Выбрать главу

But of course she wasn't.

Baby threw up something that looked like pimento cheese on the living-room sofa. It had to be cleaned up immediately. Matt and Megan got in a scuffle over the remote control of the TV. That resulted in Matt banging his head on the corner of the coffee table hard enough to break the skin. He bled on his hair and the carpet. Both had to be washed.

Elizabeth broke a nail on her bureau drawer. When she tried to repair it, she super-glued two fingers together. By the time she got around to eye makeup, she was so rushed and nervous she couldn't get it right. She couldn't decide what to wear. So she was standing in her bare feet and underwear when Matt came into her bedroom at six forty-three to see if she was ready.

"Aw, Mom!" he wailed when he saw that she wasn't.

She was as incredulous over his appearance as he was over hers. He was wearing clothing fit only for a ragpicker. "Matthew, those jeans have holes in the knees. Go put on your new ones.

"They're all stiff and scratchy."

"They are not. I washed and dried them twice." Standing at her closet door, she wondered if she should wear her blue chambray skirt or the black slacks fresh from the cleaners?

"I want to wear these jeans. They're cool."

The blue chambray skirt. "Your new ones, please, sir. And that sweatshirt is big enough for me. Go change right now. Put on your green polo shirt."

"It's dorky."

"You're not going out in public — "

The doorbell pealed. "He's here!" Matt screeched.

"Come back here!" Elizabeth called. But she could already hear her son clumping down the stairs trying to beat his sister to the front door.

"I'll get it!"

* * *

Elizabeth never knew which one made it to the door first. The next voice she heard was Thad's. "Hi. I see you're ready and raring to go."

"We are," Megan told him.

"But Mom's not," Matt was overheard to say. "She's always late 'cause she lies in the bathtub till all the bubbles are gone. She's putting on her clothes. Sometimes that takes a long time too."

"Well, we're not in that big a hurry, are we? Why don't we wait for her in the living room?"

Upstairs, Elizabeth happened to catch a glimpse of herself in the cheval glass that stood in the corner of her bedroom. She had an ear pressed to her door so as not to miss a single word and had her long skirt clutched to her chest.

Impatient with herself for looking and acting ridiculous, even to herself, she stepped into the skirt and pulled a soft white wool sweater over her head. She gathered her hair back into a ponytail, quickly misted herself with fragrance, and left the room.

She didn't want Thad Randolph to think she was primping for him like a coed keeping her prom date waiting. She took the stairs with an aggressive tread, but paused before entering the living room. He was standing with his back to her, listening while Matt explained the intricacies of a Legos battleship he was building.

"Hello."

At the sound of her voice, he came around on the heels of his boots. Dressed in jeans, a plain cotton sports shirt, and a gray suede bomber jacket that did terrific things for his hair and eyes, he made an impressive escort. Slightly better than impressive. He made her palms sweat.

"Hi. Matt said you were still getting dressed." His eyes swept down her body, all the way to the toes of her ivory leather boots with the slouch cuff, then back up again. "I hope we didn't rush you."

"No. Are we ready?" He nodded. The children exuberantly chorused their readiness.

Matt delayed them by putting up an argument against taking a jacket. Elizabeth insisted on it, since many of the festival's activities were outdoors. And a jacket would camouflage his choice of wardrobe.

"The sooner you get your jacket, the sooner we can leave," Thad remarked.

Matt made it upstairs to his room and back in record time. Thad escorted them out. He was flanked by Matt and Megan. Elizabeth brought up the rear after locking the door behind them. It felt strange to be riding in the front seat of Thad's Jeep wagon with him behind the wheel and the children in the back seat. To anyone observing them, they would look like the all-American family on an outing. The thought made her jittery.

So much so that she actually jumped when Thad said, "You look pretty tonight."

He had wedged the unexpected compliment in sideways between her children's nonstop chatter. "Thank you. So do you. Look nice, I mean.

"Thanks."

They smiled across the front seat at each other. Elizabeth's insides quivered slightly beneath his appreciative blue gaze. She was actually grateful to Matt when he demanded Thad's attention.

The school building was almost rocking with the activity going on inside it. The campus was swarming with hyper children and their parents, who tried in vain to keep up with them as they raced from one gaily decorated booth to another, plying their skills at the various games.

The first order of business was to purchase tickets that were redeemable at all the booths and concession stands. Elizabeth knew the PTA officer who was selling them and had no choice but to introduce her to Thad. So avid was the other woman's curiosity that she miscounted his change twice before giving him the correct amount.

"You should have let me buy the tickets," Elizabeth told him as they moved away from the ticket booth. She was aware of every curious glance and whispering tongue.

"Consider it my contribution to the local PTA," he replied, unperturbed. "Where to first, kids?"

Elizabeth's fears that he would have an awful time were unfounded. To her surprise Thad got into the spirit of the festival. He offered Megan advice at the Fishin' Hole and she ended up winning a bottle of liquid bubbles. At the basketball goal, he held Matt up so he'd have a better chance at scoring. Matt came away from that with a bag of marbles in his hand and a grin on his face that made Elizabeth's heart ache. She saw the smug glances her son cast his friends as he walked away with Thad. He didn't have a father to brag to the other boys about and was taking full advantage of Thad's prowess.

They stopped at several other booths before Elizabeth asked, "Is anybody hungry? It's either spaghetti or hot dogs," she informed their guest apologetically.

"Great. I'm starved."

They decided on hot dogs. Matt and Megan ate theirs in about three bites. "Can we get our faces painted, Mom?" Megan asked after slurping up the last of her soft drink.

Matt was hopping up and down beside his chair. "Yeah, I want to get the devil face."

"How appropriate." Elizabeth laughed, pinching him on his mustard-smeared cheek.

"Can we, Mom? It only costs six tickets."

"Thad and I haven't eaten yet."

"That'll take forever." Megan moaned. "Then you'll want to drink coffee for an hour."

"Would it be all right if they went alone?" Thad asked her.

"Can we, Mom? Can we?"

"May we," she corrected. "Yes, you may if you promise to come right back here. If you get lost in this crowd, we'll never find you. And stay together," she called after them.

Clutching the tickets Thad had doled out to them, they squirmed their way through the cafeteria crowd and out into the jammed corridor toward the face-painting booth.

"Oh, to have that much energy," Thad said, taking the first bite out of his hot dog.

Elizabeth shook her head remorsefully. "I tried to warn you. You'll be exhausted by the time you get home tonight."

"I'm having a great time."

The wonder of it was that he truly seemed to be enjoying himself. He was as interested in the school as the PTA mothers were in Elizabeth Burke's "date." As though reading her mind, he said, "I'm an oddity, aren't I? Or am I getting paranoid? Is everyone staring at me, or is that my imagination?"

She smiled and ducked her head shyly. "They're staring. Everybody knows I'm single."