"Love 'em"
The four of them had a riotously gay lunch together. "I think you guys planned this," Roxy said suspiciously, biting into a fat golden french fry.
"I didn't plan this," Cage swore, crossing his heart. "Did you plan this, Gary?"
"I didn't plan this," he said, licking salt off his fingers. "Pass me one of those little catsup doodads, please."
"Roxy and I might have made other plans for lunch," Jenny said loftily.
Cage grinned at her, pleased that she could easily join in the joking now. "We assumed you didn't."
"Assumed, huh? Don't start taking us for granted," Roxy warned. "Right, Jenny?"
"Right."
She would have taken a bite of her cheeseburger then, but Cage leaned down and kissed her solidly on the mouth.
* * *
She never remembered being happier or feeling freer. Despite her pregnancy, Jenny felt like she had shed a hundred pounds. She had left the parsonage behind like an old skin. Her whole being breathed new life.
But she didn't shirk her responsibilities at the church. She attended regularly and Cage went with her. They sat near the back and rarely saw Bob except in the pulpit. If he knew they were there, he gave no sign. They didn't see Sarah where she sat in her usual place in the second row.
She and Cage could feel the furtive glances cast in their direction and hear the whispered conversations they left in their wake, but they spoke politely to everyone. With Cage by her side, it was easy for Jenny to hold her head high and walk proudly.
She became more involved with work in the office. She had graduated from answering the telephone and writing correspondence to handling filing and research that Cage had never intended her to do.
"You're going to wear yourself out," he said one day when he stopped by to leave some mail and found her still there.
"What time is it?"
"Long after five o'clock."
"This is so interesting. I lost track of time."
"Don't expect me to pay you overtime."
"I owe you the time. I went to the doctor today on my lunch hour."
"Your lunch hour and a half."
"Whatever. Anyway, they were running behind and that put me late getting back, so stop bugging me."
"You're getting pretty feisty, Miss Fletcher. If you don't watch your step, I'm going to give up the idea of marrying you and start looking for a nice docile girl who will treat me with the respect I deserve."
She folded the chart. "If you were treated with the respect you deserve, you'd get a thrashing."
"Hm, that sounds … interesting." He came up behind her where she was now standing at the file cabinet, encircled her waist with his arms, and nuzzled her neck.
"Don't tell me you're into S and M."
"S and M?" He la
ughed, lifting his lips from her neck but keeping her imprisoned between him and the file cabinet. "What do you know about S and M?"
"Lots. Roxy has a book that gives step-by-step instructions."
"Roxy's corrupting you. I should have known better than to entrust you to her. Don't look at any more of her books."