Читать книгу Big Girls Don't Cry - Бренда Новак - Страница 9

ALONE ON THE TENNIS COURT, Elizabeth lowered her racquet to glance at the new diamond-studded watch Keith had given her for their eighth wedding anniversary a few weeks ago. It was just after six. Renate, who helped them out for a couple of hours each afternoon, would’ve picked up Mica and Christopher from their various after-school activities by now. They were probably already on their way home.

Elizabeth wanted to be with them. Usually she enjoyed going to the country club, especially when Keith was home. They played doubles as often as possible. But she wasn’t in the mood to be here right now. It wasn’t easy having Keith and Isaac leave on the same day. Their departures allowed the loneliness that sometimes plagued her to move closer.

Holding her racquet between her legs, she adjusted the ribbon that gathered her thick blond hair into a ponytail and attempted to shrug off her melancholy mood by telling herself the exercise would be good for her. Keith had given her these lessons for her thirtieth birthday two months ago and expected her to take them. She could do that much. He loved that she could beat almost any woman she played, even most men, and didn’t want her to lose any of her ability.

He didn’t want her to lose her figure, either. Which was probably why he insisted that they were finished having children, even though Liz would have liked one more.

She winced at the memory of the comment he’d made when they were making love the other night. “Wow, babe, what are you eating when I’m gone? Feels like you’re putting on a few pounds.”

He was right, of course. She was comfort eating, trying to help pass the long evenings when he was away. But it wasn’t as though she’d turned into a blimp.

Throwing the ball into the air, she smacked it hard and watched it rocket to the other side of the court. It landed right in the corner, almost on the line. A perfect serve.

“Looking good.”

Dave Shapiro, the club pro, had finally deigned to show up for her lesson. But, from the way he was watching her, she couldn’t tell if he was referring to her serve or her legs.

“You’re late,” she said.

As usual, her attempt to redirect his interest did little good. “I’m worth the wait.”

She adjusted her visor as he swaggered over—and stiffened when he stood behind her, lifting her arm in the motion of her serve.

“You were holding your wrist like this, see?” He made a point of having her look up. “That’s exactly the way I want you to hold it. Every time.”

He was a little too close. Liz could feel his body’s heat, despite the cool November air, and remembered some of the suggestive things he’d said to her in the past. She knew, if she gave him any encouragement, he’d flirt even more.

But she’d never get seriously involved with him. No matter how handsome he was. No matter how badly she needed to feel desirable. After going through some of the most difficult years of her life without a mother, she wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize her own small family.

“You’re a beautiful woman, you know that?” he said.

“And you’re about seven years too young for me,” she replied, smiling because he was so obvious.

He shrugged. “That isn’t the reason you’re not interested.”

Maybe Dave was cocky, but she appreciated how honest and direct he could be. “Not exclusively, no.”

He hesitated for a moment, his attention roving over her short skirt. “Your husband’s a lucky man.”

“Commitment’s an important part of loving someone, don’t you think?” she said, and served again. Too long.

When his eyes finally met hers, his grin spread up one side, making him appear even more boyish than usual. “I think your husband’s gone too often. It isn’t wise to leave a wife alone so much.”

“He trusts me,” she said simply.

Dave cocked an eyebrow at her. “Do you trust him?”

“Of course.”

“You don’t think he’s ever visited a bar or a strip club and wound up in someone else’s bed?”

To be honest, she had considered that possibility. Her husband retrieved his voice mail and his e-mails when he was away, and responded if she needed him. But he never answered his cell phone during those long absences and rarely bothered to call her. She often wondered what he did when he had some spare time. Especially on holidays. At least once a year, he missed a major holiday because a network went down somewhere in the company. Did some of the other guys ever take him out for a drink? Or to a party?

She couldn’t picture it. He said most of the guys at work were jerks and he refused to socialize with them. He wouldn’t even attend the annual Christmas party. When she asked him how he spent his evening hours, he denied having any fun at all. “I try to get as much done as possible while I’m gone so I can be more available to you and the kids when I’m home,” he said. And he made it easy for her to believe him. Although he worked while he was home—quite a bit, actually—he was completely devoted to her and the kids. She’d never seen him so much as look at another woman.

So rather than become an insecure nag, she’d chosen to trust him.

“He’s a workaholic, which keeps him pretty busy,” she said. “And he loves our kids as much as I do.”

