Could Jerry Rankin have come along at a better time? she thought.
And had he not come along when he had, where would she be now? How could she have dealt with all of this turmoil without him?
She felt him let go of her hand as he opened the door and held it open for her. As she stepped inside, she realized that she owed Jerry a lot. And although she knew that she was going to have to end it between them soon before either of them got into this any deeper, she vowed to herself that she would let him down very gently and very gradually. It was the least she could do.
“Have a seat,” Jerry said when they entered the kitchen. “Would you like something to drink?”
Ann strode over and sat down on one of the stools at the mahogany bar that divided the kitchen from the dining area. “A glass of water, if you don’t mind.”
“Coming right up!” he replied jovially. Jerry went over to the one of the cabinets to get a glass, added ice and filled it with Evian. He handed it to Ann.
“Thanks,” she said.
They made small talk as Ann watched Jerry prepare a gourmet lobster dinner. An hour and two glasses of wine later, Ann caught herself staring at Jerry’s paintings on the wall again. There was something about them, the composition, the subjects themselves, something, that drew her curiosity. She knew that Jerry had noticed her staring over at them more than once but it was fairly evident that he didn’t wish to discuss them, or he would have said something. Ann wanted to ask him about two of the paintings in particular-although they were obviously abstract in nature, it appeared as though the women in both paintings were being observed by the viewer through an opening-a window in the first canvas and through a jagged hole of some kind in the second one. Both of these ‘objects’ constituted the foreground of the paintings creating the illusion that the women were in the distance beyond the respective openings. The impassive expression on their faces and the manner in which they were looking off to the side suggested that the women were totally unaware that the Observer was watching them-as though they were being peeped at. Voyeurism? Ann thought. Was that what Jerry was implying in the paintings?
“I have a surprise for you,” Jerry suddenly announced.
Ann flinched. She peered across the table at him.
“A surprise?”
He nodded. “But before I give it to you, you have to promise me that you’ll use it… tonight.”
Ann tried to imagine what it could be. What could he possibly give her that she could use tonight? she wondered.
“OK, I promise,” she said, playing along.
Jerry stood up, smiled at her peculiarly then went over to the kitchen pantry and opened the door. A moment later he was back, carrying a gift-wrapped box. Before he handed it to her, he said, “Remember, you promised me that you’d use it tonight.”
“I know,” Ann said. “But you really shouldn’t have, Jerry.”
He smiled and handed her the box. Ann felt a little embarrassed and uncomfortable as she removed the ribbon and tore off the gift-wrap. She cast him a sidelong glance when she opened the box and saw what was inside: a lavender bikini swimsuit.
“Jerry! You tricked me! How on earth can I possibly use this tonight?”
He cocked his head in the direction of the Jacuzzi. “Right out there.”
“But Jerry…” Ann protested.
“You promised, remember?”
“Yes, but, I never dreamed-”
He placed a hand on her shoulder as his expression became serious.
“Listen, Ann. You don’t have to if you don’t want to, of course. I’m not really trying to put you on the spot. I honestly thought that you may want to try out the tub tonight, so I bought you the swimsuit as sort of an afterthought.” He snickered. “I knew you wouldn’t do it if you had nothing to wear! Anyway, it’s up to you. I’d just like to add that you’re not going to believe how relaxing it is out there with that soothing hot water loosening up those taut muscles. It’s like heaven.”
Ann smiled. “You don’t have to give me the hard sell, Jerry. I’ve been in a hot tub before.”
“Then you know how absolutely marvelous it is!”
Ann began fidgeting with the swimsuit, still in the box. “I’d love to, Jerry, but it’s getting late. I told Amy that I’d be home by ten o’clock and she may need me to pick her up at her friend’s house if she doesn’t decide to spend the night there.”
Jerry glanced at the wall clock and said, “It’s only seven now. We can hit the tub and have plenty of time to get you home by ten.”
Ann thought it over a moment. “All right, you win.”
She took out the swimsuit and looked it over. “It’s lovely, Jerry. I hope it fits. Where can I change?”
Jerry smiled broadly. “Up in the bedroom if you’d like. You won’t regret this-I promise! I’ll just change down here and get the tub ready in the meantime.”
Ann couldn’t help but smile to herself at Jerry’s boyish enthusiasm. He was acting like a little kid who had just gotten that baseball glove he’d wanted so much for his birthday.
“Okay, I’ll be back in a few minutes,” she said, getting up from the table.
Once inside Jerry’s bedroom, Ann took the swimsuit into the master bath and began removing her clothes. She didn’t know if it was the two glasses of wine or her not wanting to disappoint Jerry that prompted her to agree to this rather odd idea. But the more she though about it, the more she realized that she was actually looking forward to it. It was all quite harmless, really, and besides, she had always been crazy about hot tubs. In fact, she and Sam had owned one and she used to literally spend hours soaking in it whenever she felt tense or just plain wanted to relax and read a good book. Ann suddenly realized just how much she had missed it in all this time since they had sold the house.
Ann laid her clothes in a neat pile on the floor and slipped into the suit. It fit perfectly. As she looked in the mirror at her lily-white skin, she suddenly wished she had known she was going to be wearing a bathing suit in October and she would have paid a visit to the tanning salon. Oh well, she thought. At least the suit did her body justice in the way it clung perfectly. She marveled at Jerry’s taste in choosing the suit. Not only was she fond of lavender, her favorite color, but the suit fit as if it had been custom tailored for her.
Ann straightened up her hair a little and started to leave but stopped herself, realizing that she was going to feel a bit odd going back downstairs to face Jerry practically naked. She grabbed a bath towel off the rack and draped it over her shoulders.
On the way out of the bedroom, something caught her eye and Ann froze in her tracks. There was a small portion of clothing sticking out from between the sliding closet doors that looked familiar. She went over, slid open the door and saw the sleeve of the very same jacket Jerry had worn the night before. It was hanging up along with an entire wardrobe of clothing; a wardrobe that seemed just a little too extensive to be stowed away at one’s weekend retreat. She quickly rifled though the clothes and recognized two of the shirts she’d seen Jerry wear since she’d first met him. Something now puzzled her: why had he spent last night here instead of at his home in Dublin? The jacket all but proved that he had.
She slid the door closed. Either Jerry was merely leading her to believe that he spent little time in this fully stocked, fully furnished country hideaway or he was flat out lying to her. This place not only had that same lived in feeling that any other full time residence emanated but no one in this right mind would store their entire wardrobe at a location that was over an hour and a half drive from where they lived and worked.
Did Jerry Rankin even own a home in Dublin?
She had never once driven by to see his house in all this time – she had never felt any reason to…
A thought suddenly occurred to her and she began feeling foolish. She had phoned Jerry twice and both times he had answered the phone. The number she’d dialed had been the local number he had listed on his business card. Placing a call out here in God’s country would most certainly have been a long distance call, if he even had a phone here. Ann couldn’t recall seeing a phone during her grand tour.