Brought out of her daydream by motion in the room, Joanna looked up and saw Fran walking toward her. “Hiya,” she said, setting the book aside. “This is a surprise.”

“Yes, well my day seems to be full of those,” Fran said as she sat down. “How are you doing?”

“I’m fine. You?”

“I’ve had my moments,” Fran said with a half-hearted grin. “Oh, by the way, before I forget, the house looks lovely without all the ivy.”

“Thank you,” Joanna said breaking into a smile. “But Addison wasn’t too thrilled with it.”

“Is that what caused the argument?”

“Yeah, she was...wait,” Joanna said, jerking back her head. “How did you know we argued?”

“Addison told me this morning.”

“Oh.”

“That’s not...that’s not all she told me,” Fran said, leaning forward and resting her elbows on her knees. “Joanna, are you really okay? I’m talking about...um...”

Joanna felt her face heat, and flustered by her own blush, it darkened even more. “Yes, Fran, I’m fine. It’s not like it wasn’t mutual.”

Fran let out the breath she’d been holding and fell back in her chair. “So, it was mutual.”

“Of course,” Joanna said. “Did Addison think differently?”

“Honestly, she wasn’t sure. She said it was...um...kind of quick, and since you’re straight, she was worried she had coerced you into doing something against your...well, against your nature.”

“Well, I won’t argue about it being quick,” Joanna said softly. She lowered her eyes, nibbling on her bottom lip as she smoothed the fabric of her unwrinkled skirt, and then taking a deep breath, Joanna looked up. “But I never said I was straight.”

Fran had been having a problem looking Joanna in the eye, but that problem quickly ceased to exist as she locked eyes with Joanna. “Sorry?”

Laugh lines creased Joanna’s face as she leaned toward Fran. “I never said I was straight.”

Fran rewound the clock, back to the conversations she had had with Joanna in Burnt Oak, and coming up empty, a faint smile appeared on her face. “Why the hell didn’t you tell us?”

“Because it didn’t matter,” Joanna said with a shrug. “And because my father was old school. He hated gays, and I couldn’t risk him finding out. It would have destroyed him and destroyed us, and he was all I had.”

“Jesus.”

“Please don’t think I married Addison believing this was going to happen. I did this to help my father, but in a small way it was also helping me.”

“Helping you?”