Club Fantasy Read Free Page A

that you boggle my mind. You’re going to pick up and go. Just like that, when there’s so much to plan.”
    â€œWhat’s to plan?” Jenna asked. “Chloe’s got a place for me to stay at least for a while. I’ve got enough money to tide me over until I find work. What more is there?”
    Marcy’s mind whirled. “You’ve got to pack, for example. What will you take? Will you take lots of suitcases or should we mail boxes? You’ll need to change banks. No, maybe you won’t. Is there a branch of your bank in New York? What about your car? Will you take it with you? If you don’t, will you sell it or put it on blocks or just let it sit while you’re gone?”
    Marcy stopped talking as Jenna held her hand up to stem the flow of words. “Sis, relax. It will all work out.”
    Marcy stood and headed for the kitchen, her brain moving at a million miles an hour. “I’m going to make some fresh coffee and get a pad and pencil.” She stopped in the kitchen doorway. “We can begin with a list of what’s to be done.”
    When Jenna smiled her indulgent smile, Marcy said, “Okay, I’m organizing again, but it’s necessary. It keeps my mind busy so I don’t have to think about the hurt.”
    â€œI know, and I’ll leave all that to you. Let me know what I have to do and I’ll do it.”
    â€œJenna, I can’t make decisions like these for you.”
    Raising an eyebrow, Jenna said, “I’ve made the big one, you just get to make the little ones.”
    Marcy huffed an exasperated breath. It had been like this all their lives. She did all the planning and Jenna went along. Their parents had always teased them. Jenna would be in charge of deciding the important things, like foreign policy, campaign finance reform, or whether America should go to Venus. Marcy, they said, would make all the small ones for all of them, like what to have for dinner, what courses to take in school, and where to go on vacation. It had always been her responsibility, one she’d taken on willingly. Hadn’t she?
    As she carefully measured decaffeinated coffee into the white paper filter, Marcy thought about what life would be like for her after her sister was gone. One moment she thought about how empty the house would be, the next she realized that she could have dinner at nine o’clock or leave dirty clothes in the living room if she wanted to. It was going to be difficult but she had to admit that it would have its benefits. She could stop being a constant role model for her sister, trying to teach by example.
    She started the coffee brewing and grabbed a handful of jelly beans from the glass jar on the counter. As she chewed, she got a pad and pencil from the kitchen counter and headed back to the living room, already making notes.
    Â 
    Glen Howell hadn’t slept at all the previous night, and now sat in the small living room of his tiny condo several miles from the Bryant house. Stretched out in a lounge chair, he tried for the hundredth time to figure out what had gone wrong the previous evening. He’d sensed for several weeks that Jenna was putting him off, trying to avoid his proposal, but he’d figured that when the moment arrived she’d agree. After all, they were so right together.
    He remembered the day they’d met. He’d been stunned, not by her good looks—although she was lovely—but by the force of her intelligence. Not only could she do a running, perfectly correct idiomatic translation of a complex legal conversation, but she did it with a calm style that impressed both him and his counterpart. He had realized at the time that she had sped the negotiations with a few well-thought-out suggestions and had wanted to see more of her, professionally and personally.
    He’d asked her out to dinner and, to his surprise, she’d accepted. They’d begun seeing each other more