Winthrops, since there was no casual way for him to meet them.
Jack made the papers, state and national. He was something of a hero for a while. It was good for his business. He got all kinds of inquiries, and as soon as he could manage physically, he left for Little Rock. I had a feeling it was a relief to get a little distance between himself and the place and time of his ordeal. He’d been overpowered, bound, and tortured; he had managed to regain some measure of maleness, of wholeness, back by conquering Jim and Darcy. But I knew the bad nights he’d have, the self-doubts. Who could know better?
As the days passed, I began to have the dreary conviction he would write me off as part of that time. Sometimes I was anguished and sometimes I was angry, but I could not return to my former detachment.
I had been back at work for three weeks, back to working out at Body Time for one week, when I came home to find Jack’s car in the driveway. He had flowers-a bigger arrangement than Claude had sent me, of course-and a present festooned with a huge pink net bow.
I felt a rush of joy at the sight of him. Suddenly I didn’t know what to say to him, after weeks of imagining this moment. I pointed to the flowers. “For me?”
“Jeez,” he said, shaking his head and smiling. “If you are still the Lily Bard who sucker-punched me right here in this doorway, these are indeed for you.”
“Want me to do it again? Just to verify my identity?”
“No, thank you, ma’am.”
I unlocked the door and he followed me in. I took the flowers from him and headed down the hall with them.
“Where you taking those?” he asked, with some interest.
“My bedroom.”
“So… are you planning on letting me join you in admiring them?”
“I expect so, depending on your good behavior this evening. I’m assuming you brought a doctor’s note, to prove that you’re up to such vigorous… activity.”
“We are so playful this evening, Miss Bard. We are so relaxed and-normal-date-like.”
“It’s a stretch,” I said. “But I’m up to it.”
CHARLAINE HARRIS
CHARLAINE HARRIS has also written five mysteries in a popular series featuring Aurora Teagarden, as well as two earlier novels. In between writing and caring for her three young children, she has studied goju karate for five years. She and her family live in Magnolia, Arkansas.
