The Trouble With Angels Page 0,81

arms, and stepped back to admire it.

When she first caught sight of the silk party dress on a mannequin in a store window, she had no intention of buying it. She must have stared at it for a full five minutes before she found the nerve to walk inside the store and ask the price. She flinched when the sales clerk told her it was $350.

The clerk was very good at her job, and before Joy was quite sure how it had happened, she was in the dressing room staring at herself in the mirror in the same silk dress. It fit as if it had been made for her.

After some weighty decision making regarding finances, Joy bought it for the sheer pleasure of watching Ted's face when he saw her wearing it. She could just imagine him looking up and having his jaw drop open as if someone had unscrewed its hinges. Then he'd try to speak, and after a few unsuccessful attempts, he'd simply take her in his arms and kiss her.

Three hundred and fifty bucks. It was cheap at half that price just thinking about Ted's reaction to her in it.

With reluctance, she left her bedroom and the red dress and drove over to her parents' house to help her mother prepare for the huge family party.

With her brothers married, it became almost impossible for everyone to be together on Christmas Day proper. Several years back, her mother had decided they would celebrate a family Christmas the weekend before.

"What can I do to help?" Joy said as she came into the kitchen. She reached for a radish from the relish tray and munched noisily on it.

"You can keep your hands out of that," Erlene Palmer said teasingly. Her mother was busy cutting fresh fruit for a gelatin salad, one of her brother's favorites, as Joy recalled. "You can tell me about the young man you're bringing with you. You said his name was Ted."

"Yes."

"I don't suppose this is the same Ted your father mentioned not long ago?"

"Yes."

"He's tall and good-looking. An engineer, right?"

"Yes."

"Your father spoke highly of him."

Joy figured her mother knew everything there was to know already, so she kept her mouth closed. Shuffling around inside the open refrigerator, she created enough space to hide the relish tray before it tempted anyone else.

"Well?" her mother said when she reappeared. "I'm waiting."

Joy sat on the stool on the other side of the counter from her mother. "It seems to me you know everything already."

"Details, maybe." Erlene's fingers agilely cut bananas into even slices as she spoke. "What I want to know is how you feel about him. Are you in love with him?"

"Mom! I barely know him."

Her mother's faint smile was comment enough. "I don't think I've ever seen you act this way toward a man."

"And just how am I acting?"

"Dreamy-eyed. You don't think your mother notices these things?" she asked, and laughed softly. "Every time you say his name your eyes go soft and this look comes over you. It reminds me of the way I felt when I first met your father."

"This is different."

"Oh?"

"Mom, I don't know. Yes, I like him, and that's a weak word. It doesn't even begin to describe the way I feel about Ted. But I'm afraid."

"Afraid?" Her mother raised quizzical eyes to her.

"You know what it's like when something wonderful happens. Like the time Joe won the full-ride football scholarship, and when we learned Diana was pregnant with twins. An excitement comes over me, but I'm afraid to believe it's really true. That's the way I feel about Ted."

"Time will fix that."

"But sometimes it's better to be cautious. Remember, Diana miscarried the twins."

"But she and Bill have three beautiful children now."

"Yes, I know." Joy laughed softly. "I'm so crazy about this guy, I bought myself a dress that cost three hundred and fifty dollars."

She had her mother's attention now.

"I'm planning to wear it tonight. You know why I bought that dress?"

"Of course I do. You wanted to see Ted's reaction when he first saw you wearing it. Why does any woman spend that much money on anything?"

It seemed her mother understood her better than she realized.

Joy stayed and helped prepare for the big dinner and the family festivities that followed. She was humming Christmas music when she let herself back into her apartment.

After putting her purse away, she walked into the bathroom and turned on the water for a long, leisurely soak in the tub.

A faint sound in the distance