Brazen Virtue

interrupted, knowing Grace would launch into the tale without any encouragement.
    “My trunk should be delivered to your place by tomorrow.”
    The trunk was another of what Kathleen considered her sister’s deliberate eccentricities. “Grace, when are you going to start using suitcases like normal people?”
    They passed baggage claim, where people stood three deep, ready to trample each other at the first sign of familiar Samsonite. When hell freezes over, Grace thought, but only smiled. “You really do look great. How are you feeling?”

    “Fine.” Then because it was her sister, Kathleen relaxed. “Better, really.”
    “You’re better off without the sonofabitch,” Grace said as they passed through the automatic doors. “I hate to say it because I know you really loved him, but it’s true.” There was a stiff northern breeze to make people forget it was spring. The sound of incoming and outgoing planes hammered overhead. Grace stepped off the curb toward the parking lot without looking right or left. “The only real joy he brought to your life was Kevin. Where is my nephew, anyway? I was hoping you’d bring him.”
    The little slice of pain came and went. When Kathleen made up her mind about something, she also made up her heart. “He’s with his father. We agreed that it would be best if he stayed with Jonathan through the school year.”
    “What?” Grace stopped in the middle of the street. A horn blasted and was ignored. “Kathleen, you can’t be serious. Kevin’s just six. He needs to be with you. Jonathan probably has him watching MacNeil-Lehrer instead of Sesame Street.”
    “The decision is made. We agreed it would be best for everyone involved.”
    Grace knew that expression. It meant Kathleen had closed up and wouldn’t open again until she was damn good and ready. “Okay.” Grace fell into step beside her as they crossed to the parking lot. Automatically, she altered her rhythm. Kathleen always rushed. Grace meandered. “You know you can talk to me whenever you want.”
    “I know.” Kathleen paused beside a secondhand Toyota. A year before she’d been driving a Mercedes. But that was the least of what she’d lost. “I didn’t mean to snap at you, Grace. It’s just that I need to put it aside for a while. I’ve almost got my life back in order.”

    Grace set her bags in the rear and said nothing. She knew the car was secondhand and a long step down from what Kathleen had been accustomed to but was much more worried about the edge in her sister’s voice than the change of status. She wanted to comfort but knew that Kathleen considered sympathy the first cousin of pity. “Have you talked to Mom and Dad?”
    “Last week. They’re fine.” Kathleen slid in, then strapped on her seat belt. “You’d think Phoenix was paradise.”
    “As long as they’re happy.” Grace sat back and for the first time took in her surroundings. National Airport. She’d taken her first flight out of there, eight, no, dear Lord, almost ten years before. And had been scared right down to her toenails. She almost wished she could experience that same fresh and innocent feeling again.
    Getting jaded, Gracie? she wondered. Too many flights. Too many cities. Too many people. Now she was back, only a few miles from the home where she’d grown up, and seated beside her sister. Yet she felt no sense of homecoming.
    “What made you come back to Washington, Kath?”
    “I wanted to get out of California. And this was familiar.”
    But didn’t you want to stay near your son? Didn’t you need to? It wasn’t the time to ask, but she had to fight the words back. “And teaching at Our Lady of Hope. Familiar again, but it must be strange.”
    “I like it really. I suppose I need the discipline of classes.” She drove out of the parking lot with studied precision. Tucked into the flap of the sun visor were the parking stub for the short-term lot and three singles. Grace noted she still counted her change.
    “And the house, do you like it?”
    “The rent’s reasonable and it’s only a fifteen-minute drive to school.”
    Grace bit back a sigh. Couldn’t Kathleen ever feel strongly about anything. “Are you seeing anyone?”

    “No.” But she smiled a little as she merged with traffic. “I’m not interested in sex.”
    Grace’s brow rose. “Everyone’s interested in sex. Why do you think Jackie Collins always makes the best-seller list? In any case, I was speaking more of