Free White Hot by Sandra Brown Page A

solitaire on a narrow platinum band.
    “It’s lovely.”
    And because the understated ring embodied a simple declaration of love, the quiet kind of profession that Danny would make, she was engulfed in pity for the young woman. She was also furious at Chris and Huff. Danny’s fiancée should have been included in their family observances. It was a glaring snub.
    “I’m sorry I didn’t make it a point to speak to you at the house, Jessica. I didn’t know Danny was engaged. No one told me.” Maybe Danny had tried. Maybe that was what he’d been calling to tell her.
    “No one knew about our engagement,” Jessica said. “No one in your family. Danny didn’t want your father or brother to know about me until after we were married.”
    Although she felt she already knew the answer, Sayre asked the obvious question. “Why?”
    “He didn’t want them to interfere. He knew they probably wouldn’t have approved of me.”
    “That’s ridiculous. Why wouldn’t they?”
    Again the woman laughed, but with sadness. “I don’t come from money, Ms. Lynch.”
    “Please call me Sayre.”
    “My daddy works at the Tabasco plant in New Iberia, and my mother is a homemaker. They scraped together enough money to send me and my sister to college. We’re their pride and joy because we’re both elementary school teachers.”
    “They have every right to be proud, and I don’t mean that to sound condescending. How did you meet Danny?”
    “I teach third grade, but I also work as a volunteer in the public library. He came in one night to browse and got interested in a book. It got time to close. I roused him and asked him to leave. He looked up at me, and kept on looking for the longest time. Then he said, ‘I’ll go quietly, but only if you’ll join me for a cup of coffee.’ ” She touched her cheek with the back of her hand as though the memory of their meeting had caused her to blush.
    “Did you?”
    “Go for coffee? Yes,” she said with a soft laugh. “I shouldn’t have. It wasn’t like me to go somewhere with a man I’d just met, but I did.” She returned her gaze to the flower-banked grave. “We talked for hours. Before we said good night, he asked me for a date the following weekend. By the time Saturday rolled around, I had learned that he was Huff Hoyle’s son. That scared me. I started to beg off, but I liked Danny so much that I kept the date.
    “We went to dinner at a place between here and New Orleans. Danny said he wanted to take me there because it was such an excellent restaurant, and it was. But I understood even then the reason for the secrecy. I didn’t mind. I didn’t particularly want to get involved with your family.” Turning her head quickly, she said, “I hope you’re not offended.”
    “Not at all. I dislike being involved with us myself. I know better than you how rotten we are.”
    Jessica smiled sadly. “Danny wasn’t rotten.”
    “No, not him.”
    “He worked at the foundry and did his job there well, but his heart wasn’t in it. He disagreed with your father and brother’s management philosophies. He disagreed with them about a lot of things. It was just hard for him to stand up to them, lifetime habits being difficult to break. Although he was getting more courageous.”
    Sayre tucked away that statement to think about later. How had Danny demonstrated his newly acquired courage, she wondered.
    “How long had you been engaged?”
    “Two weeks.”
    “Two weeks?” Sayre exclaimed.
    “That’s right.” Jessica shook her head adamantly. “They’re saying Danny killed himself. He didn’t. I know he didn’t. We were making plans about where to live and what we wanted to do. We’d chosen names for our future children. Danny did not commit suicide. He would have considered it a sin.”
    The word sin triggered Sayre’s next question. “Do you attend Danny’s church?”
    “Yes. After our second date, I invited him to go with me. I was singing a solo that Sunday in