“I don’t know. I just . . . It doesn’t matter, it’s over now.” She didn’t want to admit to hearing Marcus in her head, or to how badly Jasmine’s small rebellion had thrown her. The last thing she wanted was her daughter feeling afraid to speak her mind. “Shall we change the subject and talk about what a lovely evening we had?” she suggested.

“Totally awesomazing,” Jasmine yawned, “but seems I’m the only one in this car who’s going home without a potential date in the next few days.”

Marcy’s eyebrows rose. “Are you going to see Dan again?” she asked Claudia.

“No!” Claudia replied snappishly. “Just because I was chatting to him doesn’t mean we’re starting something. What about you and Henry? When are you seeing him?”

“Probably on Tuesday at the community center.”

“You live such wild lives, you two,” Jasmine commented with another yawn.

They drove on in silence after that, with Claudia fighting back all the cutting things she wanted to say about Henry, and denials about Dan, and annoyance with Jasmine until she finally blurted, “If you’re having a problem meeting boys because of what happened to me, Jasmine, we need to—”

Marcy cut her off. “You’re tired, Claudia, so don’t let’s have this conversation now.”

“But if she is—”

“Just stop,” Marcy cried despairingly. “We’ve all had too much to drink, including you, which means you really shouldn’t be driving, so if you want something to sober you up consider what you’ll tell the police if they pull us over.”

Chapter Fourteen

Claudia was at the top of a stepladder in the show home marking up for curtain poles, while Andee stood on the bottom rung holding it steady. Outside it was trying to be sunny, although it was bitterly cold and this unheated house wasn’t doing much to warm them, especially since they’d had to take their boots off before coming in.

“Everything’s checking out,” Claudia informed Andee, and reeling in her tape measure she tucked the pencil behind one ear before making her descent. “We should be able to start hanging the drapes in here on Monday.”

“Excellent,” Andee replied, glancing at her phone as it rang. “Ah, I should take this,” and leaving Claudia to fold up the steps, she wandered into the hall.

As Claudia began packing her bag on the dusty floor she checked her own phone for messages and found several from her machinists, although thankfully no one was in need of urgent attention. This meant she might have time when she’d finished here to pop over to the coach house to check on progress there.