Free Seven Threadly Sins by Janet Bolin Page A

house.”
    Vicki stared at Loretta like she was a particularly repulsive insect that had just scurried out from behind a baseboard. “I’ll give you a hand. It’s part of my job description, and I have Antonio’s keys. Besides, I don’t mind looking around a little more before I go.”
    “I guess I can do it myself,” Loretta began.
    Vicki snapped, “No need.”
    I almost smiled at Vicki’s stern police officer act, but Loretta stopped arguing with her. And with Clay.
    Dora asked, “Macey, are you going our way?”
    Macey told us an address that was just around the corner, between TADAM and Ashley’s house. “You’ll come with us, too, Samantha, won’t you?” Macey explained that Samantha was one of her roommates.
    Samantha nodded. “Yes, please.” It came out barely above a whisper.
    Dora shepherded the three girls and me out the front door ahead of her and Clay, then draped her hand over Clay’s arm.
    Macey and Samantha led the way, with Ashley and me behind them, and Dora and Clay following us.
    All I wanted to do was put distance between myself and Clay and his lipstick-stained shirt. I didn’t want to examine my unexpectedly strong feelings of desolation. I didn’t want to think about Clay until I was home alone.
    And I definitely didn’t want to talk to him and possibly betray feelings that he couldn’t return.
    I didn’t own him, I reminded myself. We weren’t a couple—except in some of my more unrealistic dreams, I guessed—and never had been. Maybe I’d been like Mona, reading too much into a smile, a glance, or a swift embrace.
    As I hurried the three girls along, Dora clunked behind us in her thick heels, keeping Clay farther and farther from us. Dora had been able to race toward Antonio and, later, from the reception room to the kitchen in those heels, so I was certain she was walking slowly on purpose, maybe to give me a chance to lecture the girls about not allowing a teacher to take advantage of their desire for good grades.
    Dutifully, I launched into my spiel. “You know, you don’t have to—”
    Ashley interrupted me. “Chief Smallwood told us the same thing.”
    “What?” Samantha asked. “Told you what?”
    Macey and Ashley filled her in, allowing me to merely walk along, trying not to think about the man a block behind us. Despite the revealing velvet dress and the stiletto heels, I felt like a dowdy chaperone.
    We dropped Macey and Samantha off at their apartment, then headed toward Ashley’s house.
    Ashley asked me, “Don’t those shoes hurt to walk in?”
    “Yes, but . . .”
    “We can slow down. It’s like you’re trying to get away from Clay. You don’t have to worry about Edna’s mother stealing him from you. She’s old.”
    I stifled a laugh. Apparently, Ashley hadn’t recognized the real threat, despite Loretta’s coy reference to lipstick.
    It was all my imagination, I told myself.
    No, it wasn’t.
    Ashley stopped at the walk leading to her front porch. “Are you going to wait for Clay and Dora?”
    “They’re probably having a conversation about design. They don’t need my input.”
    In the darkness, illuminated only by streetlights, Ashley cocked her head and gazed up at me. “You’re acting weird tonight.”
    I summoned up a smile. “What a thing to say to your boss.”
    Ashley clapped a hand over her mouth and squeaked between her fingers, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”
    I interrupted her. “Only joking. See you tomorrow.”
    Speed-walking the rest of the way home, I tried not to hobble too obviously or precariously.
    However, in those shoes, I wasn’t about to negotiate the downhill slope through my side yard to my apartment. Instead, I went into my shop.
    I locked the door, unplugged the night-light, and hid in the darkness. I was sure that Clay would accompany Dora all the way through my yard to the door of Blueberry Cottage, and I wasn’t ready to talk to him.
    Sure enough, I heard their voices out on the sidewalk, and