Allie could certainly attest to the fact that Tori’s stress was getting to her. The light turned green and she pressed the accelerator. “I don’t know, Joan. I’ll have to talk to Eric and see what he says.”
“Allie, please try. I think it would be good for you too. You need some sister time.”
Well, she didn’t know about needing sister time, but she could sure use a relaxing night out without having to worry about Varie Cose, or Betty, or . . . gulp . . . Molly. “I’ll try.”
“Good.” Relief lightened Joan’s tone. “Listen, I’ve got to go. I’ve got customers all over the store. Talk to you later.”
When Joan disconnected the call, Allie slipped her phone into the console. She and Eric hadn’t exchanged more than a few terse words last night when she got home from her meeting at Sally Jo’s house. She’d intended to talk to him about Betty, tell him they needed to come up with a plan to get his mother back to Detroit where she belonged. But when she walked through the front door, the sight of him sitting on the couch staring at the television had set her teeth on edge.
Actually, the dispatch center was only a few blocks away. It had been a long time since she’d been to Eric’s work, not since Joanie was a couple of weeks old and she’d taken her by to let Eric show her off to his co-workers.
She flipped the blinker lever and glanced in the mirror before changing lanes. If he was having a slow day, maybe he could take a break and they could talk. At least there they wouldn’t have to hide in their bedroom and keep their voices at a whisper.
Minutes later she pulled into the dispatch center’s parking lot. Her car rolled to a stop beside Eric’s truck, and Allie twisted the rearview mirror so she could get a look at herself.
Ah. Not good. She rummaged in her purse for a brush and tamed the worst of her flyaway hair. At least the chilly November air had stopped her sweating and freeze-dried her hair so it was no longer plastered to her scalp. No makeup, but she patted her whole face with powder from her compact to dim the red glow left over from the aerobics class. Maybe Eric would be pleased that she’d finally put his birthday present to good use.
The heavy windowless door had a code lock on it, so Allie stepped past it to the window looking into the dispatch room. Eric stood just inside. She raised her hand to tap on the glass. But then she expelled the breath without speaking.
Molly sat at Eric’s desk with Eric standing beside her. One of his arms rested across the back of her chair as he leaned forward pointing with the other hand at something on the computer monitor. His lips moved as he said something, then they both laughed, and Molly twisted in her seat to look up at him. Icy fingers gripped Allie by the throat as she watched Molly’s eyes cut sideways.
That floozy was flirting with her husband!
Allie stood as though her feet had stuck to the sidewalk, her mind whirling. What should she do? Bang on the window to alert them to her presence, and then pretend like nothing was out of line here? Or wait until Eric let her in, and then snatch him out of that woman’s reach? Better yet, march in there and grab a handful of that dark hair and jerk it out by the roots?
She didn’t have time to do anything, because Molly caught sight of her. For one second their gazes locked, and a flash of guilt showed on the brunette’s face. In the next second it was gone and she drew backward, away from Eric.
Eric looked up and caught sight of her. He straightened. Was that annoyance she saw on his face, or just surprise? He pointed toward the door and headed that way.
Allie stepped inside when he opened the door.
“Hey. I didn’t know you were coming by.”
Obviously not. Allie forced her jaws to unclench as she glanced into the other room. She tried to keep her voice light, but when she spoke, the words squeaked out through a tight throat. “I just left the gym and thought I’d stop by to see if you had some free time to talk.” She allowed her gaze to stray toward Molly again. “I guess you’re busy.”
Molly held her gaze for a second and then broke eye contact. A spot of color appeared on each cheek as she got out of Eric’s chair and went to her own desk. The few times Allie had met Molly she’d been wearing sloppy jeans and T-shirts, and usually no makeup. With a jolt of alarm Allie realized that the girl had gussied herself up since then. The deep red sweater Molly wore flattered her dark eyes and creamy complexion. The plunging neckline showed a little too much cleavage for Allie’s comfort. A minute ago when Eric stood above her, looking down . . .
