Hostile Makeover by Wendy Wax

Author:Wendy Wax [Wax, Wendy]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Romance, Contemporary, Fiction
ISBN: 9780553902020
Google: 1Yns6Bp5ZU4C
Amazon: 0553587951
Publisher: Bantam
Published: 2005-10-25T04:00:00+00:00

chapter 19

Because it was a weekday, the crowd at the Mendelsohns’ thinned quickly. Shelley and her contingent were among the first to leave, but Judy stayed to help clean up. She took a break from her duties to walk Craig out. On the Mendelsohns’ wraparound porch he placed an underwhelming peck on her cheek and patted down his pockets in search of his car keys.

“I was thinking about chicken on the grill tonight,” she said to his chest. “What time do you think you’ll be home?”

He stopped patting and looked at her with barely disguised impatience. “I have a dinner tonight with the new client I told you about—the investment group out of Minneapolis. It’s been on the calendar for weeks.”

“Right.” When had their schedule become too much for her to keep up with? What had happened to her organizational zeal?

His cell phone rang. As he pulled it out of his pocket he focused on some point just to the side of her. “Can you pick up my gray suit from the cleaners?” He was already bringing the phone to his ear as he added, “And don’t forget the red tie. I hope to hell they got the gravy stain out of it.”

She stood on the porch and watched him drive off, torn as she always was lately, by a vague sense of disappointment and a not-so-vague flash of anger at how easily he dismissed her.

After a few steadying breaths, she forced herself back into the kitchen, where her mother and Sarah were dissecting the morning’s happenings. Picking up an empty Tupperware container, Judy began to spoon chopped liver into it.

“I still can’t believe they both fainted,” her mother said.

“Amazing, wasn’t it?” Sarah said. “I thought that Trey business was made of sterner stuff. He looked too . . . buff . . . to pass out.”

Judy looked up from the chopped liver. Had Sarah Mendelsohn really used the word “buff”?

“Pfft.” Her mother dismissed him. “All of Shelley’s dates are tall and blond and . . . buff.” The word sounded just as strange on her mother’s lips. Her tone made it clear the word was not intended as a compliment. “What good is buff when the going gets tough?”

“She’s young yet. She’ll figure it out.” Sarah dipped a knife into the container Judy was filling and smeared a thin layer of chopped liver onto a piece of bagel.

“She’s not so young.” Miriam shook her head. “And if I left it to her she’d never go out with anyone remotely appropriate. Look at your Paul, all settled down and giving you grandbabies.” She smiled at Judy, then reached over to bracket her cheeks in one hand. “Thank God I raised one sensible daughter.”

Sensible. Normally Judy would have taken pride in the word, would have accepted her mother’s approval as confirmation of the rightness of her life. Today the word rang hollow.

“I’ve got to get going.” Judy covered the container of chopped liver and shoved it into the refrigerator, then pulled off the apron she’d drawn on over her new suit.

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