"No thanks." She forced a smile and looked up. "Patrick will be asleep soon and I can veg on the sofa with Aggie. Go. Please. I just want to kinda like, be by myself."
Julia frowned but relented. "If you're sure." She turned to pull Patrick from Zach's arms.
"I'll put him down early while you change."
Her dad watched Julia leave the room, that commander mask of his slipping a little. One good thing out of the whole rotten day.
Had he noticed how pretty Julia looked? Shelby had thought Julia and her dad would finally get around to doing it tonight. Like they really thought she bought their lame story about why he slept in the spare room.
They just had to do it soon so Julia would stay. Even thinking about her maybe leaving, Patrick too, made Shelby's chest go tight, like running an extra lap in gym class.
Sure, life wasn't great, but it was a helluva lot better now than before. It wasn't fair that Mother had to screw up everything.
Her dad crouched in front of her on one knee. "You sure you're okay with what happened tonight with your mother coming home?"
Duh, of course she wasn't. Tears stung. She blinked them back. Wouldn't want him to be even later for his stupid party.
"Yeah, sure, Colonel. I'm fine." She poured on the sarcasm so he would leave before she did something lame, like ask him to hug her. "But if you're really worried, you can always program some time into your palm pilot for us to talk about it. What do ya say?
Let's do lunch, next month maybe?"
Pushing to his feet, he sighed the whole way up. "Love you too, Shel."
She'd wanted him to leave, right?
Shelby hugged Aggie closer, burying her face against the dog's neck. She absolutely did not want to cry. They couldn't hurt her anymore. She was only mad. Totally pissed.
They all had a life, well, so did she.
Shelby shot to her feet. She grabbed the cordless phone and punched in the numbers.
Ducking out to the screened-in porch, she waited for an answer. "Hey, John. It's me....
My folks are going out tonight, Ivy, too. The baby's almost asleep. Can you come over?
We'll have the whole house to ourselves...."
She ignored the pinch of guilt at having John over while she watched Patrick, something she'd never done before. But the baby would be asleep, so what did it matter? Right?
Everything would be fine in an hour when John showed up. He knew she existed.
Chapter 11
Julia nudged her half-eaten dessert away. Sitting at the long head table, she allowed herself the luxury of watching Zach, more satisfying by far than any chocolate-cherry cheesecake. She devoured every inch of his lean body in the deep-blue uniform as he strode across the Magnolia Ballroom toward the stage festooned with red satin hearts.
She couldn't wait to get him all to herself. Julia glanced at her pearl watch to find three hours that felt like three years had passed. The evening had been a surreal bubble in time.
They'd danced and dined with each other and friends, like Grayson and Lori Clark who'd flown in from their Washington base for a family vacation.
Valentine's romanticism blended with patriotic pageantry in a haze of red, white and blue.
Silver candelabras spiraled in the middle of every table. Red roses rested above each place setting.
Julia twirled a rose between two fingers and resolved to enjoy the Valentine's holiday.
Worries from home would intrude soon enough. Surrounded by friends, she wanted to pretend that this moment could last.
From across the room, Bronco cupped his hands to his mouth. "Wolf! Wolf!"