Chasing Shadows (complete)

Chapter 10

“Someone’s in a good mood,” Winnie remarked and Jenny stopped in her tracks, wondering what she’d been doing to cause Winnie to draw that conclusion. “You were whistling to yourself,” Winnie explained.

“I was?”

“Sure were. So…?” Winnie prodded as Jenny went back to shelving books.

“What?”

“Does this sudden change in mood have anything to do with a certain chef, by any chance?”

“Why would you think that?” Jenny asked airily, not looking over at Winnie for fear of showing her emotions on her face. She never was any good at hiding anything from anyone.

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe because I happened to be driving past your building this morning and I saw a certain someone park your car outside and head up to your apartment, and now you’re whistling while stacking accounting books. I’m no mathematician, but I can still put two and two together.”

“I had dinner at Carter’s last night, and I had a glass of wine, so instead of risking a DUI, I took a cab home. He was nice enough to drop my car off before work, that’s all.”

“That’s all? You had dinner? At his place? Not at the restaurant?”

“We’re old friends. We were just… reconnecting,” Jenny said, attempting to sound casual and unaffected.

“Riiight.”

“I saw some boxes in the storage room – could you see if they’re the new encyclopedias, please?” Jenny said and breathed a silent sigh of relief when Winnie left to unpack. Jenny had already checked the boxes when the delivery man came, but putting Winnie to work seemed like a good idea. Maybe when Winnie got back she would have forgotten about Carter. Fat chance.

Jenny had to admit it to herself, though. She was in a good mood today. For once, she’d fallen asleep without checking the door and window locks a third time as she usually did – checking them twice should for all intents and purposes be sufficient, after all. She’d slept well, too. Maybe she needed to start drinking wine more regularly… Not to excess, of course, but didn’t they say drinking red wine in moderation could have health benefits?

Jenny shook her head. She wasn’t going down that road. She’d seen it happen to her dad after the accident. Not with wine, but with Scotch. Just a sip to calm his nerves, he’d said. Then one sip wasn’t enough anymore. She’d told everyone who asked that her parents went out of town to visit relatives, a necessary untruth to maintain the façade that everything was as it should be. There was no way his old employer would take him back if they knew about his drinking problem.

“Hi, sorry I’m late,” Marianne said as she burst through the door, her breath shallow and ragged, and snapped Jenny right out of her musings.

“Did you get stuck in traffic?” Jenny asked, ashamed to admit she’d forgotten Marianne was coming in today.

“No, I…” Marianne was flustered, and not just from the mini-sprint she’d obviously just made, “I sort of met someone last night…”

“Ooh, and you only just got back?” Winnie came back out, wearing a tell-me-all-about-it grin. Jenny felt like facepalming. Winnie and Marianne were sweet, and they’d been an enormous help with the store, but she’d really let her leadership role slide if they thought gossiping when there were customers around was acceptable.

“Excuse me,” she said politely to nip the impending chatter in the bud, “I need to see if I can help the customer who just walked in.” Leading by example was the only way to go.