by Joan Hohl
Julia didn’t know what her friends were up to after they said goodbye but the temperature between her and Jon was decidedly chilly.
Back to square one, Julia thought, her sigh of disappointment drowned out by Jon’s soft snore. Strange, she mused, hovering on the edge of sleep. Jon rarely snored, except when he drank. It was her last thought before the champagne and sleep caught up with her. She didn’t hear her own gentle snore.
CHAPTER 8
Throughout the following weeks, the three couples met intermittently, whenever each pair were free for a weekend. Those meetings increased when, after working out his notice, Drew moved his family and all their worldly goods back to the Philadelphia area. Before leaving to go back to Maine, he and Laura had found a recently completed house in one of the newer communities of Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Close, but not too close, to Philadelphia.
Between those meetings, Julia worked at resolving the problems in her marriage. She made little progress. Jon had such a heavy work schedule, the only time Julia could talk to him alone was late in the evening, in their bedroom. By then, he was usually so tired there was little talking and even less intimacy.
They did make love occasionally. Although as unpalatable as it was for Julia to admit to herself, they didn’t really make love in the tender and laughing way they used to. In effect, they had sex. Unsatisfactory sex, at that.
Julia became more unhappy and frustrated with each passing week. So did Jon but, of course, with practically no meaningful communication between them, Julia had no way of knowing that. He seldom made it home for dinner, and even when he did they didn’t talk much. With the girls at the table, the conversation was naturally general, bland, and of course, friendly. Wouldn’t do to upset the girls.
After dinner was a wash, too. Jon always went directly to his home office, claiming the necessity of doing some research (into what, Julia hadn’t a clue) or patient files to study. Since he appeared to do all the work himself, Julia was often tempted to inquire what his office staff, particularly Brooke, did all day.
Julia was tempted, but she never asked, admittedly because she feared she really didn’t want to hear the possible answer he’d finally confess to her.
In a bid to keep her mind occupied she decided to help the woman who cleaned for her once a week, explaining it was time for a thorough spring house-cleaning. When every item and surface in the house was spotless, Julia threw herself with more vigor than usual into her normal pursuits of tennis, exercise classes, and the seemingly endless business of being president of the equestrian mothers’ organization.
Unbeknownst to each other, both Julia and Jonathan were at their wits’ end.
Laura’s time flew by in a flurry of activity. Taking care of the younger kids, packing the more personal things she didn’t feel comfortable leaving to the professional movers, unpacking everything once they were into the new house, she barely had time to think about making dinner, let alone think about something as serious as divorcing her husband. Even during her few moments of quiet, her thoughts were colored by Drew’s behavior since acquiring his new job.
Drew was working long hours familiarizing himself with his new position. When he finally came home, at times as late as nine or ten o’clock, he was considerate, loving and attentive to Laura.
His behavior alone should have alerted her, and would have if she hadn’t been so busy herself. She had to get her new home into shape, exactly as she wanted. Then there was the matter of helping the younger kids settle in as best she could. And she was also getting herself in shape, exactly as she wanted.
As promised, Krissy had sent her the diet plan and workout video she herself used. Laura immediately threw herself into the program.
The first time she went grocery shopping after receiving the package from Krissy, Laura spent over three hundred dollars. With four growing kids to feed, her grocery bills had always been high. But, with a bigger budget to work from, Laura went wild, stocking up on all the foods suggested in her diet plan.
On the occasional weekends she and Drew could get together with her friends there was so much talking and laughing, neither Julia nor Krissy appeared to notice that Laura was ordering low-carb, low-cal meals. Laura didn’t mind because, even if it didn’t as yet show on her overweight body, her very slow but steady weight loss of one pound a week was right there for her to see every Monday morning when she stepped on her scale.
Laura was beginning to feel the slow weight loss in the looseness of her clothes, as well. Although Drew also didn’t seem to notice, Laura loved the proof on her scale. She loved the feeling of easy movement in her clothing, especially the pieces that had been more than a little snug before she began the program.
