When they got in the car Annie felt so odd. And Brenda kept looking at her. Not in a mean way really. Just curiously. Brenda looked so much older than she really was. Annie felt it was like having a prudish old aunt around instead of a sister. Brenda always put her blond hair up in a bun and never used any makeup. But then their mother disapproved of makeup. Annie cheated a little by putting the stuff on after she'd left the house.
"Nice service today," Annie said to her sister, hoping to break the strange mood she felt between them.
"It was boring as usual," Brenda said. Her eyes danced for a moment. Their mother was busy pulling out from the curb and hadn't heard. Annie didn't say anything else on the way home. But she was thinking plenty. Thinking about Gil Blake and how wonderful his hands had felt touching and loving her.
CHAPTER TWO
"You work so hard during the week," her father said, "that I certainly don't expect you to put in Sundays too." He dug the key to the store from his pocket and held it out. Brenda took it.
"There's some bookkeeping that needs catching up on," she said. "I don't mind really. I kind of enjoy it." She might have blushed a little from the lie she was telling but her father didn't notice. Brenda went out of the house, her heart pounding faster already. She looked forward to these Sundays she spent at the antique store her father ran. She had the place to herself. Her imagination could run free. And it always did.
Her hands were sweaty on the steering wheel as she drove the few dozen blocks to the part of town where her father's store had been located for the past ten years. He did a good business with the richer folks and a fast turnover of smaller items that the college crowd picked up on. Brenda parked and let herself in. With the light coming through the drawn shades, the store had a musty, mysterious feel to it. Brenda made a few adjustments at the desk in back so that it would appear she was actually working on the books. That was in case her father dropped in. He never did. But she trusted him no further than she could throw an antique bed.