Naturally Naughty - Leslie Kelly [49]
Kate met Cassie’s eye, knowing she was thinking along the same lines. They exchanged shaky smiles. “Here’s to what didn’t happen to us on prom night,” Kate said softly.
Cassie nodded. “Hear, hear.”
JACK LUCKED OUT and arrived at his mother’s house after she’d left for her Saturday hair appointment. Closing himself in his father’s office—to the chagrin of Leonardo the bulldog—he spent two hours balancing bank statements, sorting out documents. He heard his sister Angela moving around, once stopping to have a long phone conversation in the next room.
He didn’t get his sister. Angela was pretty and had been given every advantage. She’d been the apple of their parents’ eye, and had once had a genuine sweetness to her personality. Sure, she was spoiled. She’d shown signs of that, even as a toddler. But at least before, when she’d been a kid, she’d had an infectious laugh and a beautiful smile. In the fifteen years he’d been gone, she’d lost them both. Probably three failed marriages and two miscarriages could do that to a person.
Resolving to get along better with her, he forced a look of welcome to his face when she walked into the office. “Hi.”
“You busy?”
He nodded and rubbed his weary eyes. “Dad left a mess.”
Her laugh could only be described as bitter. “Yeah. As usual.” She sat on a chair next to the window. “I don’t suppose you’ve changed your mind and plan to stay here.”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry, Ang. I don’t know how you can stand it. I can’t breathe in this place.”
“Even after he died Dad still managed to drive you away.”
Jack pushed his chair back. “What are you talking about?”
“I mean, you took off fifteen years ago because of him. Because of how he pressured you to follow in his footsteps.”
“Most fathers do.”
Angela continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “And as soon as it looks like you’re going to come back, you find out about his dirty little secret and won’t stay here now, either.”
Jack shook his head. “It’s more complicated than that. How did you find out about Dad and Edie, anyway?”
She glanced out the window. “I saw them kissing once. Not long after you’d gone away to college.”
She’d been thirteen. He swallowed, hard. “What’d you do?”
“Nothing. I didn’t confront him, or tell Mother, or anybody else. I was afraid if she found out, they’d get a divorce and I’d be shuffled back and forth between them forever.”
A wave of guilt washed over him as he acknowledged he’d left her here without an ally in his hurry to escape from home. “I’m sorry, Angela. But maybe now it’s time to move on. Have you thought about getting out of here, too?”
“I’ve been dying to move out, get my own place downtown, but Mother plays the guilt card whenever I mention it.”
“I meant, maybe it’s time to get out of Pleasantville.”
“I can’t. I don’t want to leave him…I mean, leave here.”
Him? He didn’t think Angela was seeing anyone, though she’d been divorced from her third husband for over a year.
She stood abruptly. “I have to go. I have a nail appointment. Be sure to lock up when you leave, okay? Mother doesn’t trust Sophie to secure the house.” Her jaw clenched.
“After all, she’s not nearly as trustworthy as Edie was.”
Judging by the way she spat out the other woman’s name, Jack surmised his sister had not been able to forgive and forget.
As Angela left the room his parents’ ever-hopeful dog, Leonardo, slunk in and strolled over to the desk. At Leonardo’s longing glance at his jeans-clad leg, Jack shot him a suspicious glare. “Dog, how many years is it gonna take for you to figure out you’ve got no balls?”
Leonardo gave him a sheepish glance from his wrinkled face. Walking around in circles once or twice, he appeared to be looking for something—or someone. He finally curled up at Jack’s feet and looked up at him with sad eyes.
“Okay,” Jack said with a sigh. “I guess you miss him, too.”
A half hour later he straightened up to leave, determined to get out before his mother got back. After making sure the mutt had enough water, he locked up and headed for his father’s pickup truck, which he’d been driving