Free The Good Sister by Drusilla Campbell Page B

opposite, an independent woman who loved her work. At least that was what he said. Now it seemed he would
     prefer a wife willing to drop everything and follow him like a pet dog. Oh, it wasn’t so, he didn’t want that, and she hated
     thinking this way.
    Johnny didn’t notice her distraction.
    “After I got the door open, I asked her to have coffee with me. I didn’t think she’d say yes. I mean I was a total stranger
     to her and she was so young. Eighteen, yeah, but a young eighteen. I was what? Twenty-nine? I’d been dating a long time, and
     I’d never met any woman so feminine but what got me was her innocence. It was like someone clobbered me.”
    For the first time in days Roxanne wanted to laugh out loud. What would Johnny do if someone told him he’d been duped, that
     Simone’s innocence was an act? Right away she knew the answer. He wouldn’t believe it. Roxanne barely did herself.
    On the night Simone and Johnny met in the parking lot and after they’d spent an hour at Starbucks, Roxanne was in the apartment
     she shared with Elizabeth. It was close to midnight and she hadn’t finished grading a pile of essays. Elizabeth was in her
     room, surfing the Web, visiting the various reincarnation and angel visitation sites she favored.
    Someone pounded on the front door, Roxanne dropped her red pencil, and Elizabeth came out of her bedroom followed by her barking
     miniature schnauzer.
    Roxanne looked through the peephole, opened the door, and stepped back as Simone ran into the room.
    “Roxy, I’m in love. I met the most wonderful man.”
    Elizabeth laughed, picked up the dog, and went back into her room.
    “He’s twenty-nine years old and he has his own business and he’s the most handsome and so polite. He’s a gentleman like BJ,
     you know. He opens the door and that kinda stuff. He made me feel like a doll, like I could break.” She wrapped her arms around
     Roxanne, squeezing hard enough to bruise. “I’m going to marry him. He wants to take care of me.”
    “He said that?”
    “No. But I can tell.”
    She danced around the small apartment, spinning and dipping and pirouetting, singing his name over and over. “Johnny Duran,
     Johnny Duran, he’s the sexiest man, Johnny Duran.”
    Somewhere in the house Celia was running the vacuum cleaner and the television was on in the family room though no one was
     watching it. Roxanne started to say it was time for her to go home but Johnny interrupted her, switching back to Merell.
    “After that 911 shit I talked to the chief and Godalmighty we’re lucky he’s a good friend. He said if Merell was his he’d get her a shrink. You think that’s a good idea?” Before
     she answered, he went on. “I don’t like the idea of psychiatrists, bringing a stranger into the family doesn’t sit right,
     you know? It’s like when you’re measuring and by accident you add an extra inch. It throws everything out of whack.”
    “Merell would love to spend more time with you.”
    “Yeah, yeah, it’d be nice. I’d like it too, only I’m going flat out right now. We’re building a hotel in Vegas and it’s taking
     all my time.” He gestured toward his untidy desk. “I’m not sure I woulda gone for the contract if I’d known how demanding
     it was gonna be. These clients, these Chinese guys—fucking billionaires, let me tell you—they wanted me to work over Labor
     Day weekend but I told them I was going to the lake with my family. No argument, no negotiation.” He grinned suddenly. “You
     should come with us, Rox.”
    Johnny dropped into the leather chair behind his desk and finished his drink in a long swallow. “How’s Ty?’
    Roxanne would do almost anything before she let Johnny Duran in on her personal problems. “We’ll celebrate a year in October.”
    “Wedded bliss, huh?”
    “Pretty much.” Her smile, the tone of her voice: it was all phony but she wasn’t worried that Johnny Duran would notice. He
     saw and heard only what