Page 55 of Plane Passion

Smiling and shaking her head, she said, “Oh, ye of little faith. Just think about it, will you?”

He shrugged. “All right. I’ll think about it.”

The answer was no, absolutely not. There. He’d thought about it.

At that moment, there was a commotion downstairs at the door.

“They must be home from shopping,” Constance said.

With a sigh, Ernie braced himself for the arrival of the twins.

“Constance, Constance,” cried two competing voices from down below. There was a scrambling noise from the stairs.

The twins burst into the parlor, each with a pile of books. “Look what I got at the bookstore,” said Verity, dumping her entire pile of books into Constance’s lap. “Oh, hi, Ernie.”

“I got just as good as her,” said Prudence, dumping her pile on top of Verity’s. “Hi, Ernie.”

Mom came into the room, looking worn and drawn. “Ernest, it’s good to see you.” She came over to give him a hug. “Your sisters have worn me out. I need to go upstairs and lie down for a bit.” She touched the gold cross necklace Grandpa gave her and turned back to the stairs.

Constance’s eyes flickered to his, her concern evident. They would need to take extra good care of Mom until she pulled through this, which meant more time wrangling Prudence and Verity. At least it would be a distraction from Millie.

“Verity, show me what you got,” he said. Constance handed him Verity’s books with a grateful look.

Ernie perused the pile of crime novels. “Who is this author? Agatha Christie. I’ve never heard of her,” he said, picking one from the pile at random.

“She’s new. This is her first book. It’s supposed to be marvelous. I can’t wait to read it.”

He listened patiently as Verity told him about each book and why she was excited to read it.

“Do you want to read any of these?” Verity asked. “I can’t read them all at the same time, and I’d be happy to share.”

“Thank you, that’s very kind. I think I’ll read this one.” He picked one from the pile. Why not? Crime novels were a good read, and he needed to kill the next few days somehow. He didn’t dare go out on the town. The last thing he wanted was for Millie to think he was still playing the field while canoodling with her. He was going to have to take a cue from Jack and spend his evenings at home with a book.

Not that he had any assurance Millie would ever even speak to him again. Here he was, saving himself for the mere possibility she might call. For her, he would be a saint. Good God, how she’d changed him! He hardly recognized himself. But she was worth it. If only he could get her to call him.

The phone rang, and he jumped, running for the receiver before anyone else could pick it up.

“Pritchard residence,” he said into the phone, breathless.

“Hey, Ernie. It’s Jack.”

Ernie’s shoulders sagged in disappointment, even though he knew there was no way Millie would have seen his note yet.

“Hiya, Jack. What’s up?”

“I was just wondering if you might like to meet up for a sarsaparilla and some chess at the American Flying Club tomorrow afternoon.”

Normally, Ernie went out too much to have time for a slow afternoon at the club with Jack, but right now, soda and board games sounded like just the thing to keep him away from temptation.

“Sounds great. What time?”

“Say two-ish?”

“Perfect. I’ll see you then!”

“See ya, Pritchard.”

Something told Ernie he was going to drink a lot of soda and play a lot of chess over the next three days.