Читать книгу The Stranger She Married - Crystal Green, Crystal Green - Страница 12

T en minutes later, their company had cleared the house. Rachel almost missed the crowd already, feeling just about naked without their sheltering small talk, the excuses to work in the kitchen or kick the party crashers’ tails back to the nearest jail cell.

She was just descending the stairs after making sure Lacey had readied Tamela for bed before leaving. Matthew sat on a couch in the family room, his head down.

Rachel walked behind him, peering over his shoulder.

He started, noticing her presence, a guilty cast to his eyes. A scrapbook lay in his palms, opened to shots of holly, Christmas ribbons and discarded gift wrap.

She knew he was sorry for what he’d said about Sam Reno. Sam was a good friend who’d just gotten married to the former Ashlyn Spencer, a woman Sam had considered to be the daughter of his worst enemy, the daughter of the man who’d been responsible for the factory death of Sam’s father.

Rachel had supported Sam while he’d come to terms with Ashlyn, while he’d fallen in love with her. In return, she and Matthew were going to need all the support they could get from friends like Sam and Ashlyn.

But for the time being, she could ignore Matthew’s discomfort and how it had made him jump to conclusions.

Rachel nodded toward the pictures. “The Christmas book. We record every Yuletide season for Tamela.”

His lips tightened, and Rachel couldn’t help noticing how lost he seemed. He flipped past another page.

“I wasn’t in too many pictures, was I?”

She didn’t want to tell him that he’d usually come home late from the office on Christmas Eve, bringing Tamela and Rachel generous presents as an apology for being tardy. He’d usually find some excuse to make himself scarce during the Christmas festivities.

Rachel wasn’t sure how much information he could handle in the space of one day.

She used her thumb to rub against her wedding ring, a silver trinket etched with roses. Simple, heart-felt. She wouldn’t have traded it for all the expensive gifts in the world. The jewelry represented a time when they’d been silly in love, just after college, during their honeymoon in Seville, Spain.

“You’re a little camera-shy,” she said, deciding to save the workaholic news for another day, a day when he’d had enough time to acclimate himself to his old life. Right now, he didn’t need to know about his corporate duties in the feed business. She only wished she could put off all the breadwinner talk forever.

Truth be told, she was enjoying his concern, his remorse for not spending every available moment with her in the past.