"It may be a while before I come visiting."
"I understand."
"But I'll be calling you."
"It breaks my heart for this chasm to be between you and your parents at a time when you need each other the most."
His sigh was laden with sadness. "Yeah, well, that's the way it goes. If you need anything, anything, holler."
"I will."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
He squeezed her hand and bent down to press a soft kiss on her cheek. His lips lingered before he finally withdrew them. Or perhaps that was only her imagination. She hadn't quite decided as she let herself in and climbed the stairs to her room. The house was dark. The Hendrens were already in bed.
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She opened the door to her room and stepped inside. She gazed around the childishly decorated bedroom. Now what? she thought.
What was Jenny Fletcher going to do with the rest of her life?
She pondered the question as she undressed, and for long hours after she got into bed the problem kept her awake.
By morning she had an answer. But how was she going to tell the Hendrens? As it turned out, they made it easy for her to broach the subject.
* * *
Chapter 6
«^»
Bob was making toast when Jenny entered the kitchen the following morning. She smiled at his apron as she kissed him on the cheek. After pouring herself a cup of coffee, she sat down at the table with Sarah, who was idly shifting a portion of scrambled eggs from one side of her plate to the other.
"Where did you go last night?"
No "Good morning," no "How did you sleep?" Nothing. Just that bald question.
As she asked it, Sarah's lips were pinched. There was a strained expression on her face.
"We," Jenny stressed the word, "just went for a drive."
"You came in awfully late." Bob tried to make the comment sound off-handed, but Jenny knew this conversation wasn't off-handed or spontaneous by any stretch of the imagination. There was an air of hostile suspicion among them, as though there were an enemy in the camp that had to be sniffed out.
"How do you know when I came in? You were already sleeping."
"Mrs. Hicks came by this morning. She saw … she saw you and Cage together last night."
Jenny looked from one of them to the other. She was both bewildered and angry. Mrs. Hicks was the nosiest neighbor on the block. She loved to spread rumors, especially if they were bad. "What did she say?"
"Nothing," Bob said uneasily.
"No, I want to know. What did she say? Whatever it was, it obviously upset you."
"We're not upset, Jenny," Bob said diplomatically. "It's just that we don't want people to start linking your name to Cage's."
"My name is already linked to Cage's. He's a Hendren, your son," she reminded them angrily. "I've spent the last twelve years of my life in the Hendren household. How could my name not be linked with his?"