She would get Tom on his own - ask him to dance if that's what it took - and tell him she was going to leave Robert. She would go back to New York next week and break the news. First to Robert and then to Grace.
Oh God, Tom thought, it's going to be like last time. The dancing had been going on for over half an hour and every time he tried to get near her either she got waylaid or he did. Just when he thought he was clear, he felt a tap on his shoulder. It was Diane.
'Don't sister-in-laws get to dance?'
'Diane, I thought you'd never ask.'
'I knew you never would.'
He took hold of her and his heart sank a little when the new number turned out to be a slow one. She had on the new red dress she'd bought in L.A. and had tried painting her lips to match but it didn't quite work. She smelled pungently of perfume with an undertow of booze that he could detect too in her eyes.
'You look terrific,' he said.
Thank you, kind sir.'
It had been a long time since he'd seen Diane drunk. He didn't know why, but it made him sad. She was pressing her hips into him and arching her back so much that if he were to let go of her she'd topple over. She was giving him a kind of knowing, teasing look he neither understood nor much liked.
'Smoky tells me you didn't go to Wyoming after all.'
'He did?'
'Uh-huh.'
'Well, that's right, I didn't. One of the guys down there got sick, so I'm going next week instead.'
'Uh-huh.'
'"Uh-huh". Diane, what is this?'
He knew, of course. And he chided himself for now giving her the chance to say it. He should have just closed the conversation.
'I just hope you were a good boy, that's all.'
'Diane, come on. You've had too much to drink.'
It was a mistake. Her eyes flashed.
'Have I? Don't think we haven't all noticed.'
'Noticed what?' Another mistake.
'You know what I'm talking about. You can good as smell the steam rising off the pair of you.'
He just shook his head and looked away as if she was crazy, but she saw it hit home because she grinned in victory and wagged a finger at him.
'Good job she's going home, brother-in-law.'
They didn't exchange another word for the rest of the number. And when it was over she gave him that knowing look again and went off, swinging her hips like a hooker. He was still recovering when Annie came up behind him at the bar.
'Pity it's not raining,' she whispered.
'Come and dance with me,' he said. And he took hold of her before anyone else could and steered her off.
The music was quick and they danced apart, only uncoupling their eyes when the intensity threatened to overwhelm or betray them. To have her so close and yet so inaccessible was like some exquisite form of torture. After the second number, Frank tried to take her away but Tom made a joke of being the older brother and wouldn't yield.
The next number was a slow ballad in which a woman sang about her lover on death row. At last they could get their hands on each other. The touch of her skin and the light press of her body through their clothes almost made him reel and he had for a moment to close his eyes. Somewhere, he knew, Diane would be watching but he didn't care.
The dust dance-floor was crammed. Annie looked about her at the faces and said quietly, 'I need to talk to you. How can we get to talk?'
He felt like saying what is there to talk about? You're going. That's all there is to say. Instead he said, 'The exercise pool. In twenty minutes. I'll meet you.'
She only had time to nod, because the next moment Frank came up again and took her away from him.
Grace's head was spinning and it wasn't just from the two glasses of punch she'd had. She had danced with almost everyone - Tom, Frank, Hank, Smoky, even dear sweet Joe - and the image she'd had of herself was thrilling. She could whirl, she could shimmy, she could even jive. She didn't once lose her balance. She could do anything. She wished Terri Carlson was here to see it. For the first time in her new life, perhaps even her whole life, she felt beautiful.
She needed to pee. There was a toilet at the side of the barn but when she got there she found a line of people waiting to use it. She decided no one would mind if she used one of the bathrooms indoors - she was family enough and after all it was her party, kind of - so she headed for the porch.
She came through the screen door, instinctively keeping her hand on it so it didn't slam. As she walked through the narrow L-shaped boot-room that led to the kitchen, she heard voices. Frank and Diane were having a row.
'You've just had too much to drink,' he said.
'Fuck you.'
'It's none of our business, Diane.'
'She's had her sights on him ever since she got here. Just take a look out there, she's like a bitch in heat.'
'That's ridiculous.'
'God, you men are so dumb.'
There was an angry clatter of dishes. Grace had stopped in her tracks. Just as she decided she'd better go back to the barn and wait in line, she heard Frank's footsteps heading for the open door to the boot-room. She knew she wouldn't have time to leave before he saw her. And if he caught her sneaking out he'd know for sure she'd been eavesdropping. All she could do was head on in and bump into him as if she'd just come in.
As Frank appeared in front of her in the doorway, he stopped and turned back to Diane.
'Anyone'd think you were jealous or something.'
'Oh give me a break!'
'Well you give him a break. He's a grown man, for Christsakes.'
'And she's a married woman with a kid, for Christsakes!'
Frank turned and came into the boot-room, shaking his head. Grace stepped toward him.
'Hi,' she said brightly. He seemed a lot more than just startled but he recovered instantly and beamed.
'Hey, it's the belle of the ball! Howya doing sweetheart?' He put his hands on her shoulders.
'Oh I'm having a great time. Thanks, for doing it and everything.'
'Grace it's a real pleasure, believe me.' He gave her a little kiss on the forehead.
'Is it okay if I use the bathroom in here? Just that there's a whole line of—'
'Course you can! You go right on in.'
When she went through into the kitchen there was no one there. She heard footsteps going upstairs. Sitting on the toilet, she wondered who it was they'd been arguing about and got a first uneasy inkling that perhaps she knew.
Annie got there before him and walked slowly around to the far side of the pool. The air smelled of chlorine. The strike of her shoes on the concrete floor echoed in the caverning darkness. She leaned against the whitewashed block wall and felt its soothing cool on her back. A sliver of light was spilling in from the barn and she watched its reflection on the dead calm water of the pool. In the other world outside, one country song ended and another, barely distinguishable, began.
It seemed impossible that it was only last night that they'd stood there in the creek house kitchen with no one to trouble them or keep them apart. She wished that she'd said then what she was going to tell him now. She hadn't trusted herself to find the right words. This morning when she'd woken in his arms, she had been no less sure, even in that same bed which only a week ago she'd shared with her husband. Her only shame was that she felt none. Still however, something had restrained her from telling him; and now she wondered if it was the fear of how he would react.
It wasn't that she doubted for one moment his love. How could she? There was just something about him, some sad foreshadowing that was almost fatalistic. She had seen it today, in his desperate intent that she should understand what he had done to Pilgrim.
There was a brief flooding of light now at the end of the passageway to the barn. He stopped and scanned for her in the darkness. She stepped toward him and at the sound he saw her and came to meet her. Annie ran the last few separating steps as if suddenly he might be snatched away. She felt in his embrace the same shuddering release of what all evening she had tried herself to contain. Their breathing was as one, their mouths, their blood as if pulsed through interlacing veins by the same heart.