Love to Love You Baby

  * * *

  Jack was whistling as he reentered the living room of the apartment, happier than he’d been since his shoulder had begun hurting again last August and he’d known, just known, that this time surgery wasn’t going to fix him.

  “... you could be this happy. Bye, darling”—a girlish giggle—“someone seems to want me. Darling, stop that! I was talking to—” Click. “End of messages.”

  Keely stood at the desk, her back to him.

  “Keely? Was that your aunt?” he asked, wondering if he could pull this off, wondering if she now trusted him enough to tell him the truth. Tell him what her aunt had said in her telephone message.

  “Hmmm?” she asked, slowly turning around, but not before he could see her finger find and press the ERASE MESSAGES button. “Oh... oh, yes, that was Aunt Mary. She’s obviously enjoying her honeymoon, because she didn’t even mention when she might be home.”

  “No?” he asked, raising his eyebrows. “So, what did she have to say?”

  Keely shrugged. “Nothing important. She’s happy.” She looked around the living room, spread her arms. “I don’t need to do anything else. I already checked the messages on the machine in the shop, and nothing’s urgent. So... I guess we ought to head back home... back to the house. I was planning on tuna fish salad for dinner and want to hard-boil some eggs.”

  Jack tipped his head to one side, looked at her. “That’s it? We go back to the house, boil eggs?”

  She frowned at him, gave a nervous laugh. “Well, of course that’s it. Why? I don’t understand.”

  “Never mind,” Jack said, taking her hand as he walked past, heading for the door. “Like you said, it’s time to get back to the house. I want to call Jimmy anyway, and find out if that fax arrived from Cecily.”

  Keely stopped, tugged on his hand. “Wait. Something’s wrong, isn’t it? What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing,” Jack said, his cheeks feeling tight. “Not one damn thing.”