He had forgotten, but he didn’t mind being on his own. Avoiding Liz until everything got straightened out was probably a good idea. That was why he was just getting home at nine o’clock. He heated up the dish in the microwave and went into his study to look over some emails. By ten, he was heading to his room to get ready for bed. Just as he was turning off his lamp, he heard a door in the hall.
“Liz?”
“Yeah, it’s me. Did I wake you?”
“Just getting to bed. Sleep well,” he called.
“Night, Will,” she answered.
In the morning, he left for work while Liz was in the shower. He was slightly annoyed by his cowardice, but he felt it was better to keep his distance until something could be decided. Hopefully he would have a plan by the end of the day.
**
It was ten o’clock when Evelyn buzzed to tell him Arnold Billington had requested his first available appointment. At ten thirty, Arnold was sitting across from him in the same seat he had the day before.
“Please tell me you have good news,” Will said.
“As a matter of fact, I do. The nonfiction department, specifically biographies and memoirs, requested three interns this year. We only had the budget for two, so that’s all they got. However, if your wife would agree to an unpaid internship, we could give them one more. She wouldn’t be able to tell anyone about the arrangement—I don’t want to create any hassles. I won’t even tell the head of the department. He’ll think she’s being paid just like the others. Best of all, the intern supervisor doesn’t pay much attention to the society pages. I doubt he even knows you got married.”
“Sounds perfect. So what happens next?”
Arnold handed William an envelope. “Here’s an acceptance letter from the intern coordinator. My assistant took the liberty of adding Mrs. Harper to the system. I assume that she’s qualified if Carter was willing to take her on, but we’ll need copies of her transcript and recommendation letters for the file. She should send them to my office; my assistant will enter them into the system so it looks like she applied months ago with the other interns. From there, she’ll just need to stop by HR to fill out the paperwork and she’ll be ready to start in January.”
Will sighed heavily. “Thank you, Arnold. I can’t tell you how relieved I am. I’m sure Liz will be very pleased with this.”
“And you’ll be out of the doghouse!” Arnold chuckled and Will rubbed the back of his neck as he stood and walked toward the door.
“I’ll pass this on to Liz and she’ll contact your assistant. Thank you again, Arnold. I really appreciate it.”
“Think nothing of it, William. I’m happy to help.” Billington clapped him on the shoulder and left.
**
Liz was in the kitchen, stirring a pot of something that smelled delicious and reading a book that was open on the counter next to her when Will walked in that evening. He approached her slowly.
“What are you making?” he asked gently.
“Chicken vegetable soup. It’s comforting,” she said softly and gave him a small smile. “We need it in this weather.”
He glanced at the sleet-pounded window and nodded in agreement.
“Maria was here this afternoon. She made a fresh loaf of bread to go with it. I bought that fancy table butter, too. Should be a nice meal.”
She gave him that sad smile again and it made something in him ache to see her trying so hard to be nice and normal and happy when she was clearly devastated.
“I have good news,” he said a little too loudly. “Or what I think is good news. The nonfiction department at Taggston Publishing requested three interns this term but only had the budget for two. If you’re willing to work without pay, they’d be happy to have you as the third. It’s in biographies.”
She looked at him skeptically. “Really? The biography department?”
“Yes. I spoke with the president today and he confirmed all the details.” He handed her the letter. “What do you think?”
She read silently for a moment, then looked up with much brighter eyes. “Will they know who I am? I mean, that we’re married?”
“Arnold Billington, the president, obviously knows. You danced with him at the reception. Tall chap, gray hair. Anyhow, he said the intern coordinator is none the wiser and if you want to use your maiden name, that’s fine by them. You should be able to have a relatively normal intern experience.”
Suddenly he had his arms full of Liz, her head pressed into his chest and her arms squeezing him tightly. He squeezed her back and kissed the top of her head. He always forgot how much shorter than him she was without her shoes on. Finally, she lifted her head and looked up at him, her arms still wrapped around him and her chin on his chest.
“Thank you, Will,” she said softly.
“Don’t thank me. It was the right thing to do. You shouldn’t be losing career opportunities because of me,” he said seriously.
“Thank you for doing the right thing, then.” She reached up on her toes and kissed his chin.
She released him and went back to her soup, giving it a quick stir before closing her book and grabbing two bowls from the cabinet.
“Let’s eat!” she said happily. She was still a bit subdued, but clearly so much happier than she had been and Will gladly agreed and opened the drawer to fetch two spoons.
“How about we eat in the living room and watch a film?” he asked.
“That sounds nice. What are you in the mood for?”
“I don’t know. Something old, maybe. You?”
“That sounds good. You pick.”
She filled the bowls while Will set up the film, and they ate soup with homemade bread and Irish butter, watched a black and white movie, and did bad impressions of Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn while snuggling under her grandmother’s quilt.
When the film was finished, Will sighed and leaned his head on the back of the sofa.
“What’s wrong? You look stressed,” Liz asked, brushing the hair away from his temple.
“Just thinking about Christmas. And family.”
“In a good way or a bad way?”
“Both, I suppose.”
