Jewel chuckled. “I swear, Sugar Beth, hiring you was the best move I ever made, and not just for your entertainment value. You’ve brought more business into the store than I ever dreamed.”
“Based entirely on deception.”
“Whatever works.” Jewel got distracted by her shrunken poetry section. Her smile faded, and her forehead crumpled in outrage. “Where’s all my Langston Hughes? He’s-”
“Dead,” Sugar Beth retorted. “I needed his floor space for the children’s department.”
“Well, Nikki Giovanni’s not dead.” She poked a finger toward the shelf. “And if she walks into this store, I don’t know how I’m going to face her.”
“I doubt Parrish, Mississippi, is at the top of Nikki’s dream travel destinations. And we don’t need to display three copies of everything she wrote.”
“Says the white girl.”
Jewel didn’t stop grumbling until late afternoon, when she realized Sugar Beth had sold out the new
As closing time approached, Sugar Beth realized she was still waiting for Colin to call. He had to have heard about the fire by now. Wasn’t he the slightest bit concerned? Apparently not.
“Dinner at the Lakehouse tonight,” Jewel said. “My treat.”
“Okay. But just so there are no awkward moments, I’m not putting out on our first date.”
“Don’t flatter yourself. This time around, I’m looking for a sister.”
“You could at least give me a chance.”
“Some things were not meant to be.”
By the time they reached the Lakehouse and placed their order, their conversation had turned more serious. They spoke of books they loved, of old dreams and new insights. Sugar Beth ignored Jewel’s nosiness about Colin but told her a little of what had happened that morning with Winnie.
When she finished, Jewel regarded her sympathetically. “You’re upset because she’s not staying with you longer.”
“Not exactly.”
“Exactly.”
It was true, Sugar Beth realized later as she drove home and parked in her empty driveway. Somehow she’d hoped her encounter with Winnie might be the basis for some new kind of… whatever.
Gordon didn’t knock her down to get outside, which meant Colin had brought him over recently. She resisted the temptation to trump up an excuse to bang on his door and pick a fight. She loved fighting with him. The freedom of it. No worries about getting slapped or thrown across a room. No fears of inducing a fatal heart attack. When they were together, she felt alive again. But that was her old pattern, wasn’t it? Only feeling alive when she could see her reflection in a man’s eyes? No more. She was smarter now, although wisdom hadn’t driven the loneliness away.
Everything that was wrong with her life settled over her. She was tired of keeping her head up when she wanted to bury it under the covers, tired of pretending she didn’t care what other people thought, tired of the neediness that made her keep falling in love. And she only knew one way to numb the pain. By getting drunk.
She headed for the kitchen, hoping chocolate would do the job instead.
Ryan cursed under his breath as he saw Sugar Beth’s Volvo sitting by itself in the carriage house drive. Winnie wasn’t there. And he’d brought her white tulips. Granted, ten o’clock was a little late to deliver them, but Gigi had joined the Spanish club’s outing at Casa Pepe, and he’d ended up with car pool duty.
He stared at the Volvo’s bumper and tried to ease the knots in his back, but they refused to budge. He’d thought maybe Winnie had forgiven him for that ugly scene at the store on Wednesday, but he’d been kidding himself. Just because she hadn’t been openly hostile when he’d helped her clean up from the fire mess at the store today didn’t mean she’d forgotten or forgiven. Every time he’d tried to get her alone, she’d dodged him, and she’d blown him off when he’d invited her back to the house.
She’d been all smiles when she’d talked to everybody else, laughing when Gigi tried on old hats, chatting with the workmen doing the upstairs cleanup, joking with the Seawillows. She’d only smiled at him once, and his mouth had gone dry. Until today, he’d never paid much attention to Winnie’s smiles. Now he knew they started out slow, then gradually took over her whole face.
She hadn’t thanked him for helping out today, and she hadn’t fussed over him even once. The old Winnie would have told him not to bother helping with the cleanup. Naturally, he’d have insisted, and then she’d have been all over him, stopping what she was doing to get him coffee, asking if he wanted something to eat, and generally irritating the hell out of him. But this new Winnie wasn’t nearly that sweet. Instead, she was hardheaded, confident, and so tantalizing he could think of little else but making love with her again.
He realized today was the first time he’d spent more than a few minutes at the store. Even though he’d known how much she loved antiques, he’d secretly thought of the shop as a rich woman’s diversion. Today, however, as he’d watched her handle the objects and talk to Gigi about them, he’d realized how good she was at what she did, and he’d felt ashamed.
He left the tulips on the seat and got out of the car. He couldn’t imagine anything stranger than asking Sugar Beth if she knew where Winnie was, but he refused to call the Seawillows. Once again, he wondered what had happened between Winnie and Sugar Beth that morning. Gigi knew, but when he’d tried to worm a few details out of her, she’d clammed up.
He changed his mind about the tulips and retrieved them from the car. Maybe leaving them would soften her up a little. He needed to start courting his wife, and to his surprise, the idea didn’t displease him. He’d always liked challenges. He’d just never expected to find one with Winnie.
Sugar Beth came to the door. She was bare-legged, wearing a man’s T-shirt that fell below her hips. Those endless legs, tousled blond hair, and pouty expression had
She grabbed the tulips from him. “
“They’re for Winnie, and don’t even think about telling her I brought them for you. I mean it, Sugar Beth. None of your fun and games. You’ve done enough damage to my marriage as it is.”
“Uh-oh, somebody’s transferring blame again.”
She was right.
She curled her fingers around his wrist and pulled him into the room, looking at him as if he were a big ol’ box of candy. “You, my man, are exactly what the doctor ordered. I need a distraction.”
“Find it somewhere else.” He turned to leave, but she stepped around him and pressed her back to the door, blocking the way. “Please, Ryan.” She didn’t say the words so much as purr them, and the hair on his arms stood up. “I’ve been doing battle with the demon rum. Just stay for a little while.”
“Are you drunk?”
“Sober as a judge… if you don’t count a serious sugar high. But I’m not feeling too confident about staying that way.”
“Look, Sugar Beth, all I want to do is see Winnie.”
“And all I want to do is forget how much I need a drink.”
“Have one.”
“Unfortunately, one’s never enough, and before I know it, I’m dancing on the bar in my underwear.”
“There’s no bar here, so I wouldn’t worry about it.”
She slipped her arms around his waist. He jerked back, but she held on tight. “Then how ’bout I just show you my underwear without the drinking?”
Her scent drifted up to his nostrils as she pressed against him. He caught her shoulders, and his voice wasn’t quite steady. “What are you trying to do?”
“I just need a little comfort, that’s all. It’s been a shitty month. A shitty year.” She rested her cheek against his chest, slid her bare foot along the inner slope of his calf. “Remember how it used to be, Ryan? The two of us. Remember when we couldn’t get enough of each other.”
His chest felt tight. “A long time ago.”
