“Sorry about that,” he apologized as he locked the car. “I didn’t think it would be this busy.”
“It’s fine,” Jenny said. “I’ve got flats on. Anyway, I’m used to walking everywhere. At least there aren’t any hills here.”
Maybe it was Jerome’s hills that kept her in such great shape. Making that kind of remark seemed far too personal, though, so he just said, “Well, that’s true. There’s a mall entrance off to our left, so we can go through there and you can look at the directory and decide where you want to head next.”
“Sounds good.” She flashed him a mischievous little grin, her eyes dancing behind her sunglasses. “I promise I won’t drag you to every store.”
“It’s cool if you do. My afternoon’s open.”
That reply made her chuckle, but at the same time she shook her head, as if she couldn’t quite believe that any self-respecting guy would willingly traipse all over a crowded mall with a woman he’d just met.
Once they were inside, though, he could tell that she planned to make this a targeted trip. She paused at the directory, nodding a few times, as if consigning her most important destinations to memory. And then they were off.
Dillard’s first, where he hoped she wouldn’t drag him to the lingerie department — mostly because it would be embarrassing in the extreme, and not because he wouldn’t have minded seeing her model underwear for him. But no, she shopped for jeans and some new blouses, and a pair of sandals from the shoe department. Then it was over to Sephora for makeup, and a few more smaller clothing stores after that.
“I didn’t mean to make you my beast of burden,” she protested, after he took several of the heavier bags from her.
“It’s fine,” he replied. “I like to feel useful.”
She raised an eyebrow at him but didn’t say anything else, instead heading off toward another shoe store. Actually, if he stopped to add it all up, the amount she was spending was kind of staggering. Again he thought of the wedding he’d attended the night before, and how much it must have cost. Were the McAllisters rich? He wouldn’t have thought that, considering how Jerome was kind of a funky place, not exactly Scottsdale or even Sedona. But Jenny had to have dropped close to a grand already, and wasn’t showing any signs of slowing down. Maybe she’d been saving up a long time for this kind of shopping trip. He didn’t know, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to ask.
Once again, though, he made a mental note to start digging into the McAllister finances. And probably the Wilcoxes and the de la Pazes, too. Just in case.
After the sixth store, though — or was it the seventh? — Jenny shot him an apologetic smile and said, “We should probably take a break. Could you eat something?”
By that point he probably could have eaten several somethings. They’d passed a Cheesecake Factory on the way in to the mall entrance, so he suggested that.
“Is it good?”
He stared at her blankly. “You’ve never been to one?”
“I doubt there are any closer than somewhere in Phoenix. It’s a national chain, right?”
“Right. I won’t say it’s haute cuisine, but it’s good for a snack.”
“A snack sounds great. Lead on.”
Even though the mall had been crowded, the restaurant wasn’t too bad, probably because it was now a hair past two, and not really lunchtime anymore. He and Jenny were seated quickly enough, and when the waiter came by, she ordered iced tea.
Colin asked for the same, then gave Jenny a questioning look. She shrugged and said, “Well, I figured we were going out for a real meal later, and after all that champagne last night, it seemed safer to stick with tea for now.”
“I think you’re right.” He could have gone for a beer after all that marching around the mall, but tea would do for now, especially since it sounded clear enough to him that Jenny intended to stay the course and wouldn’t dump him as soon as her shopping spree was over with.
They decided on hot spinach and cheese dip, and gave the waiter their order when he arrived with their iced teas. Once he was gone, Jenny said, “I’m not wearing you out, am I?”
There was a loaded question. But Colin thought he’d better answer literally. “Not at all. I got a lot of training getting dragged here with my mother and sister when I was younger.”
Jenny took a sip of her iced tea. “Any other brothers or sisters?”
“No, just the two of us. What about you?” And he held his breath, wondering if she would tell him the truth, or whether she would say it was only her and Adam.
