enough for people to overlook me being a pain in the ass.”
He started to interrupt once more, but again I stopped him. “Please, Richmond, let me go on. I promise to get to the point.
“I know that you probably think I don’t like you. Maybe Clarice told you that I warned her not to marry you.” In the dim light from the street lamps out on Main Street, I saw an expression of surprise on his face. “She didn’t tell you, huh? Well, I did. I told her you’d always be a cheater no matter how hard she tried to change you and that she was better off without you. I shouldn’t have said it, but I did. That’s kind of my way.
“But I want you to know that I really don’t have anything against you. And I understand why Clarice loves you. You’re polite. You’re funny. When I watch you with your children, I see a kind, warm side of you that is absolutely beautiful. And, even though I hate to admit it, you are one of the best-looking men I’ve ever laid eyes on.”
He relaxed then. A discussion of his physical attractiveness was something Richmond had always been comfortable with. “And I love Clarice, I really do.”
“I believe you. But what you need to understand is I’ll do absolutely anything to protect the handful of people in this world who truly love me. And, Richmond, if you follow your dick and go in this house with Barbara Jean, she’ll never be able to see herself as a decent human being again. She’ll come to her senses tomorrow and hate herself for letting it happen. It’ll eat her alive, almost as bad as losing Adam. Clarice will eventually figure it out and feel more humiliated than she has ever felt with any of your other women. And then, Richmond”—I reached out and placed my hand on his muscular forearm—“I will have to kill you.”
Richmond laughed and then said, “Okay, Odette, I get it. I’ll stay away from Barbara Jean.”
“No, Richmond, I don’t think you really get it yet.” I squeezed his arm tighter and said, very slowly, “I am as serious as a heart attack. If you ever come sniffing around Barbara Jean again, I will kill you dead.”
I held his gaze and added, “I won’t want to. And it will bring me no pleasure to do it. But, still, I will kill you.”
Our eyes locked for several seconds and I watched the last traces of a smile leave his face as he took in that I was telling him God’s honest truth.
He nodded. “I understand.”
I patted his arm and said, “Well, this has been real nice. I don’t know about you, but I feel a whole lot better.”
I pushed the sleeve of his shirt a few inches higher on his wrist and read his watch in the faint light. “And would you look at that,” I said, “I can still catch the end of Kojak.” I stood and stepped to the edge of the porch. “Why don’t you walk me home?”
Richmond picked up the bottle and came along with me, down the stairs and onto the stone walkway that led to Main Street. I looped my arm around his and said, “It really is a lovely evening, isn’t it?”
I looked over my shoulder as we turned onto the sidewalk. Just for a second, I caught sight of Barbara Jean peeking out of an upstairs window at me and Richmond, a man who now understood me in a way that even James didn’t, as we strolled away from her magnificent house.
Chapter 22
After saying goodbye to her last piano student of the day, Clarice went to visit Odette. Late February had brought with it a spell of false spring. Temperatures were almost twenty degrees above normal and she felt energized by the warm weather.
Odette was having a bad month. She didn’t complain, but Clarice could see that she had practically no energy. The previous Sunday at the All-You-Can-Eat, Odette had terrified everyone at the table by leaving an entire pork chop untouched on her plate at the end of supper. So Clarice decided to drop by bearing a slice of peach cobbler, a bag of gifts, and some decent local gossip she’d picked up. (Rumor had it that Clifton Abrams, less than five months from marrying Sharon, had something going on the side.)
Everyone in town was celebrating the unexpected warm weather by airing out their homes. For the first time