Age Before Beauty (23 page)

“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 convince 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.

She clutched the top of the steering wheel and rested her forehead on her hand, her eyes closed. Tonight’s party had been a total disaster. Sally Jo said the pedicure parties were always huge successes, but Allie didn’t even sell a hundred dollars’ worth of product tonight. At this rate, her business would never get into the black.

Maybe she should chuck the whole Varie Cose thing. Come clean to Eric about the credit card and cut her losses now, before she got any further into it. Go back to work at the state and use her paycheck to chip away at that debt. She wouldn’t even have to put Joanie in daycare, because if Betty carried out her plan, Allie would have a built-in babysitter.

A tear slipped between Allie’s closed eyelids. She didn’t want Betty to raise Joanie any more than she wanted a babysitter doing it.

Maybe Eric was right. If they really tried, they could pay the bills on his salary alone.

But then Allie would be totally dependent on him. Just like Betty was dependent on Don. Just like … pain squeezed her throat as she struggled to swallow a sob. Just like Mom had been dependent on Daddy before their divorce. Look how that turned out.

Please, don’t let Molly turn out to be Eric’s Mrs. Nelson.
Don’t let Eric
have
a Mrs. Nelson.

Allie didn’t whisper the prayer aloud, but she sent it upward mentally. It might not do any good; none of her prayers about Mom and Daddy had worked when she was a teenager. But it couldn’t hurt, could it? She knew God existed, and that he heard prayers. Apparently he just chose to ignore hers.

She straightened in her seat. Nobody was going to come along and fix her problems for her. She had to stand on her own two feet, carry her own weight. Hers and Joanie’s. The income potential for Varie Cose was enormous compared to her job at the state. She just needed to work harder so she could be as successful as Sally Jo. That way, if anything happened between her and Eric, she and Joanie would be okay. Safe and secure.

The snatch of a song flashed into her mind.
Safe and
secure from all alarms.

The phrase was from an old hymn, one they used to sing in church when she was a kid.
Leaning on the Everlasting
Arms.
They probably still sang that song at Christ Community Church. According to Joan, not much had changed since the last time Allie went there.

But a lot had changed for Allie. She couldn’t even remember what it felt like to be the girl who sat in the pew beside her mother and father on Sunday morning.