She did seem to go very still then, hands wrapped around her iced tea glass. “Well, there’s Adam. And then there was my sister Roslyn.”
“‘Was’?”
Her eyes seemed to be focused on the spot where her discarded drinking straw wrapper lay on the tabletop. “She was…killed…about six months ago.”
“Oh, Jesus, Jenny, I’m so sorry.” And then he felt like a world-class asshole for putting her on the spot like that, especially when he’d already known the answer to his question. Jerk move to bring up the subject at all when she seemed to be having such a good time.
A wild impulse came over him that he should just tell her the truth now, before they could get in any deeper. He hated the lies he’d already told. Sure, she’d be angry, but….
But somehow, he couldn’t make himself do it. He knew she’d gather up her bags and storm out and call a cab, and then he’d never see her again.
Anyway, she’d spoken again, and the moment was gone. “I’m actually surprised you didn’t hear anything about it,” she said, her tone bitter. “It was all over the news. At least, my parents said it was. I couldn’t bear to hear or read about any of it. The Escobar thing?”
He put what he hoped was an appropriately shocked expression on his face, at the same time feeling like the world’s biggest bastard for continuing this charade. When he’d come up with the idea of crashing the wedding, he’d never thought in a million years that he’d end up telling all these lies. “Oh, Jesus — that was your sister?”
“Yes, it was my sister.” Suddenly, Jenny seemed very tired. She pushed at the wrapper from her straw with a finger, studiously not looking up at him. “That bastard killed my sister, and I just couldn’t bear to see her name get dragged through it over and over again, as if it was somehow her fault that she’d come here on spring break and ran into the wrongest guy she possibly could.” Still not looking at Colin, she picked up her iced tea and pulled a long sip through the straw. “She and Caitlin weren’t just cousins, they were really good friends. They’d always promised they’d be each other’s maid of honor — or matron of honor, I guess, depending on who got married first — and so after Roslyn was gone, I sort of had to step in, because Danica, who was also their friend, had to deal with her own kind of hell with Matías Escobar and wasn’t in much shape for maid-of-honor duty.”
“I’m sorry,” Colin said. And he was…sorry for what Jenny and her family had gone through, sorry for these lies that just seemed to keep building up on one another. Shit, he’d never intended to get himself in this kind of a situation.
Another of those bitter little smiles touched her lips. “I’d say it’s okay, but it really isn’t. But it also isn’t anything any of us can change, even if we all are — ” She stopped there, as if realizing she’d been about to say something she really shouldn’t. “Even if we all wish we could, that is.” After sipping some more tea, she added, “But let’s just say that I’m really glad this wedding is over. I’m happy for Caitlin, I really am, but….”
“But you can’t help thinking about how your own sister won’t ever get her wedding.”
Surprise flashed in those big blue eyes, and Jenny nodded. “Something like that. Which I try to tell myself is stupid, because Roslyn wasn’t even dating anyone seriously, and didn’t seem to care all that much about settling down. But why should she? She was just a kid. She was barely old enough to drink.”
Watching the mixture
of sadness and anger move across Jenny’s fine features, Colin wished they’d sat next to each other in this booth, rather than across from one another. He wanted to pull her close, put his arms around her, give her what comfort he could. Instead, he reached across the table and wrapped his fingers around hers. She started, but then he could feel her give him an answering squeeze, as if grateful that he’d offered her even that small gesture of compassion.
“I really shouldn’t be talking about this — ” she began, but Colin shook his head.
“I want you to. It’s something that happened to you, to your family. I don’t want you to think you have to hide anything from me.” The way you’re hiding things from her? Asshole. He really needed to find a way to steer this conversation to a different topic.
At that remark, her gaze dropped to the tabletop again, and once more his spider sense started tingling again. There was something going on with the McAllisters — and the Wilcoxes and de la Pazes as well, for all he knew — but he couldn’t begin to put his finger on what it might be. They all seemed like normal people to him. If he’d learned anything in his years of working on the paper, though, it was that “normal” could hide all kinds of weird shit.
