Tara Taylor Quinn - Just Around The Corner

He had to look away. Or drown. “I’d hardly say that.”

“I haven’t been fair to you, but I’m not sure how to remedy that.”

He wasn’t sure, either. And was finding it a little difficult to breathe. “Maybe we should just leave things as they are for the moment,” he said, stretching his legs in front of him in preparation for standing.

It was time to go.

“As long as you’re really okay…” he added.

“I’m fine,” she said, and sounded as if she meant it. She even met his eyes again, but somehow, though their eyes met, her gaze didn’t touch him as it had before. “But you—”

“Don’t worry about me. I’d say any discomfort I’m feeling is far less than I deserve.”

They stood together.

“You’ll call me if you need anything?” he asked, looking down at her, reluctant to leave her there—even while he couldn’t get away fast enough.

God, she was beautiful.

“I promise,” she told him, and he believed her.

And with that he was going to have to be satisfied.

IF PHYLLIS HADN’T LOVED Tory Sanders so much, she’d have skipped her younger friend’s baby shower the next day. She’d been nauseated almost every morning that previous week, though thankfully not at all during her time with Matt the day before, but nothing compared to the way she was feeling on Sunday afternoon. The taste of grape juice she’d had during communion at church had turned her stomach, and by two o’clock—the time for Tory’s shower—her traitorous insides had not yet righted themselves.

Because the shower was a double one, for Tory and for Randi Foster, both of whom were expecting their first babies within the next six weeks, they’d all decided to have it at Becca Parsons’s large home up on the mountain rather than in Phyllis’s little bungalow. As she gathered up the presents she’d wrapped the night before, Phyllis couldn’t help but be grateful for small blessings.

She’d have died for sure if she’d had to prepare food and tidy her house for the onslaught of all of her friends. As it was, when Cassie came by to pick her up, Phyllis had to make a mad dash from the car and back inside to her bathroom before she was ready to go.

What Cassie didn’t know was that the shower was a surprise for her, too. The entire town was turning out to celebrate with their golden girl.

“You have to tell them,” Cassie said softly when they were finally under way.

“I know, but not today.”

“Why not today?”

Cassie was radiant in her moss-green maternity top and matching slacks. She was wearing her long red hair down these days and looked younger than she had in years. Unlike Phyllis, Cassie was a woman who needed the man she loved beside her.

Thank God he’d decided to end his ten-year absence and return home to the family he’d left behind in Shelter Valley. Phyllis had hated Sam Montford when she’d first heard about him. But after months of getting to know the man, she had to admit she was as fond of him as everyone else in this town.

Cassie was a lucky woman. In so many ways.

“Today is for Tory and Randi,” Phyllis answered her friend belatedly. “I don’t want to spoil it for them.”

“I think a baby shower is a perfect time to tell your friends that you’re going to have a baby,” Cassie said. Phyllis recognized the tone in her friend’s voice. Cassie wasn’t planning to give up on this one easily.

And, Phyllis wasn’t certain she had the energy to fight her.

“Maybe,” she allowed, a partial concession.

“It’d be good to do it with everyone together.” Cassie turned onto the road that wound up the mountain to Becca and Will’s home—the same road that continued on up to Montford Mansion, the home Cassie’s husband would one day inherit.

“Maybe I should wait and tell Will first,” Phyllis said, frowning. “I’m not sure I should drop a bomb like this on my boss in a room full of people.”

Will Parsons was the president of Montford University. He’d been the one who’d hired Phyllis away from her Boston College the year before.

“You’re afraid he’s going to ask too many questions,” Cassie said.

She wasn’t letting Phyllis get away with anything. “There is that.”

“All the better to make the announcement today, then. There’ll be so many people talking at once, he won’t have a chance to say a word.”

“Maybe he won’t be there.”

“Are you kidding? Randi’s his baby sister. He’s watching her like a hawk. Besides, other guys are going to be there. Ben. And Zack.”

“And Sam,” Phyllis said, grinning at her friend. The guys were all coming over after a round of golf. They were going to grill steaks that evening.

Just the thought of it made Phyllis’ stomach start to churn again.

“You need me to pull over?” Cassie asked, her quick gaze filled with sympathy as she noticed Phyllis sliding down in her seat, head in her hands.

“Not yet,” Phyllis said, trying to concentrate on cool breezes and sheets and showers and anything else that was cool and nonedible. “I don’t know what’s the matter with me today. It hasn’t been nearly as bad as this…until today.”

“It happens like that sometimes,” Cassie said, a pregnancy pro now that she was all the way into her sixth month. “The good news is it can go as quickly as it comes.”

“Thank God for that.”

“So, you still coming over for Thanksgiving?”

“Of course.” Phyllis smiled. Hard to believe the holiday was only five days away. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” Cassie, Tory, their families. It was what life was all about.

“I called you a couple of times yesterday,” Cassie said as she maneuvered her Taurus slowly up the hill.

“I was gone.”

“For hours.”

“You checking up on me, Mom?”

“Maybe.”

“Matt and I went to Tortilla Flat for lunch.”

“Oh?”

“It wasn’t like that.” Phyllis eyed her black leather boots, deciding they complemented the beige hip-huggers she was wearing with her leopard blouse and black leather vest. She might not be wearing the slacks or top for long, but the boots would still fit in a couple of months, wouldn’t they?

“How was it, then?” Cassie asked. If she’d been trying for casual, she failed.

“He just thought we should get together once, share medical information, stuff like that.”

“Did he tell you anything about his family? About his life before Shelter Valley?”

“A little.”

“And?”

“I don’t think he’s the cold fish you think he is, Cass,” Phyllis said, sitting up. “He had a rough time growing up, and I’m pretty sure there’s been some serious stuff since then, but he’s a good man. Fair. Conscientious.”

Cassie pulled into the Parsons’s circular drive, parking the car behind three others already there.

“I’m not telling them today,” Phyllis said, looking at the beautiful home that belonged to her very first friends in Shelter Valley. “I’m still early in my term—I need a little more time.”

Cassie’s expression relaxed as she nodded. “About Matt Sheffield, you’re going to be okay, aren’t you?” she asked softly.

“You mean I’m not going to do something stupid like fall for him?”

“Okay, maybe.”

“Don’t worry,” Phyllis said, her stomach heaving again. “There’s no chance of that at all.”

“I’d just hate to see you get hurt.”

“I know,” Phyllis said, squeezing Cassie’s hand. “I don’t intend to.”

Phyllis knew that not every woman was meant to share her life with a man. She was one of those women. She could handle relationships with men as friends, but that was it.

The ground was too uneven, too treacherous, for a lifetime of one-on-one. Maybe she was too much of a threat. Or perhaps being around her all the time just got old.