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Three Days Ago . . .
Delta drove west from Portland toward the Stahd Clinic, her jaw set, her hair pulled into a ponytail at her nape, her makeup flawless. Her skin was lightly tanned, kissed by the sun, and her white dress with black piping and her black pumps were new. She’d just come from a soirée at the Bengal Room in downtown Portland, a tea that had turned into cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, so she’d called her mother and asked her to stay a little longer and look after Owen, who always begged to stay up later but fell asleep by 6:30, no matter how hard he tried. The curse of an active six-year-old boy.
She smiled at the thought. And then her mind turned back to the meeting. It had ostensibly been a meet and greet for parents of incoming kindergartners to the Englewood Academy, one of the most prestigious elementary schools in the tri-county area. Owen had been accepted, and Delta was bursting with pride. If there was one drawback, it was that all the students came from mega-wealthy families, and she’d heard there was a definite clique of brilliant, rich students, and it might be hard for someone of merely upper-middle-class means to be accepted by these little darlings.
“I’m not sure this is the right plan,” she’d said over and over again, even while a part of her had wanted so badly for Owen to be chosen. In truth, her son couldn’t care less. He was happy anywhere, and fairly oblivious to social stigma at this age.
But . . . what the hell. He’d been accepted, and so she’d attended the tea. If she had to back out, she would back out. But it was a fun ride while it was going on. The other parents had been welcoming. She hadn’t had the most expensive dress, handbag, and shoes, but she’d made a good showing. Her personality had risen to the fore in all its effervescence; she’d made certain of it. She’d charmed the others, and then that handsome single dad had gently taken her by the crook of her arm and led her to a quiet corner where they couldn’t be overheard and had flirted outrageously. Delta had laughed off his more scandalous suggestions and told him lightly, “You, I see, are very bad news.”
“Bad news? Moi?” He’d feigned hurt.
“I’m going to leave now.”
“Not before giving me a good-bye kiss.”
“Not gonna happen.”
“Oh, c’mon. Stay. Let’s have another drink. On me, of course.”
“The Me Too movement hasn’t penetrated with you, has it?”
Her smile took out the sting. He didn’t seem to care, in any case. “I was married for ten years, and nine of them were happy. The last year was hell. I lasted as long as I could, even when she was seeing any guy with a bigger wallet. She married one of those guys. I learned to get over her by meeting beautiful women.”
“And are you over her?”
“A beautiful woman like yourself could certainly help me over the hump,” he said suggestively.
She’d laughed. It was so blatant, and truth be told, she kind of enjoyed his outrageousness. It had been a while since she’d been so admired. “One drink. And I buy my own,” she told him.
“You don’t have—”
“I buy my own,” she said again, and he lifted his hands in acquiescence.
“You’re the book writer, I hear,” he said.
“How’d you hear that?”
He’d nodded his head toward a group of women who were still collected at the table where Delta had been sitting. One of them had asked Delta what she did for a living, or if she worked, and Delta had told her that she used to bookkeep for her husband’s business, but now she was a full-time mother who dabbled as a fiction writer. She wondered if he’d picked up that she was married.
He didn’t get his kiss. He didn’t really even try. But they had a lively conversation about their six-year-olds. He had a girl named Elise. And in the end, they shook hands and parted as friends.
The encounter had kept a smile on Delta’s face all the way from Portland to West Knoll, but as she approached her small hometown’s city limits, the smile became a frozen grimace, then fell from her face entirely when his call came through. Snapping her cell phone into its car holder, she swiped her finger across the glass and held her face close. After facial recognition gave her access, she answered with, “Hi, there.”
“I need you stop by the clinic,” Tanner said shortly.
“Why?”
“Just stop by.”
“I’m busy. I just got back from—”
“For fuck’s sake, Delta. Come to the clinic. I have something to tell you, and I’m not going to do it over the phone.”
T
here’s nothing you can tell me that I want to know. “Fine. But only for a few minutes. My mom’s still at the house, and she needs to get back for my dad, so I won’t—”
Click.
