She saw him as soon as he stepped out onto the porch. Hank's wife was going in with a tray of glasses and he held the screen door for her and laughed at something she said as she passed. Then he looked out and found her eyes at once and smiled. She realized that Hank had just asked her a question. 'Sorry Hank, what was that?'
'I said, I hear you're headin' home?'
'Yes, afraid so. Packing up tomorrow.'
'Can't tempt you city gals to stay, huh?'
Annie laughed, a little too loudly, as she'd been doing all evening. She told herself again to calm down. Across the crowd, she saw Tom had been hijacked by Smoky who wanted to introduce him to some friends.
'Jeez, that food smells good,' Hank said. 'How 'bout it, Annie, shall we get us some? You jus' come along with me.'
She let herself be led, as if she had no will of her own. Hank got her a plate and piled it high with chunks of blackened meat, then flooded it with a dollop of chili beans. Annie felt sick but kept on smiling. She'd already decided what to do.
She would get Tom on his own - ask him to dance if that's what it took - and tell him she was going to leave Robert. She would go back to New York next week and break the news. First to Robert and then to Grace.
Oh God, Tom thought, it's going to be like last time. The dancing had been going on for over half an hour and every time he tried to get near her either she got waylaid or he did. Just when he thought he was clear, he felt a tap on his shoulder. It was Diane.
'Don't sister-in-laws get to dance?'
'Diane, I thought you'd never ask.'
'I knew you never would.'
He took hold of her and his heart sank a little when the new number turned out to be a slow one. She had on the new red dress she'd bought in L.A. and had tried painting her lips to match but it didn't quite work. She smelled pungently of perfume with an undertow of booze that he could detect too in her eyes.
'You look terrific,' he said.
Thank you, kind sir.'
It had been a long time since he'd seen Diane drunk. He didn't know why, but it made him sad. She was pressing her hips into him and arching her back so much that if he were to let go of her she'd topple over. She was giving him a kind of knowing, teasing look he neither understood nor much liked.
'Smoky tells me you didn't go to Wyoming after all.'
'He did?'
'Uh-huh.'
'Well, that's right, I didn't. One of the guys down there got sick, so I'm going next week instead.'
'Uh-huh.'
'"Uh-huh". Diane, what is this?'
He knew, of course. And he chided himself for now giving her the chance to say it. He should have just closed the conversation.
'I just hope you were a good boy, that's all.'
'Diane, come on. You've had too much to drink.'
It was a mistake. Her eyes flashed.
'Have I? Don't think we haven't all noticed.'
'Noticed what?' Another mistake.
'You know what I'm talking about. You can good as smell the steam rising off the pair of you.'
He just shook his head and looked away as if she was crazy, but she saw it hit home because she grinned in victory and wagged a finger at him.
'Good job she's going home, brother-in-law.'
They didn't exchange another word for the rest of the number. And when it was over she gave him that knowing look again and went off, swinging her hips like a hooker. He was still recovering when Annie came up behind him at the bar.
'Pity it's not raining,' she whispered.
'Come and dance with me,' he said. And he took hold of her before anyone else could and steered her off.
The music was quick and they danced apart, only uncoupling their eyes when the intensity threatened to overwhelm or betray them. To have her so close and yet so inaccessible was like some exquisite form of torture. After the second number, Frank tried to take her away but Tom made a joke of being the older brother and wouldn't yield.
The next number was a slow ballad in which a woman sang about her lover on death row. At last they could get their hands on each other. The touch of her skin and the light press of her body through their clothes almost made him reel and he had for a moment to close his eyes. Somewhere, he knew, Diane would be watching but he didn't care.
The dust dance-floor was crammed. Annie looked about her at the faces and said quietly, 'I need to talk to you. How can we get to talk?'
He felt like saying what is there to talk about? You're going. That's all there is to say. Instead he said, 'The exercise pool. In twenty minutes. I'll meet you.'
She only had time to nod, because the next moment Frank came up again and took her away from him.
Grace's head was spinning and it wasn't just from the two glasses of punch she'd had. She had danced with almost everyone - Tom, Frank, Hank, Smoky, even dear sweet Joe - and the image she'd had of herself was thrilling. She could whirl, she could shimmy, she could even jive. She didn't once lose her balance. She could do anything. She wished Terri Carlson was here to see it. For the first time in her new life, perhaps even her whole life, she felt beautiful.