Though it was slow, the progress Laura was making bolstered her determination to reach her game-plan goal of losing every pound of the excess weight.
For the first time since she set eyes on him, Laura was more focused on herself than Drew. It caused a strange but not unpleasant sensation inside her.
Then it all came to a screeching halt.
Laura discovered Drew was leading a double life, and surmised he had been ever since they had made the move from Maine. And she found out by pure, stupid happenstance.
Gathering together the winter wool garments that needed dry cleaning and bagging for summer, Laura automatically grabbed a recently purchased suit she knew Drew had worn several times to work, thinking it probably needed cleaning as well. At the dry cleaners, the clerk had asked Laura if she had gone through the pockets of the outer garments and the suit for gloves or other objects left behind.
Laura found a pair of gloves, her own, in the pocket of her one good wool coat. Smiling wryly at the clerk, she proceeded to go through all the other coat and jacket pockets. The last garment she went through was Drew’s suit. On the inside breast pocket of the jacket, she found a single, unfamiliar key, with a tag attached by a short chain.
Shrugging, she slipped the key into her purse and forgot about it. It was hot for late spring, a harbinger of the fast approaching summer. Thirsty, Laura stopped in a coffee shop for a tall glass of iced tea. She noticed the key when she dug into her bag for money to pay for the drink.
Sitting at a small table next to a window, Laura stared longingly at the sugar, sighed, and squeezed the lemon wedge stuck to the side of the glass and stirred her tea. A hint of a smile of pride in herself curving her lips, she retrieved the key to give it and the tag a closer look.
The words were seared into her mind.
Drew, darling, use this key whenever you want. If I’m not at home, make yourself comfortable or start dinner. Or, better still, wait for me in bed. Love you, Megan.
Megan? A light went off inside Laura’s mind. Their real estate agent’s name was Megan. Could it be? She recalled how friendly with one another the woman and Drew had been, how well they appeared to know each other. The woman was younger than Laura, pretty, slim. Laura felt bile rise to her throat at the memory.
Like a zombie, she left her untouched tea and unsteadily walked out of the coffee shop to her car. Moving like a sleepwalker, she started the car and pulled away from the curb. She couldn’t go home, pick up the younger kids from her mother’s. Not yet. She had to be alone, somewhere. She had to think…if she could.
She drove without conscious thought to the Cherry Hill Mall. What better place to be alone than in an area full of strangers?
A soft sigh of relief whispered through Laura’s lips as she stepped into the air-conditioned mall. Her throat was dry, and with another sigh she recalled that she hadn’t drunk her tea. She headed for the closest restaurant.
Laura ordered another glass of iced tea, was on the point of asking for lemon, when she thought, oh what the hell, she’d use sugar…and went on to add a hot fudge sundae to her order.
What was the use of starving herself, exercising, as well as a year of denying herself the pleasure of lighting up a cigarette when Drew didn’t even notice? Of course, he hadn’t no
ticed. He was too into his affair with…Laura refused to even think of her name.
The sundae came. Laura devoured it like a starving woman. Then she felt sick to her stomach. Because of the sundae…or the disgusting man who’d been using her all these years? Laura wondered, sipping her sugar-sweetened tea.
Laura wanted to cry, scream out her pain, beat Drew with a heavy object, scratch his face. But she couldn’t. She was too aware of being in public and that Drew wasn’t there. Hell, no! Drew was…No, she couldn’t let off steam, rant and rave, not here, maybe not anywhere. It had been a very long time since Laura had had any real private time to herself. So scratch the screaming, ranting and raving, not to mention Drew’s too attractive face.
Laura knew one thing she could do. Moving with determination, she left the mall and drove to the nearest supermarket. She was in the store mere minutes, then she was back inside her car, tearing open the carton, pulling the cellophane off the package, lighting up with the lighter she’d purchased along with the cigarettes.
