The Invitation by Jude Deveraux Read Free Book Online Page B

me everything. I can call Ralph and have him send my clothes here. If the boys get lonely for their mother I hope you won’t mind if they come to stay with us. They’ll be no bother at all.”
    At that threat Jackie almost shuddered but caught herself in time. Terri was a perfect example of the saying that love is blind, for those huge, semiliterate, lecherous sons of hers were no pleasure to anyone except her. The last time one of them had driven to Eternity to pick Terri up, he had cornered Jackie in the kitchen and started telling her how a woman like her must be “dyin’ for a man” and he’d be “willin’ to scratch her itch.” Jackie had brought her foot down hard on his instep while “accidentally” dropping a skillet on his left hand. Since then Jackie had volunteered to drive Terri home whenever her friend was unable to borrow a car.
    â€œI…I liked him,” Jackie said, wanting to talk to someone about William but at the same time not wanting to talk. Her reaction to William didn’t make any sense, since Jackie had been married for most of her life, but the truth was, she had never been “in love.” She had married Charley so she could get out of Chandler. Charley had known that and hadn’t cared that he was being used. He was quite willing to trade a few marriage vows for the company of a long-legged colt of a girl with an insatiable curiosity and a willingness to work such as Charley had never seen before. Within twenty hours of meeting her, Charley had a feeling that she would take care of him. He hadn’t misjudged her. In all their years together, she had made sure the bills were paid, that they had a roof over their heads, and she had smoothed out all his problems, making Charley’s once tumultuous life as peaceful as it could be. He had repaid her by showing her the world.
    â€œI liked him,” Jackie repeated. “That’s all there was to it. He was there when I crashed, he took care of me, and we talked. Very simple.” Talked as though we’d known each other forever, she thought. Talked as though we would never stop; talked as though we were friends, old friends, new friends, best friends.
    â€œWho is he?”
    â€œAh, uh, William something, I don’t remember.”
    â€œHe lives in Chandler?”
    â€œI’m not really sure.” She talked quickly so Terri wouldn’t ask her why she’d agreed to be partners with a man whose last name she didn’t know. “Terri, really, you’re making too much of this. It was nothing. I’ve met a thousand men in my life, given flying lessons to hundreds of them, and this one is no different.”
    â€œYou can lie to yourself, but you can’t lie to me. You are blushing like a schoolgirl. So when do I get to meet him?”
    â€œI don’t know. I think his sister said he might be back on Saturday.” The day was emblazoned in her mind. Saturday, late afternoon, she’d been told. At three P.M. Jackie planned to be wearing a pretty little yellow and white pinafore, something with ruffles around the wide straps and a white blouse underneath. She might just dab some perfume in a few strategic places and have bread baking in the oven. He had seen her in a leather flying suit, hair plastered to her head by a cotton-lined leather helmet, so next time she thought it might be nice to show him another side of her—say, the side that could take care of a house, maybe even be somebody’s wife.
    Jackie’s head came up at the sound of Terri’s laughter. “Oh, honey, you have it bad, very bad. You remind me of myself when I was eighteen years old.” Terri’s tone said clearly that the way Jackie was acting was understandable in an eighteen-year-old but rather silly at thirty-eight.
    At the sound of a horn, Jackie jumped, her head swiveling toward the window, again causing Terri to laugh. “That’s my