Big Girls Don’t Cry (Dundee, Idaho #6)(61)
Author: Brenda Novak

Wishing her mother wasn’t away with her father, getting ready for a fund-raiser in the Panhandle, she held up her video camera and motioned to tell her ex-husband she had other plans. Then she hurried across the room and stood against the wall. She felt Isaac’s eyes on her as she moved, but refused to look at him. She could also feel Liz’s cool disdain.

The lights lowered and a spotlight illuminated the stage as two kindergarteners came out to do a magic trick. They stuffed one scarf into a hat and pulled out a whole string of them in many different colors. Afterward, they made a ball disappear and reappear using various cups.

Everyone clapped when they finished. Then Mica came out in a pretty dress and black patent leather pumps, walking with the perfect poise of her mother. “I’m going to play Moonlight Sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven,” she said into the microphone and headed for the piano someone had rolled into the center of the stage.

Reenie put her video camera down. Angela rarely talked about Mica anymore—when she did it was with a certain amount of respect—but Reenie didn’t see any need to make Mica part of her family’s permanent record of this event.

Still, as Mica situated herself on the piano bench, Reenie began to feel very ungenerous. Mica was no different from any other child; Liz was no different than any other woman. They had suffered, too. Probably just as much as Reenie and her children, maybe more.

With a sigh, Reenie raised her camera again and pressed the record button. She was going to fight the jealousy, overcome it, she decided. Surely she could be a better person than she’d been.

Mica played strictly from memory, and not some simplified version of the sonata, as Reenie had expected. The piece was obviously very difficult, yet the girl didn’t miss a note.

When she finished, the audience erupted in enthusiastic applause. Reenie held her video recorder with her legs so she could join in. She even found herself smiling broadly. What an amazing child. Angela had mentioned, here and there, the kind of test scores Mica always received. Evidently, Liz’s daughter had a number of talents.

Smiling shyly, Mica bowed and walked offstage, and Reenie couldn’t help looking back at Isaac. She expected him to be accepting the accolades of those around him. She can really play…Wow, is she only eight?…I’ve never heard such a young girl master the piano like that… Certainly Liz was smiling proudly and responding to those around her. But her brother had his arms folded and was leaning against the wall—looking directly at Reenie.

When their eyes met, Reenie felt her stomach lift as though she’d just been swept into the ocean by a particularly strong wave. What had happened last Friday seemed to play between them—the hours of comfortable companionship, the images he’d painted of Africa, the kiss at the door, even his final comment: There’s more where that came from. But you’d better be damned sure you know what you’re asking for if you ever invite me back.

They hadn’t contacted each other since, but the attraction hadn’t fizzled. If anything, it had grown stronger. She could tell he wanted to be with her now as badly as he had then. And she wanted to be with him every bit as much.

“What are you doing?” Keith snapped.

Reenie blinked and pulled her attention away from Isaac to see her ex-husband looming over her. “Nothing, why?”

“You’re staring at Isaac.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Who were you looking at, then?”

“Nobody. Stop it,” Reenie said. “I’m happy for him and Liz, that’s all. Mica did a great job.”

“You’re happy that Mica did well?”

“Aren’t you?”

“Of course, but…” Keith’s expression grew tortured. “You don’t care about me anymore, do you. You want Isaac.”

“I don’t want anyone.”

“He loves his work, Reenie. He loves being free to spend months at a time in Africa. He won’t stay here with you.”

“Like you did?” she said, unable to resist the barb.

“Like I’m willing to do now,” he said earnestly.

“You’d better sit down,” she said. “You’re making it hard for people to see.”

“He won’t treat you right, Reenie.”

“I can worry about myself, Keith.”

Mrs. Devonish, one of the teachers at the school, made her way over to them. “Keith, do you mind?” she whispered. “You’re disrupting the show.”

With a final frown for Reenie, he nodded and moved away, and Reenie went back to videotaping what was happening onstage, wondering if Keith could be right. Did she want Isaac? Since last Friday, she’d watched her AOL account religiously, hoping for a response to the e-mail she’d sent him, thanking him for taking her home and telling him she’d had a good time. She’d begun to look for him or his truck almost everywhere she went. And the unhappiness she’d felt about having him work at the high school had changed into something much more akin to excitement. She knew he wasn’t long-term boyfriend material, but a girl deserved to have a little fun, didn’t she?

Isabella came out and began to sing her song. As usual, every r sounded like a w. “Somewhere over the wainbow, dweams come twue…”

Reenie couldn’t help grinning as she watched proudly. When Isabella came to the end of her song, Reenie applauded wildly. Then her thoughts returned to Isaac. As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t avoid the truth. She’d be a fool to get involved with Liz’s brother. With the farm and her job and her girls, she had more than she could handle already. The very last thing she needed was a quick fling with a man who’d soon be flying off to the jungles of Africa.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“YOU’RE INFATUATED,” Liz said as Mica and Christopher raced off to get another cookie from the refreshment table.

Isaac scowled, but even as she accused him, he couldn’t help letting his focus follow Reenie as she moved about the room, talking to friends, trying to gather up her girls. She was wearing a low-cut pair of jeans he particularly liked, with a tight-fitting sweater and a sexy pair of boots. He enjoyed watching her walk. “No, I’m not.”

“You’re acting very predatory, like some big cat or something. Maybe you’re not ready to pounce, but you can’t take your eyes off your prey.”

To prove his sister wrong, he forced himself to turn his back to the entire room. “I agreed not to see her, and I haven’t.” He hadn’t even responded to the e-mail she’d sent him, which hadn’t been easy to ignore. “What about you? Any calls I don’t know about?”