Heat dampened her neck beneath the collar of her sloppy T-shirt.
“Good for you,” Eric said. “What did you think of the place? Ritzy, isn’t it?”
Allie couldn’t trust her voice, so she just nodded.
“Since you haven’t been home, you haven’t seen the pictures your mom emailed this morning. I was just showing them to Molly. They’re from your birthday dinner. Come look at this one of Tori holding Joanie at the table.”
They were looking at pictures of Joanie? Allie took a couple of steps to stand beside Eric so she could see his monitor. The camera had caught Joanie wide-eyed, her precious little lips forming a tight O of surprise that exactly matched the expression on Aunt Tori’s face. It was a totally sweet picture that would have made Allie laugh too if she wasn’t focusing all her efforts on trying not to slap the woman sitting at the next desk.
“That’s a good one. We should print it and frame it for Tori.” Her gaze slid sideways, but Molly had become engrossed in her own computer and didn’t look their way. Did she always dress like that? Allie pulled the unzipped edges of her jacket together in the front to hide the sloppy T-shirt. But the jacket wasn’t long enough to hide her enormous thighs, which felt about five times the size of Molly’s at the moment. What in the world had possessed her to come here wearing sweats and ragged gym shoes?
“There are a couple more good ones too. Here, look at this one.”
Eric leaned toward the keyboard, but Allie stopped him with a hand on his arm. “Do you have a minute to talk?”
The speakers emitted a blast of static followed by a male voice with a bunch of numbers. Molly pressed a switch and answered with more numbers. None of it made sense to Allie, though she had come to understand a few of the codes over the years, since sometimes Eric forgot himself and used them at home.
Eric seemed unconcerned by whatever that call meant, though. “Yeah, it’s a slow day.” He said to Molly, “Can you hold down the fort for a few minutes?”
“Sure,” she replied without looking at them.
A good thing. One crossways look from that woman and Allie would dump her out of the chair.
Eric guided her toward the break room. She shook her head when he started to pull out a hard plastic chair. In this small building every word they said would be overheard.
“Do you mind if we talk outside?”
Eric gave her an odd look. “Kind of cold out there.”
“It’s not too bad.” Allie let her gaze slide behind him toward the dispatch room.
Eric hesitated, but then shrugged. “Okay, for a minute. Kathy’s at a meeting down at the courthouse, so I can’t leave Molly alone for long.”
Allie looked through the office door at Kathy’s empty desk. Her jaw clenched shut as Eric opened the outside door for her. How often did Kathy go to these meetings, leaving Eric alone with That Woman?
Eric held the door for her, and as she stepped through, she zipped her jacket up. Eric let the door slam behind them, then rubbed both hands on his arms. “Cold today.”
“Darcy said it’s going to snow soon.” Allie turned abruptly and walked toward her car. What was the matter with her, discussing the weather with her own husband? She heard Eric’s shoes crunch the gravel as he followed her. She leaned against the hood of her car and let the warmth penetrate her thin sweatpants. The smell of the hot engine tainted the crisp fall air.
Eric slid into place beside her. “So how was the gym?”
“Nice. They have an indoor walking
track I might try next.” She turned a scowl his way. “Aerobics classes are definitely not my thing.”
He nodded once, then folded his arms and hugged his chest against the cold. “So what did you want to talk about?”
The reason she’d come, to feel him out about the sleep-over and to talk about his mother, seemed insignificant now. The sight of Molly laughing up at Eric, their faces— their lips—mere inches apart, seared her brain with white heat. Her nerves buzzed with a powerful jealousy Allie hadn’t felt since high school, and she couldn’t hold it in any longer. She blurted, “I want to know what’s going on between you and Molly.”
From the look he turned her way, he might as well have accused her of insanity. “What are you talking about?”
“I saw that in there, Eric. You were flirting with each other.”
He hefted himself off the hood of the car and looked down at her. “I was showing her pictures of Joanie. Our daughter,” he said as though clarifying the fact for an imbecile.
