biggest hypocrite. She’d put a good face on helping Clarice with her dinner, but deep down, something that could only be identified as jealousy simmered like a bitter brew. She’d helped out with the meal Clarice had planned like Santa’s best elf packing up all the toys, which made her envy all the uglier.
And she disliked herself intensely for it.
Clarice had a date with Jack tonight. That was that. And in all likelihood, he’d walk away as smitten as every other man who ever came under Clarice’s spell. She was going at it full throttle. He didn’t have a chance.
So get over it, Annie.
She looked at Tommy, who was deep into one of the comic books he’d bought at Kinley’s. “What do you think about going to a movie tonight?”
Tommy shot a fist in the air. “All right! Can we get popcorn?”
“The largest bucket they have,” Annie said.
“What are we gonna see?”
“Whatever you want.”
The pleased smile on her son’s face filled her with gratitude. She was so lucky to have him. Lucky to be living in a place she thought her son would one day be proud to call his hometown. So she might yen for companionship now and then. For all the negatives of her marriage to J.D., Tommy made the enduring of every one of them worthwhile.
She didn’t need a crystal ball to tell her it wasn’t wise to dwell on her feelings for Jack. So she’d thought for sure he was going to kiss her last night. So he made Tommy laugh the kind of belly laugh little boys had a right to.
So...he had a date with her sister tonight. And that made all the rest null and void.
* * *
CLARICE HADN’T BEEN this nervous since her first prom in high school. She glanced at the clock beside the fireplace in her living room. Six twenty-five. Five minutes if he was on time.
Thanks to Annie, the entire meal was ready. Nothing to do there. She did another recheck of her makeup, glanced again at her sheer-stockinged legs to make sure there were no runs and brushed at the skirt of her black dress with the back of her hand.
A car slowed on the street outside her house, turned into the drive with a recognizable rumble, lights piercing the living-room window before flicking off.
He was here! Clarice’s stomach dropped twenty stories. It seemed like two hours before she heard footsteps on the walk outside, and then the doorbell rang.
She counted to ten—don’t look too anxious, Clarice!—then went to open it. All the clichés applied to the man standing on her doorstep. He had on casual clothes, white shirt and jeans, a three-button blazer, and he looked good enough to devour.
“Hi,” he said, holding up a bottle of red wine.
“Come in,” she said, waving him inside with one hand, taking the wine with the other. “Thank you. You didn’t have to bring anything, though.”
“Hope red was all right.”
“Red is great. We’re having steak. Come on in.” She waved him inside, beckoning for him to follow her through to the kitchen.
“Nice house,” he said.
“Thanks. I like it. It’s not huge, but I’m gone a lot and don’t really need extra space to take care of.”
She opened a drawer, rummaged around for a corkscrew and held it out to him. “Do you mind opening the wine?”
“No,” he said and made short work of it while she pulled two glasses from the cupboard above the sink.
“I was surprised to see you in church this morning.”
“Figured it would do me good.”
“Did it?” she asked, punctuating the question with her most flirtatious smile.
“It certainly didn’t hurt,” he said, the smile he gave her back falling way short of the response she’d hoped for. Hmm. Too much? Maybe subtle was more appropriate, which wasn’t going to be easy. She didn’t do subtle. Annie did subtle.
The point didn’t pass without a pinprick and a flash of the scene in her sister’s kitchen the night of Tommy’s birthday party. The look she’d seen on Jack’s face then was the one she wanted to see now. Only directed at her.
She led the conversation in a general direction: tell me about your work, what sports do you like. A half hour or so later, she’d employed every Carnegie conversational tactic she knew. But Jack, unlike most men she’d known, had a way of turning a question around so that she ended up doing the talking. “So where did you and Annie grow up?” he asked before she could think