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full of them, one day, when I’m through school.”

    “With Grange as their father?”

    She gaped at him. “I just went to a movie with him, J.B.!”

    “If you get involved with him, I’ll never forgive you,” he said in a voice as cold as the grave.

    “Well, golly gee whiz, that would be a tragedy, wouldn’t it? Just think, I’d never get another present that you sent Jarrett to buy for me!”

    His breath was coming quickly through his nose. His lips were flattened. He didn’t have a comeback.
    That seemed to make him angrier. He took another step toward her.

    She backed up a step. “You should be happy to have me out of your life,” she pointed out uneasily. “I was never more than an afterthought anyway, J.B. Just a pest. All I did was get in your way.”

    He stopped just in front of her. He looked oddly frustrated. “You’re still getting in my way,” he said enigmatically. “I know that no matter what Marge may have said, she and the girls were disappointed that you missed the barbecue. It’s the first time in seven years that you’ve done that, and for a man who represents as much hurt to Marge herself as he does to me.”

    She frowned. “But why? She never knew Grange!”

    “You told her what my father did,” he said deliberately.

    She grimaced. “I didn’t mean to!” she confessed. “I didn’t want to. But she said it wouldn’t matter.”

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    “And you don’t know her any better than that, after so long in her house? She was devastated.”

    She felt worse than ever. “I guess it was rough on you, too, when you found out what he’d done,” she said unexpectedly.

    His expression was odd. Reserved. Uneasy. “I’ve never hated a human being so much in all my life,” he said huskily. “And he was dead. There was nothing I could do to him, no way I could pay him back for ruining my life and taking hers. You can’t imagine how I felt.”

    “I’m sure he was sorry about it,” she said, having gleaned that from what Marge had said about the way he’d treated J.B. “You know he’d have taken it back if he could have. He must have loved you, very much. Marge said that he would have been afraid of losing you if he’d told the truth. You were his only son.”

    “Forgiveness comes hard to me,” he said.

    She knew that. He’d never held any grudges against her, but she knew people in town who’d crossed him years ago, and he still went out of his way to snub them. He didn’t forgive, and he never forgot.

    “Are you so perfect that you never make mistakes?” she wondered out loud.

    “None to date,” he replied, and he didn’t smile.

    “Your day is coming.”

    His eyes narrowed as he stared down at her. “You won’t leave Grange alone. Is that final?”

    She swallowed. “Yes. It’s final.”

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    He gave her a look as cold as death. His head jerked. “Your choice.”

    He turned on his heel and stalked out of the room. She watched him go with nervous curiosity. What in the world did he mean?

    Marge was very quiet at breakfast the next day. Dawn and Brandi kept giving Tellie odd looks, too.
    They went off to church with friends. Marge wasn’t feeling well, so she stayed home and Tellie stayed with her. Something was going on. She wondered what it was.

    “Is there something I’ve done that I need to apologize for?” she asked Marge while they were making lunch in the kitchen.

    Marge drew in a slow breath. “No, of course not,” she denied gently. “It’s just J.B., wanting his own way and making everybody miserable because he can’t get it.”

    “If you want me to stop dating Grange, just say so,” Tellie told her. “I won’t do it for J.B., but I will do it for you.”

    Marge smiled at her gently. She reached over and patted Tellie’s hand. “You don’t have to make any such sacrifices.