Because she wasn’t going to allow one less-than-gracious woman to ruin her nice evening, Teresa put Beatrice out of her mind and changed the subject. “We’d better go. Heaven knows what condition we’ll find your poor uncle in after an entire evening with my kids.”
With one last glower across the room, Riley turned to Teresa. “Maybe you should be wondering what condition your kids will be in after an evening with my uncle and Jerry Lewis.”
Cameron shook his head in feigned dismay. “A couple of hours of that, and they’ll be saying, ‘hey, laydeeee’ instead of ‘hey, Mom.’”
Teresa covered her cheeks with her hands. “Oh, my goodness. We’d better hurry home.”
“Could be worse,” Riley said with a grin. “They could have spent an evening watching Bud’s Three Stooges collection. Then they’d be poking each other’s eyes and saying, ‘whoop, whoop, whoop.’”
“You’re right.” Teresa pretended to shudder. “It could be worse.”
She was relieved that Riley’s flash of temper had cooled. She never would have suspected he even had a hot temper; lazy, rather detached amusement seemed to be his usual reaction to other people. That he’d lost his composure on her behalf was equally surprising. She would have assumed he knew she was perfectly capable of taking up for herself, if necessary.
“I had a very nice time tonight,” she told him when they had taken their leave of the others and were belting themselves into his car. “Thank you for bringing me.”
“I hope Beatrice didn’t spoil the evening for you.”
She sighed. “Will you forget about Beatrice? I have.”
“Sorry. I can’t tolerate a snob.”
Teresa shrugged. “Some people just feel compelled to put other people down in a pathetic attempt to build themselves up. Work in my line long enough, and you learn to deal with them.”
Keeping his eyes on the road ahead, Riley asked, “You really like what you do?”
“I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t enjoy it. I could work in an office or a sales job, if I wanted, but I wouldn’t have the freedom that Marjorie gives me at the diner. I wouldn’t be home in time to greet the kids when they get home from school. I start earlier at this job than I would at some, but that works out with the before-school program the kids are enrolled in. All in all, it’s a very satisfactory arrangement.”
After a brief pause, Riley spoke again. “You said you and Serena were roommates in college. I know she majored in political science and went on to law school. What was your major?”
“Elementary education. But I dropped out at the end of my junior year to get married. I planned to finish my education later, after my husband was established in a career, but Mark was born ten months after the wedding. Then Maggie came along two years after that and…well, you know how that goes.”
“Do you ever regret not becoming a schoolteacher?”
“I would have enjoyed teaching, I think,” she answered carefully. “But I’ve enjoyed my children more.”
Whatever regrets she might have, whatever unfulfilled dreams, whatever disappointments her troubled marriage had caused her, the joy her children had brought her more than made up for all of it.
“What did your husband do?”
As she had once before, she felt awkward talking about Darren to Riley. “He had several jobs after we were married. His last job was working for an insurance company as an adjuster.”
“How long were you married?”
“Six and a half years. Mark turned six just a few months after Darren died in an accident.” Because she didn’t want to go into the details of the accident, she abruptly changed the subject, spending the rest of the short ride home talking about the dinner they had attended and asking questions about some of the people who’d been there. Riley went along, making her laugh several times with anecdotes about some of the guests, most of whom he had known all his life.
“Will you write a column about tonight’s festivities?” she asked as they neared the duplex. “With all the local notables there, I’m sure you were taking mental notes.”
Braking in preparation to turn into his driveway, he shot her a quick sideways glance. “Actually, I was paying too much attention to my lovely companion to notice what everyone else was doing.”
Teresa rolled her eyes in response to his outrageous comment. “Puh-leeze.”
Riley chuckled. “You’re a hard woman to impress, aren’t you? That was one of my best lines.”
“That was your best?” She clucked her tongue and shook her head. “I’m disappointed in you.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “That sounds a lot like a challenge.”
“I was just joking,” she said quickly, holding up both hands in a conciliatory gesture. If there was one thing she didn’t need to do, it was to challenge Riley to try to captivate her!