Stranger Read online

  Again.

  “I’ll call you later,” Sam said. “Let’s go to dinner.”

  He chucked me under the chin—yes, an actual chuck, like I was some cute, tomboy cousin with a crush! If my life had a sound track and a Foley crew, just then you’d have heard the sound of spring being sprung and a bell being rung. Sproing-oing-oing, ding!

  “No?” He gained points for interpreting my expression, at least.

  I shut my mouth so hard my teeth clicked. “Dinner would be fine.”

  Sam rolled up his sleeves to his elbows. “The look on your face says dinner isn’t fine.”

  “No.” I shook my head and got out of bed, conscious that with him dressed and mouthwashed, he had the emotional advantage, even if it was purely imaginary on my part. In the bathroom I scrubbed my teeth quickly and spoke through foam. “Dinner’s good!”

  Sam looked taller than ever in the slightly skewed doorway to the bathroom. His spiked hair actually brushed the top doorjamb. “What’s the matter?”

  What could I say that wouldn’t make me sound like a complete idiot? That after sleeping with him once and putting him off for weeks, I’d finally decided that something with Sam wasn’t something I could deny I wanted any longer? That while I would forever appreciate the comfort he’d offered me last night, morning had come and I wanted to do the same?

  Which, idiotic sounding or not, was exactly what I said.

  “And apparently, you’re not interested!” I finished, slightly out of breath, and crossed my arms over my chest.

  Sam had listened to my words with a faint smile, but now he leaned forward to say into my ear, “I’m interested.”

  I wasn’t totally mollified. “So…?”

  “So, this way,” Sam murmured with an added flick of his tongue on my earlobe that sent a shiver along my every nerve, “you’ll be thinking about me. All. Day. Long.”

  Oh.

  Was that perhaps the longest day I’ve ever spent? With each minute seeming to last an hour, I’d say so. I kept myself busy with updating our Web site and ordering new brochures and forms, but it didn’t help much.

  “More coffee?” I asked Shelly, who sat reading a tabloid magazine at her desk.

  She looked up from the lurid tales of celebrity divorces. “More? Grace, you’re going to overdose.”

  I lifted my mug. “So, is that a no?”

  Shelly smiled. “No. Are you okay?”

  “Sure. Fine. Why wouldn’t I be?”

  “Well…because this is the fourth time you’ve asked me if I wanted more coffee.” She looked as if she meant to say more, but the phone rang and she answered it, while I tensed.

  Death call? Would I have to miss my dinner date with Sam? My coffee sloshed over my fingers, burning them, and I grabbed a tissue from the box on her desk to wipe them. She didn’t gesture to me, and I relaxed.

  There are days in the funeral business that begin before sunrise and don’t end until night falls, with death calls and services and deliveries. There are also days when I sit at my desk and file my nails while I play game after game of solitaire on the computer. Today was shaping up to be one of those days.

  It gave me too much time to think about my date with Sam.

  Date.

  I winced as I filed too hard and brought blood to a cuticle and looked up at the knock on my door. My dad, my laptop in hand. My stomach did a flip-flop and skidded down to my toes before rocketing up to my throat.

  I got up. “Hey, Dad.”

  “I brought back your computer. Heard you got the other one up and running.”

  My dad held out my PowerBook, which I promptly cradled like the baby I never intended to have. “Yes. I did. Did you…get everything you needed from this one?”

  My dad shrugged. “I printed out the register, but your mom’s been keeping me so busy I haven’t had much of a chance to look it over. I figured if you were having real trouble, you’d let me know.”

  It was the closest I’d get to him backing off, and we both knew it. “Yes. I would.”

  He nodded again without looking at me or coming farther into the office. Since usually he charged right in and made himself at home, to see him lingering there in the doorway seemed odd. I stepped back, giving him room to enter if he wanted, but my dad didn’t come closer.

  “I’ve got to get going,” he said. “Me and Stan are going fishing tomorrow and I want to get to the sporting-goods store to check out a new rod.”

  “Again?”

  I’d been a little worried about the way he was acting, but the look he shot me confirmed it was, indeed, my father standing in my doorway and not a pod-person. “Aren’t I entitled to a little relaxation?”

  “Of course you are, Dad.”

  My dad made a familiar, half-disgruntled snorting sound and waved as he backed out of my office, leaving me to stare after him in confusion. I didn’t have time to ponder his odd behavior because the phone on my desk rang, which meant Shelly had switched the call through to me…which meant she knew it was from someone I’d want to talk to. Which meant I grabbed it up and tried not to sound too eager as I expected Sam to be on the other end.

  “Grace? Are you all right?”

  My sister.

  Everyone kept asking me that. “Yes. Fine. What’s up?”

  “I know it’s last minute, but I was hoping you could come over after work to watch the kids until Jerry gets home. I have to go someplace.”

  “I can’t. I’ve got plans for dinner.”

  The dead silence that followed my answer told me Hannah had been expecting me to say yes. “Oh.”

  “Yeah…sorry.”

  My sister must have heard the lack of sorrow in my voice, because she sniffed. “Can you maybe go later? I just need you until Jerry gets home.”

  Since Jerry had a history of never being on time, I wasn’t convinced today would be any different. In fact, he’d probably be even later than normal just because I really needed him to be home on time. “I can’t. I have…a date.”

  More silence, so long I wasn’t sure if my sister had hung up until she said, “Oh, really?”

  “Yes. Really.”

  “Great.” Just as I hadn’t sounded sorry, she didn’t sound happy. “Well, good for you. I guess.”

  Annoyed, I looked at the clock. An hour to get ready before Sam would be by to pick me up, and I still wanted to shower and change. “I’m sorry I can’t watch the kids, Hannah, but maybe Mom can.”

  “She can’t. I already asked.”

  “Sorry.”

  Hannah sighed, sounding incredibly put out. “Never mind. I’ll just have to wait until Jerry gets home.”

  She’d always been good at making me feel guilty about things that weren’t my fault.

  Though sort of, this time, it was my fault—inasmuch as I wasn’t saying no, as I’d done in the past, because I had to work, but because I had social plans. I thought back quickly. I’d never told my sister no in favor of my own social plans, which had always generally been set to my own convenience.

  Clearly, Hannah didn’t think that ought to change.

  “Sorry,” I repeated, sounding less so than I had earlier.

  “Have fun on your date,” my sister said, and hung up.

  Her emphasis on “your” had seemed out of place, but time had ticked by while we talked, and since Shelly hadn’t appeared in the doorway with a message slip saying I needed to return a family’s call, I wanted to take advantage of the timing to run upstairs and spend the extra twenty minutes plucking and tweezing and shaving myself into presentability.

  I shut down my computer and tidied the papers on my desk into one neat pile then went out to tell Shelly to lock up behind herself when she was done. I found Jared leaning on her desk, his face intent and hers unreadable. Neither looked up when I came out, until I spoke, and then only Shelly turned to me. Jared just walked away, his back stiff and straight, as if someone had whacked him someplace tender.

  “I’m going to head up