“Thanks for that,” Jenny said. “I’ve tried to do what I can to move on, to heal. But…she was my baby sister.”
A strange pang struck him then. For whatever reason, he hadn’t really tried to put himself in Jenny’s position. But how would he feel if it was his own little sister Kate who had been the victim of a sadistic killer like Matías Escobar? He wasn’t sure he would have been able to cope as well as Jenny apparently had.
Colin was saved from having to make a reply by the arrival of the waiter with their chips and dip. Whatever appetite he might have worked up by following Jenny around as she shopped seemed to have disappeared, but he thanked the waiter anyway. After the two of them were alone again, they were both silent, looking at each other. Jenny only seemed sad, and Colin didn’t want to know what she might be seeing in his face. Right then he felt like a piece of shit.
Then she picked up a chip and dunked it into the dip. “We might as well eat this,” she said.
“I suppose so.” He also got a chip and dipped it into the artichoke/cheese mixture. Somewhat to his surprise, he found that it tasted good, waking an appetite that had only gone dormant and hadn’t disappeared entirely.
“So, what is it you actually do, Colin?” Jenny asked in an obvious attempt to change the subject. “That is, I know you said you were Alex’s T.A. in one of his journalism courses, but you made it sound as if you weren’t doing that anymore.”
Colin nearly choked on the chip he was eating. Without trying to look too obvious, he drank some iced tea, then said, “I’m not still at the university, if that’s what you’re asking. I also switched to communications and was still trying to get my master’s, but then I was with Shannon and felt like I had to get a real job instead of staying in school forever, so….” Pausing, he cast about desperately for something that sounded plausible, something one of his former classmates was now actually doing. “So now I work in corporate communications.”
“Corporate communications?” she asked. “That’s actually a thing?”
“Yeah, you probably don’t have much call for it in Jerome” — she flashed him a jaundiced look at that remark — “but basically, I write all the material for the corporate newsletters, quarterly reports, press releases. All that kind of stuff. It might not be the most exciting thing in the world, but it pays the bills.”
Since he’d been watching her carefully, Colin noted the faint lift of an eyebrow Jenny gave at that comment. Well, true, on the surface it didn’t look as if it was doing that well at paying his bills. The sad truth was, if he really had gone into corporate communications, he’d probably be making a good deal more than he was at his current job, even if you included the extra grand or so a month he earned from writing those godawful “self-improvement” pamphlets.
“Alimony is a bitch,” he said, and Jenny gave a guilty start.
“You were married long enough for that?”
“Five years.” That much was the truth. “Could have been worse, I guess. The judge only ordered spousal support for a three-year period, so I’ll be done with all that in just a couple more months.”
“That must be a relief.”
“Well, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t looking forward to the day when I write that last check.”
Jenny went quiet then, and broke a chip in two before dunking half of it in the dip. “At least it didn’t seem to sour you completely on weddings.”
“Oh, I’m glad I went.” At least that wasn’t a lie.
Their eyes met, and Colin’s heart gave an odd little thump. Had it thumped like that when he first met Shannon? He couldn’t even remember anymore; his first memories of her had been irrevocably colored by what had happened later on in their relationship, and so he knew he couldn’t form an unbiased opinion when it came to analyzing his feelings about her.
Jenny, though…he was pretty sure he’d never had this kind of reaction to a woman before, especially not after spending so little time with her. Everything about her seemed to give him a thrill — the way she smiled, the low, sweet timbre of her voice, how her hair fell around her face. Even the sadness in her eyes. It made him want to take her in his arms and never let go.
She sent him a smile right then that made a distinct tingle go down his back and end up someplace he really shouldn’t be thinking about. Especially not when they were out in public, surrounded by people.
“I’m glad you went, too. Although I’m surprised you didn’t bring a date.”
