An Anniversary to Die For Read Online Free

looking back over his shoulder and countermanding his wife’s orders. “Someone said he and that murdering wife of his had left the party. I sure hope that’s true.” He took a sip from his newly filled flute.
    “Well, I must agree with that ,” Susan’s mother admitted.
    Kathleen jumped into the conversation. “I love your suit.”
    Kathleen had volunteered to make sure Susan’s parents had a nice time at the party, and Susan knew that she could depend on her to do just that. She turned her attention to Claire’s date. “I don’t believe we’ve met,” Susan said, realizing as the words came out of her mouth that her statement was not true. How could she have forgotten.
    “Kernel Jack. At your service, Mrs. Henshaw.” The grin on Jack Stokes’s face probably meant he was enjoying this lapse in Susan’s memory.
    “Of course. Just one of those . . . uh, senior moments,” she stammered, reaching for her glass. How could she ever have forgotten this man? A self-made multimillionaire, Jack had started out in corn—“just spell Kernel with a K , you sweet thing”—moved into real estate, and ended up in oil. He had told the story at least three times during dinner last Thanksgiving. Susan had fled into the kitchen, preferring cleaning up to listening to this bore. “It’s nice to see you again. And such a . . . a surprise.”
    “You didn’t think I’d forget your kind invitation last November now, did you?”
    “My invitation?”
    “Yes, Susan,” Claire said. “You remember how we were all talking after dinner, and you said you had talked Jed into agreeing to give this party. And when Jack said he’d never known anyone married for thirty years . . .”
    “To the same person, Claire honey. I said I’d never known anyone married to the same person for thirty years. I’ve known people to be married for forever, but not to the same person. Most of my friends are more interested in . . . ah . . . variety.”
    “When Jack was talking about that you . . . or Jed . . . said he must come to your party next summer. Don’t you remember?”
    It was a party, so Susan didn’t blurt out the truth: that any invitation to this man would have been issued out of politeness, not from any true desire to have him here tonight—and any semisensitive person would have realized that. And she certainly had not sent him an invitation. But she had excellent manners. “I’m just glad you could make it.” She smiled at Kernel Jack.
    “Wouldn’t have missed your party for the world.”
    “I thought you were here to see me,” Claire jumped in.
    “Why, honey, I’m not here just to see you. I’m courting. Never go to a wedding or an anniversary party with someone you’re not courting. That’s my motto.”
    Susan looked up from her foie gras, noted the embarrassed expression on Claire’s face, and smiled. Could her strong-willed, independent mother-in-law have met her match here? She started to speak when a familiar arm slipped around her shoulder.
    “Great party, Mom! I haven’t seen most of these people since my wedding.”
    Susan smiled up at her daughter. Chrissy, always a gorgeous young woman, was glowing. “You could come home more often, you know.”
    “I know, but I’m so busy at the gallery six days a week, and I don’t want to miss my evening classes. And Stephen studies all the time. He thinks he’ll be able to get his MBA a semester early. He’s already getting job offers.”
    “Chrissy, that’s wonderful! Are any of them in New York?”
    Her daughter laughed. “Oh, Mother. You never give up, do you? We’ll talk tomorrow. I have lots of news.” And, gracefully, Chrissy floated away, waving to an acquaintance somewhere else in the room.
    Susan looked over at her husband. “Has anyone seen Chad?”
    “Yes, he was standing by the bar set up on the deck. I don’t think he was as interested in the alcohol as in the attractive young woman tending bar,” Jed added quickly.
    “Ah, to be young