Sizzling by Susan Mallery Page B

thinking about someone other than
yourself."
    * * *
    "HI," LORI CALLED as she walked into her house after
her shift.

"Hey, you," Madeline said from the living
room. "How was your day?"

"Not one I want to
repeat." Lori shrugged out of her coat as she crossed to the
kitchen. Once there she dropped her coat on a chair, her purse on the
kitchen table and opened the refrigerator. She always kept a bottle
of Chardonnay on hand for emergencies and this certainly counted as a
time of need.

"That bad?" Madeline asked as Lori dug
in a drawer for a corkscrew.

"In some ways good. In
others, worse."

The cork popped out. Madeline collected a
single glass and held it out. Lori took it and poured. Seconds later
she swallowed a mouthful of the tart, fruity wine and sighed.

"Not
better yet, but soon," she breathed. "So how was your
day?"

"Fine. Quiet. I had lunch with Julie. Do you
remember her? She was my roommate in college and one of my
bridesmaids."

There had been eight and honestly, Lori
hadn't bothered to learn their names.

"Uh-huh," she
lied. "I'm glad you got out. You can't hang out here all the
time."

Madeline tucked her auburn hair behind her ear and
smiled. "I like hanging out here."

Her sister didn't
fit the stereotype of the frail soon-to-be dead. She was a little
pale and too thin, but that only added to her ethereal beauty.
Madeline had been born beautiful and had never gone through anything
resembling an awkward stage. It was one of life's sassy attempts at
humor.

Madeline ignored the bottle of wine— with her
liver failing, she couldn't drink. Not that she'd ever been very
interested. Until recently, her sister hadn't had to deal with very
many upsets or disappointments. Lori supposed that getting a death
sentence put other irritations in perspective.

"What
happened?" her sister asked. "Gloria making you
crazy?"

"Not so much. I think we had a breakthrough
today."

"Really? How did that happen?"

Lori
explained about snapping and how Gloria had burst into tears and
admitted to being lonely.

"She's fully capable of
changing," Lori said. "The question is, will
she?"

Madeline tilted her head. "I know you, Lori.
That kind of moment with an elderly patient doesn't send you to the
wine bottle. It was something else. Something I'm going to guess is
related to a certain ex-baseball player."

Lori groaned.
"Gloria lost it with me and I lost it with him. He was going on
and on about how his agent screwed up and how horrible everything
is."

Her sister raised her eyebrows. "I'm going to
guess you weren't as supportive as he'd been hoping."

"Not
exactly." She took another drink of the wine. "I didn't
mention this before because I didn't want you to think…"

Lori
paused. There was no way she could fool her sister. Madeline knew her
too well.

"I was talking to Sandy a couple of days ago.
Somehow it came up that Reid had slept with both her and Kristie
during their interviews." Her anger erupted again. "Can you
believe it? Right there in his office at that stupid sports bar. It's
disgusting. He was supposed to be finding appropriate health care,
not screwing the staff. Does he actually have a brain, or is that a
myth? Are all men like that? Is he what they aspire to? Because I
think he's a nightmare on so many levels."

Madeline's
green eyes were steady. "You're upset that he slept with them
and not you."

"I am not. Never! I wouldn't sleep
with him if…" She swallowed, then nodded slowly. "More
than upset. Humiliated. I'm not like them. I'll never be like them.
Guys like Reid don't even see women like me, which is fine. I don't
want a man like him."

"But you do," her sister
said softly. "You want exactly him."

Lori scowled.
"I'm working on the problem. I'll get over him."

"Maybe
you shouldn't try to."

"Oh, please. He would never
be interested in me and I can't accept who he is on the inside. He's
like cotton candy. Dunk him in water and he dissolves."

"But
you like him."

"No. I don't like him. I despise him.
I just