Marie-Justine continued talking on the phone as she looked out the patio door, straining to see through the hedge. She was curious whom Mrs. Jaeger was accosting.
“Did you check with Jim? Are we on for tomorrow night?” Marie-Justine said, tugging at the legs of her white shorts.
“I’m sorry, M-J. He’s committed us to a dinner at the Bedford’s. Jim swears he told me about it the other night. I must have forgotten. I’ve been so preoccupied with the book; I guess it just slipped by me.”
“Another dinner at Dean Bedford’s house? Won’t tonight with the academic crowd at Dean Hawkins’ party be enough for him?”
“Tonight is the sociology department, and it’s just cocktails. Tomorrow is literature and a more intimate dinner for twenty. I don’t know how much more I can take.”
“Well, don’t worry. It’s okay.” She hid her disappointment. “I guess I can’t compete with Jim’s need to kneel at the feet of the dean of the literature department.” Marie-Justine never tried to hide her opinion of Anne’s choice of companions, and her opinion of Jim Reynolds was especially critical.
“I know you’re disappointed. Maybe we could do something next week to celebrate.”
“Sounds good. We can toast to my divorce tonight at the Hawkins’ party. Tomorrow I will celebrate alone. Tomorrow it will be ‘champagne for one’ at Chez Margot.”
“You’ll be drinking French champagne while I’m sipping a thick and overly sweet California cabernet with the dullest people in town? Don’t rub it in.”
“Anne, you’re not going to believe this. Remember the man at the café this morning?” She focused on the scene on the other side of the hedge. “The guy with the salt-and-pepper hair, sitting at the corner table?”
“Do I remember? Broad shoulders, soft brown eyes…I’m just distracted, honey, not dead.”
“I think my neighbor, Mrs. Jaeger, is out on the sidewalk, hitting him with a broom.”
“She’s probably trying to drive him into her house. Tell her to leave him alone. He’s mine. I saw him first.”
“But you have Jim.”
“I’ll work a trade-in,” Anne said. “Don’t let Mrs. Jaeger beat us to the punch. Shall we pick you up about 7:45?”
“I’m going with Dr. Kimba. Remember? I agreed to be his escort for the evening.”
“Of course I remember.” Her voice said she didn’t. “Hey, do you need a ride to go get your car?”
“No, Mr. O’Connell said he would drop it off on his way home.”
“Okay. Now go out and save that hunk from your neighbor’s clutches. Invite him to the party tonight. Wouldn’t he be a pleasant change? And don’t give me that ‘I feel like I know him’ nonsense.”
“I do know him from somewhere.”
“I didn’t believe it this morning and I still don’t buy it now. See you tonight, about eight. And don’t use too much of that perfume.” Anne hung up.
Marie-Justine stepped back onto the patio. The commotion in Mrs. Jaeger’s driveway was over and the combatants were gone.
If Anne was too tied up with Jim to celebrate with her, so be it. She was not going to be sad. She had been waiting years for this day. Her lawyer had called from Los Angeles yesterday with the news that she and Dr. David Cantrell were officially divorced. The paperwork that she signed this morning was a mere formality. A celebration was in order and she was going to have one tomorrow night, with or without her best and oldest friend.
She called the Chez Margot Restaurant and made a reservation for the following evening at seven. She filled a wine glass halfway with the pale yellow crispness of cold Mâcon-Villages. She looked again for the stranger she thought she knew. Accepting that he was gone, she sat down to read in the warm afternoon sun.
• • •
A dusty, gray Suburban pulled away from the curb and rolled slowly down the tree-lined street. Charles Durbin followed the gray-haired man he had seen peeking through the hemlock hedge. When it was obvious the man was heading toward downtown, Durbin abandoned the chase in favor of returning to see the object of his desire.
Slinking down behind the wheel as he drove past the yellow-and-white cottage, Durbin smiled as he saw Marie-Justine sitting on her patio in the afternoon sun. He checked his watch. He was out of time. He had an appointment at four on the other side of town. A terrier with bad teeth and gums needed a scaling.
“I will be back tonight, my dear,” he whispered as he drove away.