Jerry pulled out of the parking lot and into the street. “Do you want to stop and have dinner?”
“No, thanks. The popcorn filled me up.” A small white lie.
“Me too,” Jerry muttered.
But it wasn’t the popcorn, and they both knew it. Their appetite had been ruined by the reminder that soon they would be like their friends. A year from now one of Jerry’s golfing buddies was going to ask what had ever happened to Sharon or Jerry and say how sad it was that they hadn’t been able to work matters out.
The house was dark and quiet except for a thin slice of light coming from beneath Seth’s study door. Sharon heard softly mumbled voices and suspected her son-in-law wouldn’t appreciate an intrusion. Reba had apparently come to help him watch the kids.
Jerry raised his eyebrows when he heard a soft giggle. He didn’t say anything until the bedroom door was closed. “What’s going on with Seth?”
“He’s got a woman friend.” Sharon wasn’t entirely sure how much she should say.
“The same one who stopped by last night?” Jerry asked with meaning. “It sounds like they might be getting serious.”
“It’s been four years.”
Still her husband frowned. “He’s not going to marry her, is he?”
“How would I know?” Sharon removed her sweater and hung it up in the closet. She ran her hand along the soft texture of the knit fabric. A gift from Jerry, one he’d purchased a couple of years earlier for her birthday.
“Do you like her?”
Sharon sighed. “I only met her once, briefly. She’s a nice girl, what can I say? The twins seem to like her.”
Jerry sat on the edge of the mattress, his shoulders sagging. “It shouldn’t come as a shock. Seth’s young and healthy. I didn’t know he was dating. He hasn’t before now, has he?”
“I wouldn’t know.”
Jerry looked away, as if the subject were an uncomfortable one. “It’s not that I object, mind you, it’s just that I’ve always thought of Seth as Pammy’s husband.”
“I did, too, but it’s time. Past time. Like you said, Seth’s young and healthy. From what he’s told me about Reba, meeting her was like a gift from God. It’s the same for her, apparently, although he didn’t mention why.”
“You say the twins like her?”
“Very much.” It was one thing to accept this other woman as part of Seth’s life and quite another to view her as a possible stepmother to Judd and Jason. Since she’d taken over Pamela’s role until the last four months, Sharon had suffered more than one qualm. The fact that the children were eager for their father to remarry was confirmation that she’d done her job well.
“If the kids like her, then that’s good enough for me.” Jerry tended to see things in black and white. As far as he was concerned, the matter was settled in his mind.
“It is for me, too,” she added with only the slightest hesitation.
Jerry removed his clothes and climbed into bed, then sat up, with his hands braced behind his back, his elbows jutting out at his sides. She’d been dressing and undressing in front of her husband for nearly forty years; it was ridiculous to be shy about doing so now.
Jerry studied her as she self-consciously removed her clothes. “You’re a fine figure of a woman, Sharon.”
Even more ridiculous was the wave of color that flooded her cheeks. “Thank you,” she mumbled, embarrassed and eager to turn off the light.
“Will you remarry?”
The question came out of the blue and caught her by surprise.
“Remarry? Me?” she snapped. “Of course not, why would I do anything so foolish?” She didn’t mean to sound waspish, but she was genuinely taken aback by the absurdity of the question.
“You’re the one who asked for the divorce,” he reminded her, his jaw tightening. “For all I know there might be someone else in your life right now.”
For a moment Sharon was too stunned to respond. “Do you mean to say you’ve been living with me all these years and you still don’t know me, Jerry Palmer?”
Jerry pinched his lips tightly closed.
Sharon tossed back the covers and climbed between the sheets—only this night she was the one who rolled onto her side and presented her back to her husband. She tucked the sheet more securely about her shoulder and held it tightly in place at her neck.
“I…I didn’t mean that to sound the way it did,” Jerry admitted gruffly a couple of moments later.