Dave reached down to retrieve a stray ball. “Maybe you’re as lucky as he is. But if I were a gambler, I wouldn’t bet on it.”

“You barely know him!” she said.

“He’s a man, isn’t he?”

“That’s pretty cynical, not to mention sexist,” she accused, slugging him halfheartedly in the arm. “Anyway, you’re wrong.”

“How do you know?” he asked.

She claimed the ball and served again. “Because I know my husband.”

AT THE AIRPORT, Isaac sat in a row of chairs one gate away from Keith. Other passengers crowded into the space between them, occasionally obstructing his view, but Isaac didn’t move any closer. He didn’t want his brother-in-law to know he was being watched, even though, from what Isaac could tell, he didn’t appear to be particularly concerned about those around him. He didn’t seem to be doing much of anything unusual—except going to the wrong city. According to the sign behind the desk, he was waiting for a flight that had been scheduled to leave for Boise, Idaho, this morning but had been delayed because of bad weather.

Boise. Why in the world would Keith be going there? Isaac might have guessed that Softscape, Inc., the company Keith worked for, had decided to send him somewhere else at the last minute. But that call saying he’d arrived safely and was already enjoying the sunshine made no sense. A man didn’t play such an elaborate charade without a reason.

What was Keith’s reason?

Isaac glanced at his watch. He’d missed his own flight to Chicago more than thirty minutes ago, so that decision had already been made. He knew he might regret his actions—certainly Reginald hadn’t been happy to hear the news—but Isaac felt strongly about getting to the bottom of his brother-in-law’s mysterious behavior.

In order to do that, he needed to follow Keith to Idaho. But if he took the same flight, he risked being seen.

He considered making arrangements through another airline, but decided it would be too difficult to coordinate his arrival with Keith’s. He was afraid if he let Keith out of his sight for very long he’d lose him.

Isaac contemplated several different scenarios before deciding that his best bet was to buy a first-class ticket on Keith’s flight. He’d board before all the other passengers, sit in the last row of coach and bury his nose in a newspaper. Unless the flight was packed, which he could already tell it wasn’t, he doubted anyone would even sit next to him. His brother-in-law would get on and most likely take a seat much farther toward the front. Then Isaac would follow him off the plane when it landed.

The woman behind the counter was telling folks it’d be at least another hour before Keith’s flight could take off. Isaac had heard her say it half-a-dozen times, so he wasn’t concerned about being able to purchase a ticket. There were a lot of people milling around, but most seemed to be waiting to go to Portland.

When a group of businessmen passed between him and his brother-in-law, he finally stood and started toward the escalators. Keith had settled in to work on his computer. He wasn’t going anywhere, at least not until they boarded the plane.

Then Isaac would be going with him.

Dundee, Idaho

REENIE COULDN’T HELP waiting up. She knew it was crazy to lose sleep when she had to get the girls off to school in the morning. But she still felt that old rush of anticipation when she knew her husband was coming home.

She sat in the living room, the filmy black lingerie she’d bought in Boise last week hidden beneath the heavy fabric of her robe, sipping a glass of white wine and playing with Old Bailey’s silky ears. Her dog had been acting a little sluggish lately, but he was eleven years old and suffered from arthritis, so that was to be expected. “You’re okay, aren’t you Bailey?” she asked.

He licked his snout and gave her a short whine, and she sighed, hoping she’d been imagining his lack of appetite and increased lethargy.

Taking another sip of wine, she listened to the wind buffet the trees against the house. A steady drip fell from the rain gutter at the side of the house, but the worst of the storm had blown over. Conditions must have improved in Boise, too, because Keith had called at nine-thirty to say he was boarding his plane. Surely, he wouldn’t be much longer.

The ring of the telephone startled her. She wasn’t used to receiving calls so late. Her husband rarely called when he was gone. If he hadn’t been delayed, she doubted she would have heard from him at all today. He would have simply appeared, luggage in tow, as he always did.

Pulling her gaze away from the silver sheen of wet pavement that lay beyond her big, sloping front lawn, she extricated herself from Bailey, who padded after her as she answered the phone in the kitchen. She hoped Keith wasn’t calling to say his plane had been forced to land elsewhere.

“Hello?”

“Reenie?”

