Shadow Creek by Joy Fielding Page A

sorry,” Val imagined Evan saying, “but this whole deal is exploding in my face. There’s no way I can leave now.”
    “But how can they be threatening to renege?” Jennifer was asking. “The deal is in danger of falling apart,” she explained to Brianne in the next breath. “They have to work through the night. Hopefully they’ll have everything sorted out by morning …”
    “Believe me, I’m as upset as you are about this,” Val could almost hear Evan continue. “I’m doing my best to get out of here as fast as I can.”
    “Of course you are,” Jennifer told him. “I understand. And you’ll be able to leave first thing in the morning?” Jennifer’s voice was wobbly with the threat of tears. “Yes, I know you’ll try your best. I’m just disappointed, that’s all. I really
do
understand. What? Um … yes, I think she’s still here. Okay, sure. Just a minute. I’ll check. Val?” she called out. “Are you still there?”
    Val quickly reentered the room.
    Jennifer was standing beside the sofa. She held the phone toward her without saying a word.
    “Hello?” Val said softly into the receiver.
    “Hey, you,” came Evan’s automatic response.
    Val listened as Evan explained the situation again, then added, “I just wanted to thank you again for all you’ve done.”
    “No need.”
    “Look. Why don’t you stay the night? You must be exhausted. Don’t argue,” he said as she was about to. “This way, you and your friends can get a good night’s sleep before heading back. You don’t want to have an accident, and I don’t want to be responsible for anything bad happening to you.”
    Too late for that, Val thought.
    “You can enjoy the spa, go shopping, anything you want—my treat.”
    “I can’t …”
    “In all likelihood, I won’t get there till tomorrow afternoon,” he continued, as if she hadn’t spoken. “Please stay. Consider it part of your birthday gift,” he added enticingly.
    What’s the other part? Val wondered, trying to decipher what, if anything, Evan was really saying.
    “I’ll think about it.” She handed the phone back to Jennifer.
    “What’s happening?” Brianne asked.
    I wish I knew, Val thought. What she said was “Let’s say we go have some dinner.”

SEVEN
    T HE GOOD-LOOKING YOUNG COUPLE seated at the table next to them in the hotel’s casual yet elegant dining room had been arguing almost from the moment they sat down. “You’re being obstinate,” the man was saying, with a perceptible stiffening of his square jaw.
    “You’re being ridiculous,” the woman quickly countered, tugging at her diamond-studded eternity band and pushing her auburn hair away from her flushed cheeks.
    “Don’t tell me I’m being ridiculous.”
    “Then don’t tell me I’m being obstinate.”
    “Newlyweds,” the waiter whispered to Val as he poured her a third glass of wine.
    Val watched the deep red liquid fill her glass. What am I doing? she wondered. Because of her mother’s unfortunate proclivities,she’d never permitted herself more than one glass of wine, never allowed herself the luxury of being even vaguely tipsy. But, hey, these were special circumstances, she decided, signaling the waiter to keep pouring. It was her fortieth birthday in a couple of days and no one in her family seemed to give a damn. Her mother was too drunk, her father too involved with his other family, her sister too estranged, her daughter too self-absorbed. Only her soon-to-be ex-husband, the love of her life, who was only weeks away from no longer being part of that life, had even mentioned it.
    Consider it part of your birthday gift
, he’d said.
    What did he mean?
    Thank God for James and Melissa, she thought, banishing thoughts of Evan and smiling at her two best friends. Not only had they remembered her birthday, but they’d unselfishly put their own celebratory plans on hold in order to accommodate her. And for what? For this?
    The unhappy group was now seated at a