The first couple of draws make her light-headed. When the wooziness ceased, Laura was once again hooked. That quickly. That easily. That sadly. But her mind was clear, her emotions a bit more stable.
Should she stay with Drew, turn a blind eye to his infidelities, as she had all these years? Or had she finally reached the very edge of tolerance, had enough to send the cheating bastard packing?
Think. There were the kids, the new house, the sheer relief from all the money pressures of before.
Think, Laura, she cautioned herself. Think long and hard before making a final decision.
Think.
Shooting had begun on the movie. Independently produced, it was a combination of drama, romance and comedy. A real challenge, and not only for Krissy. Rand, as the second lead, played the part of the “other man,” rough and tough, with a murky past and dubious purpose.
Until Krissy saw it with her own eyes, she couldn’t imagine Rand ever looking rough and tough. But with his longish hair mussed and tangled, a two-day growth on his cheeks and dressed in scruffy clothes, he looked like a different person. A dangerous, possibly lethal person.
Krissy got a thrill of excitement simply looking at him.
The lead was an up-and-coming young actor who usually played the tough action roles and was now having to adjust to the part of a sensitive poet. The young, beautiful actress—over halfway up the success ladder—had the difficult part of a bright, savvy, yet still physically innocent heroine, trying to choose between the two men.
Always before, Krissy had been given the bit roles of the beautiful, sexy-as-hell, not-too-bright types. She had been cast as a hooker, a gangster’s mistress, an older, rich man’s arm candy. All pretty damned boring, in Krissy’s opinion, which was one of the reasons she had decided to chuck her so-called career, as well as the Hollywood scene.
But this part Rand had talked her into reading for was different, a much needed challenge. Though as minor as all the other roles she had played, it had teeth. The part called for an ultra-sophisticated, shrewd businesswoman, the CEO of a major corporation, and the lead actress’s superior. She would only be in a few scenes, but they were pivotal, as each scene developed the interaction between the heroine and the two competing men in her life.
After her reading, Krissy had felt certain she would not get the part. When she got the call offering her the job, no one could have been more shocked than Krissy herself.
Could she do it? The question had tormented her from day one until now—her first day shooting. For all Rand’s reassurances and encouragement, Krissy was a nervous wreck, on the edge of throwing in the towel and admitting she couldn’t do justice to the role.
Her first scene was finished in three takes. Krissy was convinced she had screwed it up, come on too forcefully. The scene had been shot indoors, in an office setting suitably plush for the CEO of a large corporation.
“Bravo.”
Rand’s whisper tickled Krissy’s ear, and startled a muted shriek from her. She had had no idea he had been on the set, observing her performance.
“Rand!” she cried softly. “When did you get here? I thought I asked you specifically not to be on the set.”
“Aha!” He gave her a teasing grin. “That’s my excuse for being here.”
Krissy frowned at him in the mirror as she removed her screen makeup. “Excuse? What do you mean excuse?” Face shiny clean, she started to apply her street makeup. She didn’t get very far before Rand tugged on her arm and started to lead her away from the set. “Where are you taking me? I’m not finished putting on my makeup!”
“Don’t need it. You’re already beautiful. And I’m taking you for a late lunch,” he answered, continuing on out of the building into the glare of the hot, harsh sunlight. “Or, if you prefer, an early dinner. Whichever you desire.” His smile managed to be both tender and sexy.
How does he do that? Krissy wondered, replying, “If I told you what the rest of my body desires…”
“I’m ready whenever you are,” he cut in, his smile turning positively wicked. “What will it be, eat or…” He trailed off, raising his eyebrows, then wiggling them.
Krissy laughed, thinking it was little wonder he had such a devastating effect on the screen, with that devilish grin and low, sexy voice.
“Well, love. What’s it going to be? Food or bed?” He treated her to another, even sexier grin.
“You’re incorrigible.” She couldn’t keep a smile at bay. He was so, sooo…everything.
