Dangerous Alterations (5 page)

“I—”

Movement outside Jeff’s door cut his response short, replacing it instead with a loud knock and the sight of Leona and Paris peeking in the passenger-side window. Motioning over her shoulder, Leona stepped to the side to reveal a simmering Rose and a shovel-wielding Margaret Louise.

“Who—who the hell is that?” Jeff mumbled.

“The life raft that pulled me to shore.”

They were waiting for her when she arrived at the funeral home, their unmistakable elbow jabs and expectant stares more than a little unnerving.

Sure, there was a part of her that was grateful for their moral support. How could she not be? Reinforcements were always good.

But it was the unanswerable question in their eyes that negated any positive that came from their presence.

Willing herself to remain calm, Tori took a deep breath and inched her way toward the receiving line positioned at the entrance to the viewing room. One by one, each mourner took a moment to offer his or her condolences to Vera’s family members while those who awaited their opportunity took precious moments to compose similar sentiments or simply survey the next of kin with slightly morbid curiosity.

First, there was Garrett—the resentful little boy who’d come into Vera’s life via marriage when he was just ten years old. Now in his late forties, the perpetual childhood scowl he’d worn in photographs was nowhere to be found, replaced, instead, by a confidence that was impossible to miss.

Beside him stood a woman Tori didn’t know. Though, if she were a betting woman, she’d take a chance on it being Garrett’s pharmacy tech girlfriend. A good fifteen years his junior, the woman’s too-tight dress and matching red lipstick made her an ill fit—if not a stereotypical midlife crisis.

On the girlfriend’s other side was Garrett’s estranged wife, Lynn, her balding head hidden by a tasteful black scarf. Any indication she was bothered by the presence of her husband’s mistress was hidden from view, the nature of the event winning out over any hurt and resentment she may have been experiencing.

And, finally, there was Jeff—the epitome of the grieving great-nephew right down to the impeccably pressed navy blue suit, starched white dress shirt, and red-rimmed eyes.

She swallowed over the sympathy-induced lump that sprang into her throat and stepped forward, Garrett’s hand closing over hers a full second before any sort of recognition dawned on his face.

“Wait. I know you. It’s—” Garrett snapped his finger in rhythmic fashion as he searched Tori’s face for clues. “Kylie, right? From the Mid American Professional Pharmacists’ convention? But what are you doing
here
?”

His girlfriend dropped the hand of the mourner she was receiving and focused squarely on Garrett, her fake red fingernails planted firmly on her impossibly narrow hips. “You met a
Kylie
at the conference? You never told me that!”

Pulling her hand from Garrett’s grasp, Tori thrust it in the girlfriend’s direction. “My name is Tori. Tori Sinclair. I knew Garrett’s stepmom through her great-nephew, Jeff.”

The girlfriend cocked her head and cast a puppy-dog look in Jeff’s direction. “Garrett? Is that true?”

Ignoring her, Garrett clapped his hands. “Ahhh, Tori. That’s it.” His dark brown eyes slipped downward as he took in Tori’s black pantsuit, white cami, and open-toed heels. The naked appreciation at what he found warmed her face. “Wow, you look fantastic. Absolutely, positively fantastic. Wow. Not only is that stepcousin of mine a perpetual thorn in my side, he’s also an even bigger idiot than I realized.”

She bit back the urge to agree, opting, instead, to offer a graceful shrug. “I’m so sorry about your loss.”

Garrett matched her shrug with one of his own. “Thanks. But I’ve had time to prepare. She was a heart attack waiting to happen just like everyone else in her family.”

Her gaze slid to the end of the line as a long-ago conversation filled her thoughts. “That’s how Jeff’s grandfather died, right?”

“His grandfather, his father, his uncle, his cousin, you name it.” Garrett leaned forward, his breath warm against her ear. “He did you a favor in the closet that day, Tori. He really did.”

Feeling the piercing blue daggers from his mistress, she stepped back. “It took awhile … a very long while … but I’ve come to believe the same thing.”

“Oh?” he asked before a knowing sparkle lit his eyes. “Who’s the lucky guy?”

“Milo. Milo Wentworth.”

Slipping his arm around his mistress, Garrett let his gaze slip down Tori’s form once again, the blatant visual inventory more than a little unsettling. “Indiscretion isn’t always bad, huh?”