She snuggled closer and crossed her knee into his lap. “Care to elaborate?”
He sighed again and it came out more like a groan. “You met my family. They’re not exactly warm. The holidays with them are always a little, I don’t know…”
“Cold?”
“Yes. Everyone buys tastefully expensive gifts that their assistants likely choose and we sit down to a perfectly prepared meal. I wear an uncomfortable suit because I know my aunt would have a heart attack if I came to table without a jacket on. We discuss business and stock reports and pretend to like each other. It’s not very…”
“Christmas-y?”
“Yes.”
“If you had your druthers, how would you spend the holiday?”
“If I didn’t have to spend it with my family?”
“Yeah.”
“I don’t know. One year when we were students, Jamison, Cavendish, and I went skiing with some friends from uni. There was a storm and we were trapped in this cabin. No parents, no professors telling us what to do. No deadlines or clients to keep happy. No uncles to impress and convince I was ready to handle the business. It was lovely. I remember thinking that I’d like to do that again, get away like that with people close to me. I think, if I could, I’d do Christmas like that.”
“It sounds wonderful. Where were you?”
“Cavendish has a place in the Swiss Alps. Or his family does. Just outside of this little village that has this fantastic fondue restaurant. There are only about a dozen tables, and the waitresses don’t speak much English; it’s not a really touristy spot, but you can eat your weight in cheese.”
“Mmm. Sign me up!”
Will laughed. “I’ll have to take you to Switzerland sometime. You’d love it there. Do you ski at all?”
“No, but I bet I’d look great i
n a ski suit,” she teased.
“I bet you would, too,” he growled playfully as he ran a hand across her thigh. They were both laughing and looked at each other for a long moment until Liz broke eye contact and laid her head on his shoulder.
“Maybe we can go there after London? For New Year maybe?”
“Yeah, maybe,” he said huskily.
Liz felt him shift beneath her and carefully extracted her leg from his lap and scooted out from beneath the quilt.
“I’m off to bed. I’ll see you in the morning, Will,” she said quickly without looking at him.
“Night, Liz,” he said to the floor.
28
About Time
Mid December
8 Months Married
“Are you going to tell me where we’re going?” Will asked.
“Nope. You’ll just have to wait and see.”
Liz was driving them out of the city. It was the Friday afternoon before Christmas and she’d only told Will to pack plenty of warm clothing, then teasingly added that he should bring her Christmas gift.
“How far is this place?”
“About four hours altogether. And it’s already been one, so just three more to go!” she answered cheerfully.
Will rolled his eyes and looked out the window. He finally fell asleep after another half hour and when he woke up, they were stopped in front of a familiar looking log cabin surrounded by evergreen trees.
“Is this Jamison’s cabin? Are we in Vermont?”
“Yup!” Liz answered from behind the car where she was pulling things out from the trunk. “He said we could borrow it for the weekend. He and Jen would have joined us, but they’re packing for the trip to Farmington Sunday. I can’t believe he’s willing to spend an entire week with my family, but that’s love for you.”
She kept up a running dialog as she pulled out two large bags, one filled with wrapped presents and the other with food she and Maria had prepared, plus some ingredients for making Christmas goodies. William got out of the car and stretched, taking a deep breath of the crisp mountain air.
“When were you here last?” Liz asked as she came out of the house after taking in her sacks.
“It’s been a few years,” he answered. “It’s not very good for a group, Andrew mostly comes up here on his own or with a—” he stopped when he noticed Liz looking at him expectantly. “There are only two bedrooms, so it’s more of a private retreat,” he said awkwardly as he turned his back to her and looked around, pretending to admire the scenery.
“Hmm.”
Will went around the back to pick up the two small suitcases they’d brought as she grabbed the last bag and locked up the car, then bounded up the steps onto the porch and let the screen door make a satisfying smack behind her. She went straight to the kitchen and pulled out the roast Maria had made and began heating it up while she put the other groceries away.
“Do you know which bedroom you want?” Will popped his head into the kitchen. “There’s a small loft room upstairs, it has two single beds. The bedroom down here has a king and an ensuite.” She looked at him over the refrigerator door and he added, “You should take that one. You’ve never been here before and it has a fireplace. I’ll just take my bag upstairs.”
“Why don’t we share the room?”
His brows jumped. “Share?”
“Yeah. Why not? Then we can both enjoy the fireplace.”
“Right. Okay. Right then,” he said as he left, his cheeks a very faint shade of pink.
A few hours later, Liz was in the bathroom brushing her teeth. They’d had a lovely meal and finished a bottle of wine while they shared holiday memories. Liz did most of the talking, as usual, and Will laughed at her exuberant storytelling skills, like he usually did. More than once their eyes had caught across the table and they’d shared a look, one of them always looking away and changing the subject before things became too heavy.
She’d finally excused herself and he’d offered to load the dishwasher while she got ready for bed. She appreciated his consideration, with the dishes and for giving her time to use the room privately, but part of her wished he hadn’t been quite so considerate.
