the talk about the musical? Why tell Sean at all where she’d gone to high school?
He felt sick and tried to tell himself there was an explanation. His gut told him she wasn’t going to want to offer one, though, and that if she did, it would probably be a lie, too. Anyone else that evasive about their background, he’d think they were hiding something ugly. A crime.
God. He felt as if he’d taken a blow to his chest. What if she and her mother had had to move suddenly Allie’s senior year of high school not because of the parents’ divorce, but because Allie desperately needed a fresh start? What if the father had cut her off for a good reason?
What, Nolan asked himself, if I’ve had it ass backward all along?
Could his luck possibly be so bad, he’d fallen in love with a woman as deceptive as his own mother?
CHAPTER ELEVEN
NOLAN CALLED NOT long after Allie had gotten up in the morning and apologized because he had to cancel on her today. He had an emergency rush on a job, he told her; he’d be holding up the contractor until he produced the countertops.
Allie didn’t have any reason to doubt that he was telling her the truth, but he sounded more reserved than usual. Maybe somebody was with him, she tried to convince herself, but didn’t believe it. Could Mom have said things while they were alone together that contradicted what she had told him?
She hadn’t slept well last night. She grimaced at the thought. Okay, she had hardly slept at all last night. How could she go on like this?
I have to tell him.
But she’d promised to talk to her mother first. She’d do that. It was lucky he had canceled today. She would go to Mom’s tonight and argue for the right to open their lives to Nolan. At least now Mom had met him. She’d know how solid and trustworthy he was.
Anxiety continued to ride her all day, though. She did some errands because she had to fill her time somehow, then settled down to try to piece her new quilt. But after stitching a row of tiny triangles on her machine, snipping the thread and turning to her ironing board to press out the seams and cut them apart, she stared in shock at the blue fabric—which was supposed to be background, not rocking horse. She obviously hadn’t been thinking at all when she’d been cutting or sewing.
“Wow.” She picked up the bundle of sewn squares and dropped it in the trash. Either she had to start over, or do something else. “I vote for something else,” she told her quiet apartment.
She’d quilt instead. Her hands knew what to do. With only diagonal lines, working on Sean’s quilt would take no mental function whatsoever.
As always, she was soothed by the act of quilting. The tiny stitches, the precision, the rocking motion, the way each completed block filled some emptiness in her, too, calmed her. She continued until her back ached, her fingers started to cramp and, despite the leather thimble, she’d punctured her fingertip a few too many times.
Midafternoon she made herself have a bowl of soup, all she could stomach. Despite the mist that wasn’t quite rain, she went for a run later. By the time she showered and dried her hair, she only had another hour to kill before her mother should be home from work.
Maybe she should call in advance, but she didn’t want to. She needed to catch her mother unprepared.
When she rang the bell and her mother opened the door, Allie saw that she’d accomplished more than she had expected. Mom looked more than surprised.
“Allie? Is something wrong?”
“I wanted to talk to you. Is now okay?”
“I was putting dinner on, but...of course it is. Come in. Have you eaten?”
“I’m not hungry.”
She followed her mother to the kitchen, where she turned off a burner then faced Allie.
“What is it?”
“You know I’m not a very good liar.”
Fear. Oh, yes, her mother was afraid. “What are you telling me?” she whispered.
“I’ve said things to Nolan and Sean that I shouldn’t.” The burning in her chest had to be heartburn. “I’m so muddled now, I don’t even remember what I’ve said.”
“Did I contradict you?” Mom pressed her fingers to her lips.
“Yes.” Allie shook her head. “No. That’s not the point. Mom, I have to tell him everything.”