"Out of your closet?"
"Well, you don't have to sound so horrified."
Lilah's hurt tone made Elizabeth feel rotten. "Your clothes look terrific on you. But our tastes don't coincide."
"I'll bring my dowdiest duds."
"Thanks a lot."
"Finally," Lilah said dramatically, "I've got you laughing. Don't worry. Everything will be fine. Do something relaxing until I get there."
She gave Megan and Matt permission to make "slice and bake" cookies while she went upstairs to take a soothing bubble bath. While partially reclining in the tub, she wrote out the pirate-captive fantasy she had daydreamed that afternoon. It was a cliché, but it was fun. Lilah would probably enjoy it even if it were never submitted for publication. She owed her sister a favor.
She smelled the burning cookies the minute she opened the bathroom door. Handwritten pages in hand, she raced down the stairs to rescue the sheet of charcoaled dough from the oven. Megan and Matt had become engrossed in a movie on TV and had forgotten to set the oven timer. While the three of them were fanning smoke out of the kitchen, Lilah arrived.
"Your hair looks great!" she cried the moment she stepped into the kitchen, carrying several garments over her arm. "You look like a Solid Gold dancer." The children laughed uproariously. Elizabeth rolled her eyes heavenward. "Did I say something funny?" Lilah asked.
"Not really." Elizabeth took her hand and dragged her upstairs. "Let's see what outlandish outfits you've brought."
The differences in their coloring were so subtle one barely noticed them. But while Lilah could wear bright colors, they did nothing for Elizabeth but make her look sallow. From the dresses Lilah brought for her consideration, she selected a two-piece silk suit with a long pleated skin. The one-button jacket had shoulder pads and a shawl collar that extended all the way to its hem. It was smart and dressy enough for dinner. The shade of pink was brighter than pastel, but didn't drain her complexion of all color.
She looked at herself from every angle in the cheval glass. "It'll go with the gray shoes I planned on wearing. Besides, I don't have much choice. Adam's due here in fifteen minutes," she said, consulting the clock on her dresser. "Which remind me, where's the baby-sitter? She said she'd be here by seven.
"I'll check downstairs," Lilah said. "The kids might have already let her in.
Elizabeth finished dressing and, after giving herself one last hasty glance in the mirror, switched out her bedroom light and went downstairs. She could hear her family talking in the kitchen. When the doorbell rang as she was making her way across the living room, she was glad she was alone to answer the door. Her children might do something horrendous in front of Adam Cavanaugh, though she had demanded that they be on their best behavior when she introduced them.
Arranging her face into a welcoming smile and taking a restorative breath that did nothing to calm her jumpiness, she opened the front door. "What are you doing here?" she asked, saying the first thing that popped into her mind.
Thad was standing on her threshold holding a bouquet of roses wrapped in green tissue paper. He truly had made a remarkable recovery. If the man had ever been sick a day in his life, one couldn't tell it tonight. He was the picture of health and virility. Despite her rude question, his smile was wide and warm.
"I came to say thank you for being such a good neighbor when I was sick."
"Oh, that. Well, you're welcome."
An awkward silence ensued. The last time they had faced each other, she'd been wearing a nervous smile and he'd been wearing a sheet, and they both remembered what he'd said about finishing his dream.
"May I come in?"
"Of course." Before she closed the front door behind him, Elizabeth anxiously glanced up and down the street, but didn't see an approaching car. "My children will be glad to see you."
"I'm not here to see your children, Elizabeth."
His meaning couldn't be mistaken. If she had mistaken his meaning, the rapacious way he was looking at her would have clarified it. "The roses are beautiful," she said anxiously. "Are they for me?"
He extended the bouquet to her. "I didn't know if you liked roses.
"I love them."
"That color was so soft and feminine, it reminded me of you."
Self-consciously she sniffed the fragrant white blooms. The delicately ruffled edges of the petals were tipped with pink, as though they'd been kissed. "Thank you, Thad." She raised her head and caught him looking at her with puzzlement.
"Why are you all dressed up? Are you going out?"
"Well, yes, I — "
"Thad!"
"Thad!"
Megan and Matt barged through the swinging door that connected the dining room to the kitchen. Lilah followed. Her eyes rounded with surprise and amusement when she saw her sister talking with Thad. Elizabeth made awkward introductions while her children competed for Thad's attention with the fervency of pennant contenders.
"So pleased to meet you," Lilah cooed. "You brought roses! How thoughtful." She slid an inquiring glance toward her sister.
"I, uh, Thad was sick earlier in the week. He just dropped by to thank me for, for, uh…"
"Going into his house to check on him."
"Yeah, and she wouldn't let us go in to visit ‘cause we might catch the flu."
"But she's a mom and can't catch the flu so she went in — "
"All by herself and — "
"He was in his bed — "
"And she did stuff for him — "
"And he got well."
The children's explanation was thorough, yet left holes as large as elephants for Lilah to fill with imagination. She gave her sister a speculative glance that said "Still waters run deep." Elizabeth prayed to be vaporized on the spot.
But since that didn't happen, she headed for the kitchen. "Excuse me. I need to get these roses in water."
"Oh, Lizzie, you've got a problem."
"Another one?"
"A major one. The baby-sitter isn't coming."
"What?"
"I hate to have to tell you, but her little brother rode his bike over and said to tell you that she's got the flu."
"Must be going around," Thad said out of the corner of his mouth. He was still chuckling over the tale the children had told and their mother's embarrassed reaction to it.
Elizabeth wished he'd go home. Damn him! Why had he lived behind her all this time, but had chosen tonight of all nights to come calling with a bouquet of roses? While Lilah was here. When Adam was due to arrive any minute. She gnawed her lip in exasperation.
"I'll call Mrs Alder." She turned toward the kitchen again, but, as before, was brought up short by Lilah.
"I already called her. She's sitting for someone else tonight."
"Do I smell something burning?" Thad asked blandly.
"The cookies!"
Lilah, Megan, and Matt all shrieked the word at the same time and stampeded back into the kitchen, with Thad and Elizabeth bringing up the rear. Acrid smoke was billowing out of the oven door.
"Lilah, how could you let this happen again?" Elizabeth wailed.
"You know I can't cook."
"Then why were you baking cookies?"
"To keep the kids occupied so they'd stay out of your way while you were getting dressed for your big date."
During this shouted exchange, Thad calmly removed the charred remains from the oven. "Big date?"
Through the cloud of smoke, his inquiring gaze found Elizabeth. Defensively she stuck out her chin. She didn't owe him any explanations, no matter how accusing his expression.
But the point was moot. There wasn't going to be a big date. "It's too late to start calling other babysitters," she said morosely. "I guess I can't go. Unless…" She looked at Lilah expectantly.
"Sorry, Lizzie, but I can't."