“Hot, too,” Rand drawled.
Oh, for certain, Krissy silently agreed, while working up a scowl of disapproval. “I think it had better be food. I was too anxious to eat any breakfast and I’m hungry.”
“So am I,” he said, his voice even lower.
“For food,” Krissy said, repressively. “I have a feeling I’m going to have to be at full strength when we do get back to the hotel.”
“Food it is,” he said, grinning as he led her to his car. “I want you at extra full strength.”
Krissy didn’t bother to ask why, but he gave it anyway.
“For when you’re at full strength,” he murmured, sliding behind the wheel. “You can wring me out and hang me up to dry.”
Krissy’s amusement at his exaggeration—well, maybe it wasn’t much of an exaggeration—erupted in a burst of hearty laughter. “You’re sooo bad,” she scolded.
“And that’s when I’m the very best.”
CHAPTER 9
Summer had definitely arrived in Pennsylvania. It was hot and humid. There was an ominous stillness in the air. The leaves barely moved on the three large trees in the backyard of the old stone house.
Julia stood at the back kitchen door, watching a gathering darkness in the sky. Storm building, she thought, catching a zigzag of lightning through the clouds. A muted rumble of thunder followed the streak of light.
Using the counting system between the lightning and thunder, Julia figured the storm to be somewhere around five or so miles away. Not that it mattered, as long as the storm arrived to dump some needed rain.
Opening the door Julia stepped from the air-conditioned cool of the kitchen onto the wide porch that wrapped around two sides of the big house. The heat was stifling. Within seconds, she felt moisture bead her forehead and the back of her neck.
She loved storms, had since she was a child. She couldn’t remember ever being afraid of them, most likely because her mother never showed fear of the weather. That was one of the reasons her mother loved Florida so much; Florida was noted for its nearly daily rain showers, not to mention thunderstorms and the dreaded hurricanes. Those her mother, father and brother took seriously.
The tree leaves rustled, then began to dance as the storm drew closer, bringing wind with it. Julia took a deep breath of the rain-scented, cooler air.
“Hey, Mom, I’m home,” Emily called, coming around the porch. “I knew I’d find you out here.”
“Hi,” Julia said,
holding out her arms for a hug. “Got chased off the court, did you?” Besides being an excellent horsewoman, Emily played a mean game of tennis.
“Yeah,” the girl groused, giving Julia a tight hug and a quick kiss on the cheek. “The coach said to call it a day and the storm isn’t even here yet.”
“But coming,” Julia said, hearing another crackle of lightning almost immediately followed by a loud rumble of rolling thunder. “And fast.” She raised her face to the quickening wind, drawing the cool air deep into her lungs. She grinned at her daughter’s laughter.
“You really love this weather,” Emily teased. “Always have, haven’t you?”
“As if you didn’t know.” Julia laughed and stuck her hand out from under the porch roof to feel the first large, nearly cold raindrops. “I could run out in it like I did when I was your age.”
“Hey, you guys!” Emma yelled over another roll of thunder, shaking like a wet dog as she came around the porch corner. Without a care, she walked up to Julia and gave her a hug.
“You’re wet!” Julia protested, laughing anyway and returning the hug.
“Actually,” Emily corrected, dodging her sister’s attempt to hug her, too. “She’s soaking.”
“No kidding, Sherlock,” Emma retorted, making a face at her older sister.
“So go get changed,” Julia said, just as another voice called from the porch corner.
“Why are you three standing back there?” Jon said, standing at the juncture with his hands on his hips. “When you could be sitting here in the front to watch th—”
“Dad,” the Ems cried in happy chorus.
Jon? Julia thought, frowning in confusion. He rarely got home in time for dinner, never mind before then.
“There’s my girls,” he said, holding his arms wide, as the two launched themselves at him. He caught them up in a bear hug, and immediately pulled back the arm encircling Emma. “You’re soaking wet, Em.”