“That may be what you were doing.” A sob rose in the base of Allie’s throat. She choked it back with a deep breath before continuing. “That’s not what Molly was doing. I saw the way she looked at you. She was flirting.”
Eric tilted his head back to look up into the branches of the trees lining the parking lot. “That’s ridiculous. We’re co-workers.”
“You’re alone together all day long.”
“Not alone. Kathy’s usually here.”
“She’s not here now,” Allie shot back. “And she wasn’t at Molly’s house when you went over there. Twice.”
Eric shoved his hands into his back pockets and seared her with a look that bordered on disgust. Allie couldn’t meet his eye. Instead, she stared sullenly at the plain brick wall of the building in front of her. She drew in deep gulps of cold air in an effort to hold back the tears that tightened her chest. This was not going well. She should have kept her mouth shut until she could speak rationally. Why was she always jumping in tongue-first before she thought?
“What is up with you lately, Allie? Why have you changed?”
“I haven’t.” She lifted her chin and glared at him. “You’re the one who’s changed. What made you decide to become Molly’s handyman, her substitute husband? You don’t see me running over to some man’s house to cook his meals for him or dust his furniture or whatever. I’m not trying to act like somebody else’s wife.”
The cords in Eric’s neck bulged as his jaw tightened. “You’re right. I don’t even see you doing those things for your own husband lately.”
She sucked in a noisy breath as her spine stiffened. “Are you saying I’m a bad wife?”
“No,” he snapped. “I’m saying you’re an absent wife. Your job has become the most important thing in your life, maybe even more important than your daughter. Definitely more important than your husband.”
His volume rose until he actually shouted the last word at her. Allie launched herself off the hood of the car and stood in front of him, glaring, her hands clenched into fists while anger made her head buzz. How dare he accuse her of being a bad mother!
She faced him and spoke through gritted teeth. “My job is not the most important thing in my life.”
Now Eric was taking deep breaths. His chest rose and fell, and splotches of angry red appeared on his neck. He opened his mouth to speak and Allie prepared herself to meet another verbal blow, but then he snapped his jaw shut. He spun on his heel, and as he walked away he said without looking back, “I’ve got to work. We’ll talk about this tonight when we’re both calmer.”
He was walking away from her! He’d never done that before. “I’ve got a party tonight,” she called after him, her voice still tight with anger. When he kept walking, she added, louder, “And tomorrow night I’m taking Joanie to spend the night with my sisters.”
He reached the door and put a hand on the knob, then turned to give her a sarcastic smile. “I guess if I want to talk to my wife, I should make an appointment.” He snapped his fingers, his eyes throwing darts in her direction. “I know—I’ll book a makeup party.”
The door slammed shut behind him. Allie’s fury fled the moment her husband disappeared from view. What had she done?
She should march in there right now, make him come back outside and finish this argument. Except her hair was a mess, her clothes looked like she’d been Dumpster diving, and the tears she’d worked so hard to choke back in front of him were at this moment running in rivers down her cheeks. While on the other side of that door, Eric was sitting beside a pretty brunette who was flashing cleavage in his face.
With a powerful sniff, Allie unlocked her car door and then slid into the driver’s seat. The shock on Eric’s face when she asked him about Molly—correction, when she practically accused him of having an affair with Molly— couldn’t have been faked. In five years of marriage, Eric had never given her the slightest reason to be jealous. He loved her as much as she loved him, she knew that. Was she overreacting? Had she misread the glance she saw pass between him and Molly?
Doubt wiggled its way into her thoughts as she started the engine and put the car in reverse. On the other hand, even the most trustworthy man in the world could be worn down by a determined woman. Everybody knew men were weak when it came to sex. It really wasn’t Eric she should be worried about. It was Molly. No matter what Eric said, Allie recognized the expression she’d seen on Molly’s face when she looked up at Eric.