It wasn’t Keith; it was Gabe. She knew her brother well enough to guess he was feeling badly about this morning. That was why he’d brought the girls a tree swing. But she’d already promised herself she wasn’t going to forgive him too easily.

“Hope I didn’t wake you.”

“No. Keith’s getting in soon.”

“You haven’t talked him into quitting that lousy job yet?”

“It pays the bills.”

“It makes you miserable.”

She raked her fingers through her hair. “He’s afraid he won’t be able to replace his paycheck. And he says he’s used to the traveling, that I should be used to it by now, too.”

“Are you?”

“Mostly I’m tired of having him gone. But I’m not sure it’s fair of me to demand he give up what he feels successful at, what he loves. Besides, what if he’s right and he can’t find anything better?”

“He’d be fine. It’s time he started thinking of you and the girls.”

“He’s good to us.”

“When he’s around.” Gabe fell silent for a long moment, then drew an audible breath. “I’m sorry about this morning,” he said, offering the apology he’d probably been working on all day.

Because the words sounded as though he’d had to drag them out of some place very deep, they melted Reenie’s heart almost immediately. So much for not forgiving him too easily.

Oh well. Maybe they argued often. They were both passionate people. Stubborn. Opinionated. But their arguments never lasted long. Regardless of their ups and downs, Reenie knew Gabe would do anything for her, and she felt the same way about him. “I know you’re still having a hard time with what Dad did,” she said. “But it happened so long ago, Gabe. And Lucky really is—”

“A nice person,” he interrupted. “I know. You’ve told me that before. I keep thinking I’m over whatever it is that makes me dislike her. But then I see her and…” His sentence trailed off.

Bailey, tired of waiting for Reenie to return to their cozy spot in the living room, lay across her feet.

“She’s your best friend’s wife,” Reenie said, trying to approach the situation from another angle.

“Which only complicates the situation,” Gabe replied. “Dad. You. Mike. I’m cornered.”

“Sometimes it’s better to accept what we can’t change.”

“You think I don’t know that?”

Considering the accident that had stolen so much from him, she guessed it was more a matter of her poor brother reaching his “tough luck” threshold before they’d even learned about their father’s affair with the infamous Red.

“Hannah thinks I should give her a call in the morning,” he said.

Hannah. Gabe’s wife was so immovable in her love for him. If not for the strength of the relationship that had developed between them, and Hannah’s two boys, he’d probably still be closeting himself away in the remote cabin where he’d lived for two years after the accident. Instead, he’d bought a house in town and was coaching football at the high school.

Reenie wondered if she was expecting too much of him. Her brother was making progress. But it didn’t hurt to encourage him. “I’m sure Lucky would be glad to hear from you,” she said.

The sound of a car in the driveway brought Reenie’s head up. Bailey, who was hardly an excitable animal, lumbered to the door and gave a rare “woof!”

Finally. Her husband was home. She was going to talk to Keith about the Higley farm. Again. She knew having him around more often would be good for the family. Not only were his long absences driving her crazy, but she had this…this terrible sense that his traveling threatened her and their children in some way.

She knew he’d laugh at her the moment she admitted it to him. Until recently, she wouldn’t even admit it to herself. But she could no longer ignore what she felt. She wasn’t being insecure or overly possessive. Keith was becoming increasingly distant. Sometimes she’d be talking to him, possibly speculating on what their lives could be like if he did something else for a living, and his mind would just drift off. She needed his attention again. She needed him to concentrate more on her and the kids and less on work.

Hearing Keith’s key in the lock, she told Gabe she’d call him tomorrow. Now that she and Keith would be face-to-face, and alone, she was going to sit down with him and tell him exactly how she felt. His job—or his marriage. He’d have to choose.

But as soon as her husband walked through the door, she found herself in his arms and knew she wouldn’t bring up the subject tonight. She didn’t want to argue. He was whispering how much he loved her, how much he’d missed her, and his hands were slipping beneath her robe, seeking the places on her body that craved his touch.

She’d already put up with his traveling for nearly eleven years. She supposed her ultimatum could wait one more night.

ISAAC SAT in the back seat of the taxi he’d hired at the airport and stared across a narrow country road at the house Keith had entered only a few minutes earlier. A quick glance at the clock on the dash next to the meter in front told him it was 11:58 p.m.—a little late for Keith to be visiting a friend.