Feeling her Jeff-induced anger resurfacing, Tori looked from Lynn to the mistress and back again before resuming deliberate eye contact with the buffoon in front of her. “When it saves a beautiful woman from continuing to worship a first-class jerk, I couldn’t agree more.”

Without waiting for a response, Tori stepped two people to the right and took hold of Lynn’s gently trembling hand. “I wish we didn’t have to meet again under these circumstances.”

The corners of the woman’s mouth lifted. “Victoria, I’m touched you came. Especially with”—Lynn jerked her head to her immediate left—“you-know-who here and all.”

“Sometimes you have to do what’s right over what’s easy. Though, from what I see here, you don’t need me to tell you that, do you?”

Lynn took in the spectacle that was her husband and his mistress and released a soft laugh. “No, I suppose you don’t.”

She squeezed Lynn’s hand. “When the receiving line is over, Rose and I—along with a few of our friends—will be sitting over there.” Tori pointed in the direction of her gaggle of sewing buddies gossiping away in the back corner of the viewing room. “We’d love it if you’d join us.”

“Thank you, Victoria. If I’m feeling up to it, I will.”

And just like that, she noticed the woman’s pale face and clammy skin—features she’d been too preoccupied to notice thanks to her exchange with Garrett and the swell of nerves that came with knowing she was one step away from yet another face-to-face with Jeff. “Are you okay? Is there anything I can do?”

“Short of handing me a winning lottery ticket and/or wiping my philandering husband from the face of my own personal world, no. But thank you for asking. It means a lot.” Without waiting for Tori to fully register her words, Lynn flashed a weak smile. “Really, I’m okay. Just a little tired and a little nauseous. All par for the course at the moment.”

Tori met the woman’s smile with one of encouragement. She liked Lynn, liked her spunk.

“The offer stands.” Tori glanced over her shoulder at the dwindling line. “Hang in just a little longer. Looks like you’re almost done here.”

Then, out of respect for the person behind her, she stepped forward, stopping in front of Vera’s final family member—the biggest pothole standing between her and the safety of her friends. Careful to avoid any unnecessary contact, she simply bowed her head quickly. “Jeff.”

Her former fiancé’s face lit in its familiar charming way. “Baby, I’m so glad you came. I was hoping you would.” Grabbing hold of her shoulders, he pulled her forward and planted a kiss on her lips.

“Jeff, please,” she hissed, backing away. “There’s no need for that.”

A taunting smile spread across his still damp lips. “Oh trust me. There’s a need.”

A jingling behind her made her turn, the anger that gripped her heart taking a backseat to confusion as a woman about Tori’s age breezed into the viewing room and sidled up on Jeff’s open side. “Sweetheart, I’m so sorry I’m late. My flight was delayed getting out of Chicago, the stupid rental car company didn’t have my car ready, and apparently they don’t believe in road signs in the south.”

Jeff pried the woman’s fingers from his forearm and rolled his eyes. “I didn’t know you were coming, Kelly.”

“How could you think I wouldn’t?” With a flick of her wrists, the fair-skinned blonde fanned her long tresses across her diminutive shoulders. “If you’d given me half a chance, I’d have flown in with you this morning.”

“I didn’t want to take advantage of Tori’s offer to pick me up.”

Kelly’s eyes narrowed to near slits as she turned and took in Tori. “Tori? You mean,
the
Tori?”

Tori swallowed and took a step back only to have her progress thwarted by Jeff’s strong hand. “Tori, I’d like you to meet my current girlfriend, Kelly Walker. Kelly, this is Tori Sinclair … the one I let get away.”

Feeling her mouth gape open, Tori rushed to craft a response that would remove some of the sting from Jeff’s words. But before she could speak, Lynn took the ball and ran it into the end zone. “Don’t you mean the one who wised up and took off without so much as a glance backward, Jeff?” To Tori, she said, “Rose is looking a little peaked, don’t you think you should check in on her?”

Whipping around, Tori spotted Rose sitting in the corner, her pallor no different than normal. She turned back to Lynn and gratefully acknowledged the exit offered during an intensely awkward moment. “Oh Lynn, thank you. You’re right. I better go check on her.”

