That announcement had a definite softening effect on Corey’s attitude toward Spence. He’d been inexcusably thoughtless of her feelings as a young man, but he’d evidently mellowed a little with age. It hit her then that she was giving him far too much credit for what was a very small gesture that hadn’t inconvenienced him in the slightest.
“Dinner’s at eight o’clock. I’ll se you then,” Joy added as she left.
Nine
FROWNING WITH INDECISION, COREY HESITATED IN FRON OF the mirror in her room and studied her appearance. The black jersey jumpsuit she’d decided to wear had narrow black shoulder straps attached to the bodice with a pair of golden loops, a scooped neckline, and a low back. It clung to her figure like a soft glove, ending in a gentle flair at her ankles, but she wasn’t certain if it was too dressy for dining next to the kitchen, or perhaps too casual for this house. It would definitely make a good impression on Spencer though… Spence!
Angry at herself for even considering his reaction, she stepped into a pair of flat-heeled sandals, clipped on a pair of gold disks at her hears, and snapped the wide gold cuff she’d worn earlier onto her wrist. She took a step toward the door, then a step back toward the mirror to check her face and hair. She was wearing her hair down tonight, loose around her shoulders; she no longer had to worry that Spencer Addison might think she was too young for him. She needed a little more lipstick, she decided, and quickly applied some. She glanced at her watch and could not believe how late it was. It was fifteen minutes after eight. She had just taken exactly twice as long to get ready as she had the night of the last Orchid Ball in Houston. Thorounghly disgusted, she turned her back on the mirror and marched to the door.
The little room by the kitchen was not the dark cubbyhole Corey had imagined, but rather a cozy alcove behind the kitchen that had a large, semicircular booth in it surrounded by tall windows that looked out on the darkened lawn. Corey heard her mother’s voice as she rounded the corner, and she was already smiling at the sound when she walked into the room.
And saw Spence.
He was sitting at one end of the booth, his left arm stretched casually across the top of it, grinning down at Corey’s mother, who was seated on his immediate left. Corey’s grandmother was next to Corey’s mother, facing the kitchen doorway, and Joy was seated next to her. The table had been set for five people. Four of them were already there. He was staying to eat with them.
Corey’s smile froze, her step faltered, but she recovered just as her grandmother saw her and announced her arrival to the gathering. “Here’s Corey, now. You’re late, dear. My, you look nice tonight! Is that a new outfit?”
Corey felt like sinking through the floor. The implication was that she’d dressed especially for the occasion, which of course she had, and she was horribly certain that Spencer had noticed.
Spencer Addison had definitely notices how she looked.
At the moment, what he noticed most was that her entire body had stiffened when she saw him sitting at the table. She hadn’t expected him to be there, Spence realized. And she didn’t want him there. The realization baffled and hurt him.
He watched her moving toward the booth with that same easy grace she’d had as a teenager, and he smiled at her. In return, she smiled through him, and he had a sudden insane impulse to get up out ot the booth, block her path, and sya, Dammit, Corey, look at me! He still could hardly believe that this cool, composed young woman who seemed to scarcely remember him was the same Corey Foster he’d known.
One thing hadn’t changed about her, Spencer noted – she still lit up a room when she walked into it. Within moments after she slid in across from him and started talking with the others, the entire atmosphere at the table seemed to brighten. At least that much about tonight was the same as it had been so long ago. Except, in those days, Corey had been glad to see him.
An image of those days danced in his mind… recollections of an adorable kid with a camera around her neck who popped up at his tennis matches. “I got a great shot of your first serve, Spence.” It had been a lousy serve, and he’d said as much. “I know”, she’d agreed with that infectious smile of hers, “but my shot of it was just great.”
He remembered the times when he’d gone over to the house unexpectedly. She had been so glad to see him the, her smile dawning like sunshine. “Hi, Spence! I didn’t know you were coming over.”
And then, one day, when she was about fifteen, he looked around and saw her walking toward him across the back lawn, her honey-colored hair blowing around her shoulders, sunstreaked and glinting in the sun, her eyes the bright clear blue of a summer sky. A golden girl – all sparkle and zest, long legs and laughing face. She had been his golden girl from that day on – changeable, constant, glowing.
Even now, he could see her standing beneath the mistletoe, her hands clasped behind her back. She was sixteen and looking very grown up.
“Don’t you know it’s bad luck not to honor the Christmas traditions of your friends in their homes…”
He had hesitated. “Are you certain you’re old enough for this?”
Of course, he’d known she had a fierce crush on him, and he’d known the time would come when she would grow up, grow out of it, and grow away from him. It was natural, inevitable that boys her own age would replace him in her heart. It was right that should happen.
He’d expected it, and even so, it had bothered him a little when it happened. More than a little. He hadn’t even seen the change coming until the night she asked him to be a kissing partner in an experiment. God, he had felt like such a pervert for what he’d done to her that night, and even worse for what he had wanted to do to her – to a seventeen-year-old girl!
His golden girl.
He’d forgotten about her Christmas dance, and that was all it took to sever whatever feeble feelings she had left for him. She went with someone else, a last-minute substitute, which was what he had been. According to his grandmother, she went with someone closer to her own age “and a far more suitable companion for an innocent girl” than Spence was. Corey was so involved with her own life by then that she hadn’t even bothered to say anything to him at his grandmother’s funeral a few months later. Diana had excused her by saying Corey had an afternoon date. She hadn’t bothered to attend his wedding either, even though she could have brought her date…
The conversation swirled around him at the table as one course followed another, and he participated now and then, but with only half his attention. He preferred to watch Corey when she wasn’t looking at him, and since she never glanced in his direction for more than a moment, he had plenty of opportunity. He was genuinely surprised when dessert was served; he’d eaten without tasting his food, and he certainly didn’t want any dessert.
What he did want he could not have: just this one night, just for this one meal, he had wanted it
to be the way it had been the last time he had had dinner with her family. That was the night Diana has asked him to volunteer to take Corey to her school dance. She had a new man in her life by then – Doug somebody – and several others, as well.
Spence had already been relegated to least-important man in her life, but at least she’d still been able to spare a smile for him. The fact that she now found him completely dispensable in his own damned house at his own damned table was worse than annoying; it was terribly disappointing. And he knew exactly why it was. He’d been looking forward more than he wanted to admit to seeing her again, to having her happy family around him again. When he’d seen her coming across the back lawn earlier today, with her sun-streaked hair blowing in the breeze, he’d thought… He’d thought a lot of stupid, impossible things.
“Uncle Spence?” Joy’s puzzled voice cut through his thoughts, and Spence looked at her. “Is something wrong with your glass?”
“My what?”
“Your water glass. You’ve been staring at it and turning it around in your hand.”
Spence straightened in his seat and prepared to pay attention to the present and forget the past. “I’m sorry. My mind was on something else. What have you all been talking about?”
“The wedding mostly, but we’re all bored with that subject. Anyway, everything’s all taken care of.”
Corey sensed instinctively that Spence was about to join in the conversation, and since she was more comfortable not having to talk to him, she tried to keep everyone focused on Joy. “We’re not bored with the wedding at all,” Corey said quickly. “And even though you think everything is taken care of, there are always last-minute details that people forget. Sometimes they’re really important.”