Friends--And Then Some by Debbie Macomber Page A

didn’t know whether to be grateful or concerned.
    Rick climbed out of the car and crossed over to her side, opening her door. He gave her his hand and studied her with worried eyes. “You’re so pale. Are you sure you don’t want me to stay with you?”
    “No,” she cried quickly, perhaps too quickly. “But thank you, Rick, for being so good to me.” Her lashes fluttered against her cheek as she dismally cast her gaze to the sidewalk.
    “I hope to be good to you for a very long time,” Rick announced softly, slipping an arm around her waist and guiding her toward the house. “I never imagined I’d find someone like you, Lily.”
    The stomach ailment Lily had invented became increasingly more real. Her insides knotted. They paused on the porch and Rick tucked a finger under her chin,raising her eyes to his. Ever so gently, he brushed his mouth over her cheek. “Can I see you next week?”
    Lily would have agreed to anything if it would help lessen her intense feeling of guilt. “If you’d like.”
    “Oh, I’d like, my sunbeam, I’d like it very much.” With that he tenderly lifted the hair from her forehead and kissed her again.
    Lily had all the physical response of a rag doll. She didn’t lift her hands to his shoulders or encourage him, but Rick didn’t appear to notice or care.
    “I’ll call you in the morning,” he promised. Within a minute, he was gone.
    Like a soldier returning to camp after a long day in the field, Lily marched into the house. Gram was asleep and snoring in her rocking chair. The crossword puzzle had slipped unnoticed to the floor. Gently, Lily shook her grandmother.
    “Come on, Gram, let me help you into bed.”
    Gram jerked awake with a start. “Oh, it’s you.”
    “Who were you expecting?”
    “Jake. You did say he was coming back, didn’t you?”
    “Yes … but he isn’t here.”
    “He will be,” Gram stated confidently, sitting upright. She rubbed a hand over her eyes and looked around her as though half expecting Jake to be there without either of them noticing. “Trust me, girl, he’ll be here.”
    Lily wasn’t as certain. He hadn’t actually agreed to come back, but he hadn’t told her he wouldn’t, either. Lily had been the one to convince Jake to submit his story to
The New Yorker
. They should be celebrating together.
    Lily changed out of her evening gown and into the white dress that Jake had bought her. A night as significant as this one demanded a dress that was just as special.
    Pausing at her bedroom window, Lily parted the drape and stared into the starlit sky. The street was empty and her heart throbbed with anticipation. If Jake didn’t come, she didn’t know what she’d do. Perhaps go to his boat. Tonight he wouldn’t escape her.
    A half hour later, Lily sat in the still living room, staring silently at the elephant tusks that adorned the wall. The moving shadows cast by the trees outside, dancing in the moonlight, seemed to taunt her for being so foolish.
    Gram’s last words before heading to bed were that Jake would come.
    The sound of Jake’s cab registered in her mind and she bolted to her feet, sucked in a calming breath, and rushed to the door. He was really here.
    She was standing on the porch by the time he’d parked. He didn’t look eager to see her and stopped the instant he realized she was wearing the dress. When he started toward her again, he trod heavily—like someone being led to a labor camp.
    “Gram said you’d come.” She rubbed her hands together to dispel her nervous energy.
    Jake spread his fingers wide in a gesture that told her he hadn’t wanted to return. But something stronger than his will had led him back to her.
    “What did you tell Rick?” Jake stood on the sidewalk as if he wasn’t quite sure that he wanted to come inside.
    “That I wasn’t feeling well.”
    “And he bought that?”
    “By the time we left the opera it was true.”
    “And how are you feeling now?”
    “Terrible.” She hung