Jeff’s face fell.

Kelly’s eyes continued to shoot daggers in her direction.

She squared her shoulders and took a long, deliberate breath. “Kelly, it’s nice to meet you. And Jeff … again, I’m sorry about Vera.”

And with that, she was gone, her feet leading her across the room and into the welcome arms of her most loyal friends. “Margaret Louise, Leona, Rose … you have no idea how good it is to see you here.”

“What a difference a few hours—and the presence of a little competition—makes,” Leona mused from her spot on an upholstered wing chair, flanked on either side by Rose and Margaret Louise in cushioned folding chairs.

Drawing back, she stared at her most ornery friend. “Competition? What competition are you talking about?”

Rose lifted a too-thin finger into the air and pointed across the room. “That little thing next to your Jeff.”

She winced at the choice of pronoun. “He’s not
my
Jeff.”

“You seemed mighty protective of someone you don’t consider yours, dear.”

Grabbing hold of an empty chair, she pulled it over to complete the makeshift circle. “First of all, Leona, death by shovel is not really my thing. Nor is the notion of visiting the three of you in jail. Jeff is simply not worth that.”

“See?” Margaret Louise smacked the backside of her hand into her sister’s shoulder. “I told you, Twin. That whole ‘things are fine’ thing wasn’t about Victoria havin’ feelings for that man. She just don’t want us meddlin’ where we don’t belong.”

Was that it? Was that really why, back at the airport, she’d rolled down Jeff’s window and told them to go home?

It certainly made sense.

Even if it wasn’t true.

“Okay, then what’s the second reason, dear?” Leona inquired while folding her arms.

“Second reason?” she repeated.

“You said not wanting to see us kill Jeff and be sent to prison was the first thing,” Rose reminded. “What’s the second reason for your protectiveness?”

She swallowed. “I don’t know how to answer that.”

“Why not?”

Shrugging, she met Rose’s question with as much of an answer as she could give. “I’ve been trying to figure that out since I dropped Jeff at his hotel. And I still don’t have an answer other than he’s not entirely to blame for what happened between us.”

Margaret Louise’s gasp was put into words by Rose. “He broke your heart, didn’t he?”

She nodded.

“And he did it in as despicable a way as possible, didn’t he?” Margaret Louise asked.

Again, she nodded.

“Then who else is there to blame, dear?”

She met Leona’s pointed gaze. “Me.”

“You?” her friends asked in unison.

“Me,” she repeated.

“How on earth could you come up with that?” Rose demanded.

“Easy. It’s what every woman wants to know when the man they love dumps them in such an awful way.”

Tori jerked her head up at the sound of Lynn’s voice, a lump forming in her throat at the understanding on the woman’s face.

Rose huffed. “That’s preposterous. Absolutely preposterous.”

“No it’s not,” Lynn countered as she, too, pulled up a chair. “Their cheating was surely a reaction. A reaction to some sort of shortcoming in us. At least that’s what we think … for a while.”

Leona folded her perfectly manicured hands in her lap. “Tell me this isn’t true, dear. Tell me I’ve taught you better than this.”

Oh how she wished she could.

Yet she couldn’t.

“It’s not that I think I deserved what he did, Leona. Because I didn’t. No one does. But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t something about me that made him lose interest. And maybe, if I find out what that something was, I could keep from making the same mistake with …” The words trailed from her mouth as the reason she was stalling on Milo’s proposal hit her between the eyes with a resounding thump.

Leona uncrossed her ankles and stood, pure disgust evident in every cosmetically altered feature on her face. “I’ve heard enough. Margaret Louise, I think it’s time you let Victoria in on your little plan. Because as much as I’m aghast at the notion of spending an entire weekend away from men, I think it might be the only chance we have to knock some sense into this one’s head.”

Tori stepped to the left to avoid Sally’s Big Wheel and to the right to avoid smudging Lulu’s chalk masterpiece, the sound of giggling laughter from the backyard magically loosening the knots in her stomach.

For much of the day, she’d discarded the notion of attending the evening’s meeting of the Sweet Briar Ladies Society Sewing Circle. Her mood was simply too dour. Yet somehow, someway, she’d allowed a phone call from Margaret Louise to persuade her otherwise.