Frowning, he let his eyes rove over the house. Made of wood and painted white, it had been built some years ago but, like the yard, it was well kept. He could see the top of a swing set over the back fence. A tricycle with pink tassels dangling from the handlebars waited near the front door. A detached garage took up a large section of the right-hand side of the property, but it didn’t look as though it was being used to house vehicles. There was a Jeep, parked beneath a tarp and sporting a For Sale sign. A minivan sat in the driveway next to the blue SUV Keith had driven.

“You gettin’ out?” the cabby asked when Isaac made no move to open the door.

“No.”

“You want I should take you somewhere else?”

“No.”

The license plate of the minivan said, 1 I LUV. Keith’s license plate was pretty conspicuous, too. It read, MY3GRLS, which had made him quite easy to follow.

Isaac lightly rubbed his lip. He’d risked his grant to follow Keith across two states, but he still wasn’t sure what his brother-in-law was up to. He only knew it didn’t look good. Especially when two figures, a man and a woman, appeared in the window. The glaring porch light made it difficult to see much detail, but a softer light coming from another room in the house threw both their bodies into relief.

They were kissing. The man was Keith. No question. The woman he didn’t recognize. He couldn’t discern any specific features, not even the color of her hair.

“Meter’s running,” the cabby reminded him.

When Isaac made no response, the driver rolled down his window and lit a cigarette while Isaac watched Keith shove the woman’s robe off her shoulders. When Keith bent his head to kiss his partner’s neck, Isaac looked away. He felt sick. Elizabeth was going to be devastated. This would hurt Mica and Christopher, too.

What should he do? Dropping his head in his hand, he pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to think.

“That’s not your wife, is it?” the cab driver asked, smoke curling from his nose as he spoke.

Again, Isaac didn’t respond. He was too busy searching for an answer. But no answer presented itself.

When he glanced up again, the figures in the window were gone. No doubt they’d moved to the bedroom.

Imagining his brother-in-law making love to another woman caused rage to cut through Isaac’s terrible disappointment. He had to do something; he had to stop what was happening. For Elizabeth’s sake.

“Wait here,” he said, and got out. Wrinkling his nose against the cabby’s cigarette smoke and the car’s exhaust, he pulled his coat close and strode briskly across the street. He’d teach Keith a lesson. Break his nose. Something!

Isaac’s mind told him a fistfight wouldn’t solve anything—he hadn’t been in a fight since he was seventeen—but his heart pumped eagerly in his chest as he cleared the driveway. He wouldn’t allow his brother-in-law to have sex with this woman!

Anticipating the satisfying impact of his first blow to Keith’s face, Isaac barely heard the rumbling motor of the waiting taxi as he slipped inside the chain-link fence that surrounded the front yard. He passed the trike with the pink tassels, stepped over a small pair of rubber boots lying near the steps and opened the screen door so he could bang on the wooden panel behind it. But then he hesitated. There was a crayon drawing taped to the door.

He blinked, his hand poised in the air. The drawing depicted several stick figures. One was obviously larger than the rest and, judging by the hair, was a man. The other figures were as crudely drawn but they were much smaller and seemed to be gathered around the man. At the bottom, a child had written, “Welcome Home, Daddy. We missed you. Jennifer, Angela and…” He couldn’t read the last name. Whoever had signed the drawing had attempted to write in cursive, which he or she obviously didn’t know how to do.

Welcome home, Daddy….

Chills rolled down Isaac’s spine as he slowly lowered his hand to his side. Was this woman also married? Was her husband away on business? Could Keith have been driving her husband’s car?

Isaac wanted to knock and demand the truth. But the tricycle with the pink tassels, the little boots and the childish note stopped him. There were children inside….

God, what was going on? How many lives would Keith’s affair destroy?

Taking a bolstering breath, Isaac glanced back at the waiting taxi just as the cab driver finished his cigarette and tossed the butt carelessly away.

He had to think, gain some perspective.

Suddenly the porch light winked off, leaving Isaac in the dark. He froze where he stood on the front step, waiting to see if whoever had turned off the light had heard his approach or spotted the green-and-white taxi parked in front.

But the next several seconds ticked by and nothing happened. Keith and the woman were probably too involved with each other to notice anything less than a sizable earthquake.

The rain began to fall more heavily, but Isaac couldn’t move. Most of his life, he’d done his best to protect his little sister. She’d had no one else.

But, heaven help him, there wasn’t anything he could do to protect her from this.