“Um, well…I did invite a friend from work. Purely platonic,” he added quickly, before her brows had a chance to pull together. “But the invitation was for me and a ‘plus one.’ She wasn’t feeling well, though, so I decided to go ahead and come on my own.”
More lies…but what he was telling Jenny now should match up well enough with what he’d said to Lucas and Margot and the others at the table where he’d been sitting. He didn’t know if any of them would actually check to make sure the stories lined up, but just in case Jenny made a casual mention, it should be okay. He hoped.
“Anyway,” he went on, “is there much more shopping on your list?”
She gave him a sly smile. “What, have I worn you out already?”
“No,” he replied. “But I figured I’d mentally prepare myself for another marathon.”
“No marathon. I’m pretty much done, actually. There might be one or two places I want to hit on the way out, but that’s it.”
He didn’t quite heave a sigh of relief, but Jenny must have noticed something in his expression.
“What, didn’t your wife drag you all over the mall?”
“Not really.” He wouldn’t bother to mention that she preferred to shop on her own or online so he wouldn’t have a good idea of how much she was actually spending. Well, not until the credit card bills showed up, anyway.
Jenny appeared to digest this, but the slightest of frowns touched the corner of her mouth, as if she understood that he wasn’t telling her everything. Unlike a lot of women, though, she didn’t seem inclined to press the issue. “So what is there to do around here besides shop?”
There was a lot to do in Tucson, but Colin had a feeling that Jenny wasn’t really in the mood to go sightseeing or visit a museum or whatever else he could think of to fill up the time until dinner. Then he had an idea. She might shoot him down, but better to know now whether they shared any of the same interests.
“Do you have in IMAX in the Verde Valley?”
She gave him a pained look. “Please. The nearest theater has a total of six screens, and they’re all dinky.”
So far, so good. “You like superhero movies?”
Her head tilted to one side. “The kind where a lot of stuff gets blown up?”
Was that condemnation in her tone? God, he hoped she wasn�
�t into romantic comedies or Oscar-bait dramas. Might as well go for broke. “Lots of explosions, yeah.”
A sunny smile spread over her face. “That sounds perfect.”
7
How had Colin known that this was exactly what she needed? Maybe she should have been out in the fresh air, going to see the historic sites and museums around town, but none of that sounded particularly appealing. She just wanted to do something where she could check her brain out for a few hours.
So now here they were, watching the fate of the universe hanging in the balance on the biggest movie screen Jenny had ever seen in her life. Actually, she wasn’t sure if she really cared for it that much — the setup was somewhat vertigo-inspiring — but she had to admit that it definitely immersed her in the action.
Neither of them had been interested in any snacks, but they’d gotten a large Coke and two straws. That felt slightly illicit, too, since she hardly ever drank soda. And it was fun the way every once in a while they’d reach for the drink at the same time and their fingers would bump into each other. Colin would always defer to her, which she thought was unnecessary but sweet.
And it just felt good to sit here in the dark with him next to her, looking like a completely normal couple. All right, they weren’t really a couple, but it felt good to pretend. She liked feeling as if she was just a regular young woman out on a Sunday afternoon date with her boyfriend. No one around her knew she was a witch, or that she’d lost a sister under tragic circumstances. Okay, Colin knew, but he’d been perceptive enough to let the matter go when he could tell she didn’t want to talk about it anymore.
She liked that about him. Actually, she liked a lot of things about him. Maybe some part of her had been waiting for him to do or say something to prove that he was a jerk after all, but he’d been nothing but funny and sweet and understanding. Which meant she’d need to find a pretty big reason for not continuing with this to see where it might be headed.
It was too bad that his marriage hadn’t worked out, and that it had hit him so hard financially, but it sounded as if he was almost free of that particular burden. He must have gotten married fairly young to have been with his ex for five years and to have three years of spousal support on top of that. Yes, witches and warlocks tended to marry young, but they also tended to stay together.
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