As she brushed her teeth, she rummaged through her suitcase and looked at the nightgowns she’d brought with her from her La Perla expedition with Jen. When her sister and Laura had heard about Liz and Will’s weekend, they’d wasted no time giving her advice on how to seduce her husband. Jen had suggested subtle, of course, incorporating wine and candles and possibly some sort of massage. Laura had bluntly told her to just jump him. She did suggest the shower for creativity. Maybe the shower was a good idea? Should she just wait for him to get in tonight and then open the door and ask if she could join him?
She looked at the walk-in steam shower and thought it was definitely a possibility, but she didn’t know if she wanted to have their first time in a shower. She didn’t know his quirks yet. The kind of quirks you only know about someone you’re sexually intimate with. What if he had a bum knee and couldn’t hold her up? What if one of them lost their balance and they fell and she broke her tailbone? What if it was all just too slippery? She shook her head and told herself to stop being so ridiculous.
Looking at the nightgowns again, she saw there was a beautiful black gown. It was full-length and made of soft silk. The back was almost completely open, a deep V that went to the top of her bum. Maybe that was a good option? Surely if she went to bed in that, he’d get that she was open to the idea of… What exactly? Was it sex?
That sounded so cheap somehow. It wasn’t just sex. They were friends and they cared about each other. Deeply. At least she cared about him deeply. And he’d said she was his best friend. So it couldn’t be just sex. Making love then? But that sounded so romantic. They weren’t really romantic. Not like Jenny and Andrew with their constant mooning over each other or even like she’d been with Jeremy when she couldn’t stop thinking about him and just seeing him in a crowd made her stomach flip.
They were friends who cared about each other and had a lot of affection for one another. Affectionate friends. Friends that loved each other. So it could be making love, couldn’t it? Just a different kind of making love. Friend love. She wished that didn’t sound so creepy. But they were more than just friends, right? Will had said that they were. They were partners. And what was more partner-y than having sex/making friend love?
She laughed at herself for all her silly justifications. “Just be honest with yourself, Lizzy,” she said quietly to her stacks of folded clothes. “You want him. He’s handsome and funny and sweet and smells reeeeaaaally good. It’s okay to want someone. You’re a grown woman, he’s an adult, there’s nothing wrong here. You don’t have to be head over heels in love with someone to have sex. You know that.”
She shook off her silliness and decided that she would go old school. She’d flirt, touch his arm, play with his hair. Let him know she was interested and go from there. All this planning was stressing her out.
Will was in the kitchen rinsing the dishes and mechanically loading the dishwasher, a skill he’d acquired in the last few months since Liz came into his life. Liz. He stopped mid-rinse and thought about how relaxed she’d looked at the table sipping her wine. She was so lively, and yet so laid back at the same time. He’d never felt so comfortable in his life. If the table between them hadn’t placed her so far away, he knew he would have kissed her. He wasn’t completely sure, but he thought she’d wanted him to. She’d been giving him shy glances for the last week, and she was the one to suggest they share the bed. Surely that was a sign?
He didn’t want to assume, but he’d brought a box of condoms just in case. He wasn’t sure which ones she preferred so he’d bought three different kinds, including some all-natural brand that was three times the cost of the others. He’d felt like an idiot in the drug store line, especially when the teenaged cashier looked at him with an approving smile and nodded. But when Liz had said she wanted to go away with him
for the weekend, he’d hoped, wondered—no, definitely hoped—that this would be the time. It had now been over a year since he’d had sex and his body was definitely ready to move to the next level.
He considered how to go about it, thinking maybe the hot tub could be a good option, but he hadn’t brought a swimsuit so would have to go without, and that might be coming on too strong at first. Maybe he could invite her to sit in front of the fire, open another bottle of wine and offer to rub her shoulders. She must be sore from the drive. One thing could lead to another … But he didn’t know if the floor was a good option for their first time. What if she was turned off by the idea?
Perhaps the shower? But that might be too slippery. He remembered Andrew coming back from a weekend here once with a decided limp and the explanation that redheads and showers don’t mix.
He put the last glass in the dishwasher and turned it on. He flipped off the lights and went to find Liz. Maybe inspiration would strike at the last moment.
He walked into the room to find her staring at her suitcase.
“Lizzy?” She turned to face him, her shoulders slightly tense but a smile on her face. “Everything all right?”
“Yes, of course. Just, um, getting ready, uh, I thought, um. How’d the cleanup go?” she asked, standing at an awkward angle but trying to appear normal.
“Fine. No problems.” Say something, quick. “I’m a bit sore from the car ride.” Brilliant. Just brilliant. “How about you?”
“Yeah, um, a little. Especially my shoulders.” Jen’s suggestion of a massage ran through her mind and she rolled her shoulders for emphasis.
“Maybe we could—,” Quick, pick something! Hot tub, shower, massage. Just choose! “Um, there’s a hot tub on the deck.”
“Really?” She suddenly looked interested and walked to the door on the far wall and turned on the light. She stepped out and examined it, then stepped back in. “It’s not on. It’ll take a while to heat up. Maybe we can try it tomorrow?”
Green Card Page 31