With a shock, Allie realized she’d seen that expression before. And she knew exactly when. She’d been thirteen years old and walking home from her friend’s house on a Saturday afternoon. The front door at home was locked, so she headed for the back. She rounded the corner of the house and the sight that met her eyes stopped her dead in her tracks. Daddy and their neighbor Mrs. Nelson stood near the back corner of the house. They were kissing. Shock sucked the breath right out of Allie as she stood watching through dense shrubbery. When they broke apart, Mrs. Nelson looked up into Daddy’s face and her eyes cut sideways as she flashed a flirty grin.
The exact expression Allie had just seen on Molly’s face when she looked up at Eric.
An invisible fist grabbed Allie’s stomach and squeezed.
Eric let the heavy door slam behind him. In the other room he saw Molly start at the noise. He avoided her gaze and stomped across the break room to jerk open the refrigerator. The noisy motor kicked on as he stood looking inside, and the fan blew cold air into the room. He snatched his lunch bag and rummaged in it for the bottle of orange juice Mother had put in the bottom. He wasn’t really thirsty, he just didn’t want Molly to see his face until he got himself under control.
Allie was way out of line with her accusations. He’d never given her any reason to doubt his fidelity, not since the first night he laid eyes on her at that pizza place on campus. How could she think he’d be unfaithful to her? Especially since the birth of their daughter?
Maybe that was a clue. Allie had changed since Joanie’s birth, and not for the better. Hormones, maybe? Eric tossed the lunch bag back into the fridge with a shudder. The mysterious H word was enough to send any man running for cover. Whenever a woman got weird, she blamed it on her hormones, and how could a man answer that? Since marrying Allie and becoming the only man in a family full of women, Eric had learned a thing or two about hormones—mostly he’d learned to keep his head down whenever he sensed they might be present. There had been times when just stepping through the front door at the Sanderson house felt like taking his life into his own hands.
He twisted the cap off the OJ bottle and took a couple of big gulps. Sweet citrus juice tingled in his throat on the way down. Allie’s behavior wasn’t like normal hormone stuff. It felt like she was pulling away from him. She always threw herself into anything she undertook, and that was one of the qualities that first attracted him to her. But she was taking this Varie Cose thing to some sort of unhealthy extreme. It was starting to affect her. Them. If only he could con
vince her to give it up. Maybe if he—
“Is everything okay?”
Molly’s voice from nearby startled him. Eric jerked around and found her standing in the doorway, watching him. After Allie’s ridiculous accusations, he found it hard to meet her gaze.
“Yeah.” He put the cap on the bottle and twisted it tight, then yanked the refrigerator door open again and set the juice back inside. “She just had, uh, something to ask me.”
“Okay.” She pitched her voice low. “Eric, if you ever want to talk, you know I’m always available.”
Shock wrenched Eric’s eyes upward to lock with hers. Was that a come-on? No way! This was Molly. His brain a blur, Eric stood with his mouth hanging open, trying to make sense of the weird stuff happening to him today.
In the dispatch room static announced a call, and Officer Baker’s voice informed them of a traffic stop and a request for a license search. Eric blew out the breath he’d been holding.
“Uh, I’ll take care of it.”
Molly did not move as he edged by her in the doorway. He didn’t look at her, but felt the weight of her eyes as he keyed the license number into the NCIC link.
Were all the women in the world acting crazy lately, or was it just the ones he knew?
20
Allie shut off the engine and sat in her car, staring across the dark yard at the front window of her house. Flickers of light danced in a crack between the curtains. The television. Probably another stupid ball game. What games were played on Friday night? Football? Ice hockey? She was so tired she couldn’t remember.
When had Eric become a sports junkie? He’d always been a basketball fan, which was why he’d chosen the University of Kentucky for college. Many of their dates during the fall had been spent at someone’s apartment in front of the television watching football games. She hadn’t minded so much back then. In fact, she’d gotten into the whole fantasy football thing with him. But after the wedding, her enthusiasm for ball games flagged. She’d grown up, realized there were more important things in life than sports. Like just about everything. Family. Friends. A job you enjoyed.
Age Before Beauty Page 18