I parked my car on a side street and spent a majority of my two-block walk to the dress shop trying to cull my mind of the filthy thoughts about Tommy that were beating against the battened doors of my libido. I’d barely managed to rein them in when I stepped into the dress shop with my slingback heels dangling from my fingertips.

“Good Lord, Darcy!” my sister James exclaimed from her perch on the dais when she set eyes on me. “You’re all flushed in the face. Did you run here or something?”

I touched my palm to my cheek and felt the heat there. “It’s hot as Hades out there,” I said by way of explanation.

“That it is,” Cora, the shop owner said around a mouthful of straight pins. “Leslie, dear, get Darcy a cold bottle of water and put her in that second dressing room. Her dress is already on the door,” she instructed while giving me a wink.

Leslie led me to the dressing room and gave me a bottle of water. “If you need any help, sweetheart, just give me a holler.”

“Thanks, Leslie.” Once the dressing room door was closed, I dropped my bag in the chair and slipped out of the breezy sundress I threw on to go to lunch with Tommy and my son. When I looked at myself in the mirror, I saw that more than just my cheeks were flushed. A dusky red splotch covered the center of my chest, and my nipples were hard and begging to be touched. The place between my legs felt hungry and slippery wet.

The heat didn’t do this to me.

Tommy did.

I shook my head at my reflection. No, this is not allowed.

Screwing off the top of my bottled water, I immediately tipped it up and gulped down half of its contents, hoping but knowing it wouldn’t cool me off. Frustrated that I couldn’t push his suggestion out of my mind, I yanked the dress off the hanger, stepped into it hastily, then slipped on my shoes and exited the dressing room.

James glanced at me as I approached the dais and three-way mirror. My sister was nine years younger than my fifty-five years, but remaining single and child-free had kept her as young and fresh as the day she turned eighteen. I felt those years as I came to stand next to her.

“Woo, chile… I can’t wait to get my hands in this hair tomorrow,” she said, attempting to smooth my humidity-curled edges. “All that swimming has fried your hair, sis.”

“I know. I’ve been thinking of changing the pool to saltwater—”

“Not to mention the fact that you’re shrinking down to nothing,” Cora interrupted as she pinched at the waist of the dress that she had just taken in a few weeks ago. “You’re not sick, are you?”