"So I honestly didn't mean to involve you with anything," he said.
She completed the reconstruction of a highball without any other hesitation; but when she turned to him again with the drink in her hand, the warm brown eyes with the flecks of laughter in them were as straight as he had always seen them.
"Then," she said, "you didn't just happen to be at Cookie's tonight by accident."
"Maybe not," he said.
"For Heaven's sake, sit down," she said. "What is this — a jitterbug contest? You and Kay ought to get married. You could have so much fun."
He smiled at her again, and left one final swallow in his glass.
"I've got to be running along. But I'm not fooling. I really wish to hell that nobody who had any connection with Cookie had seen me here. And now, to use your own words, you're stuck with it."
She looked at him with all the superficial vivacity thrown off, seriously, from steady footholds of maturity. And like everything else she did that was unexpected, after she had done it it was impossible to have expected anything else.
"You mean it might be — unhealthy?"
"I don't want to sound scary, but... yes."