Page 39 of The Wife Upstairs
“Stop it, stop it, stop it,” I mutter, my hands over my face. Eddie’s wife drowned in an accident with her best friend. Eddie wasn’t even there, and the women were drunk and possibly had some unresolved drama. Shit happens.
I try to think about the bridal store again, the way Huntley smiled at me and treated me like I had just joined an exclusive club, how good that had felt. Emily’s hug and bright smile as she’d looked at the ring.
That’s what matters now.
When I walk in the house, Eddie is already home, changed into shorts and another one of his button-down shirts. Now that I’ve seen inside his closet, I know he has dozens of them in a variety of colors. Men can do that—find one thing that looks good, then wear it for the rest of their lives, pretty much.
“There’s my girl,” he says brightly as I walk in. I smile as I greet him, but it’s clear I’m upset because he immediately frowns.
“Everything okay?”
I step easily into his arms, sighing as they come around me, my head fitting just there underneath his chin.
“Long day of wedding dress shopping,” I say, and he chuckles at that, his hands making soothing strokes up and down my back.
“Sounds exhausting,” he says. “Beer?”
I nod even though I already have a slight headache from those two glasses of champagne earlier, plus it’s barely even three in the afternoon.
Pressing a kiss to my forehead, Eddie lets me go and walks to the fridge while I set my purse down and go into the kitchen, grabbing a couple of limes from the silver bowl on the counter.
“You’re sure you’re alright?” Eddie rubs a hand down my back, and I make myself smile at him as I chop limes into wedges for our beers.
“Yeah, fine,” I say, then shake my head, using the back of my hand to push back a lock of hair from my forehead. “I just ran into Tripp Ingraham today, and he was weird.”
Eddie stills, looking down at me. “Weird how?”
I’m not actually sure how much of this I want to get into with him. My nerves are still jangled, and I’m afraid Eddie will get the wrong idea if I tell him the truth. That he might think what Tripp said about Eddie and boats got to me, scared me.
I tell myself that it didn’t.
So, I smile up at Eddie, letting the knife fall to the counter. “Oh, you know. The kind of thing you’d expect from a guy like him.”
I twine my arms around Eddie’s neck, pressing my body close to his. “He thinks I’m marrying you for your money.”
Some of the wariness leaves Eddie’s face, and he puts both arms around my waist, hands resting on my hips. “Hope you told him that you were actually in it for the sex.”
“Obviously,” I say, and when he lowers his head to kiss me, I nip at his lower lip, Tripp Ingraham and his bullshit forgotten.
17
Later, we sit outside in the big wooden Adirondack chairs in the yard, a fire crackling away in the big stone ring in front of us. Nearby, the grill smokes, and the scent of cooking meat reminds me of those summer nights in Phoenix, when the air was so still and so dry it felt like a loose spark could send everything up in flames.
The grill turned over, the burning coals spread over the gravel yard, Jane, the real Jane, crying, Mr. Brock’s red face, a sweating beer can in one hand, a pair of tongs in the other.
His KISS THECOOKapron with a giant frog on it, its lips red and obscene in a pucker, me sprawled in the rocks, my hand burning, my face stinging, thinking how stupid that apron was, how stupid it was that a man like him had this much power over all of us.
I haven’t thought about that for such a long time. I’ve pushed it all away, but now here it is, this ugly memory, in this perfect place.
Looking down, I study my engagement ring again, turning my hand this way and that, catching the light of the flames.
That’s over. That can’t touch you. No matter what John says.
Next to me, Eddie sighs, his long legs stretched out in front of him.
He really does look good tonight. I think of how slightly ragged he was when I first met him, how those edges have smoothed a littlein the past few months, and I feel a little surge of satisfaction.I did that,I think.I’ve made him happy. He’s like this because of me.
And soon, I’m going to be his wife.
