“Not exactly. But words to that effect. Specifically, that she has no intention of giving you up. Which concluded her conversation with some unknown female friend that began with Luellen saying that she gets bored easily.”

“Oh no—”

“So.” Mary Beth leaned over the table and gave his tie an unfriendly tug that made the knot tighten around his crisp collar. “My guess is that she likes yanking your chain at the very least. What are you going to do when she comes around? Or calls?”

“Tell her the truth. I’m taken. She’s history.”

Mary Beth let go of his tie. “I wish I could believe that.”

Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

“I keep forgetting to ask. What did your sister-in-law-to-be think of her birthday gift?”

Gail didn’t miss a thing, Parr thought uneasily. Everything looked the same back at the Memphis office but he felt different about being there, away from Mary Beth.

She’d posed the offhand question without looking at Parr as he walked by her desk, keeping her eyes on her computer screen. Her fingers were flying over the keyboard as she inputted cost estimates for the big new project.

For a few seconds, Parr tensed. Then he remembered that he’d asked Gail to wrap the small box and that she hadn’t seen what was inside it. “She seemed to like it. It was just a little necklace.”

“Oh.” Her tone was casual but Parr knew her well enough to sense her curiosity. She had stopped typing but he could see that she was not quite done with the task.

“I thought about looking up their wedding registry, but they’re not that far along yet. So I got something nice.”

“Isn’t jewelry kind of personal?”

“She’s family, right? Okay, not yet, not quite,” he conceded. “But I couldn’t really think of what else to get her. And I didn’t want to ask you to pick out something.”

“Why not?”

“You have enough to do.”

Gail nodded, concentrating on the spreadsheets again. “Whatever. Anyway, if they’ve only announced the engagement, they can’t hit up folks for presents until they send out save-the-date cards for the wedding.”

“Is that how it works?” Parr gave an indifferent shrug. “Well, I guess that’s next then. Hard to imagine Bobby Joe preferring one china pattern over another. He’ll probably leave all that up to her.”

Gail hummed tunelessly. “Men usually do. There.” She hit save. “That’s done. Bottom line looks good. You’re going to make a lot of money on this new development.”

“Good. I still should get him something to commemorate the engagement.” Parr knew that Gail was a catalog fiend. “Any ideas for the man who has everything?”

Including the woman Parr wanted with all his heart and soul. Bobby Joe better not screw up again. But Gail knew nothing of that.