He nodded. “Keep reading,” he replied with a hint of mischievousness in his voice.
“Two hours of mind blowing sex.” She laughed and flipped to the next certificate. “Skinny dipping.” She raised a brow. He gestured for her to continue. “Graduate’s choice.” She couldn’t help but laugh at that one. “One make-out session on the beach and possibly more.” She looked at the snorkel mask again. “Are we going to the beach?”
“Yes, we are.”
Her eyes lit up. “When? Can you get away soon? Heather and Tiffany would love to see the beach house.”
He stopped her before she continued. “Not the Hamptons. A different beach.”
“Which beach?”
“A place I like to go sometimes to get away from it all. It’s very beautiful and very secluded. And as nice as they are, we won’t be taking your sisters with us.”
“I can’t wait! When do we go?”
“As soon as our guests leave and we work out the scheduling.”
She kicked her feet and squealed on the bed, feeling like a seventeen year old girl.
“Best. Graduation. Ever!”
**
Liz ended up taking her entire family to the beach house Sunday evening. They had planned to make a trip of it and stay through Wednesday, so she thought it would be an ideal way to wrap things up, especially since her dad hated the city and, though her mother loved the shopping, all the energy made her feel a little frazzled.
They were all suitably impressed when they saw the outside of the house and heard the waves in the background, but they felt less out of place in the lavender, teenage-girl designed interior. For three glorious days, everyone got along and played games and laughed together. For a little while, it felt like they were all one big happy family again, especially since Jenny had managed to join them and telecommute those days. Even though she spent a good part of the day holed up in her room on her laptop, it was great for all of them to be together, without boyfriends or husbands or anyone but the four girls, their parents and their favorite grandmother.
One morning, Liz and her grandmother were making pancakes for everyone when her grandmother asked how married life was for her now that she’d made it through the first year.
“It’s good. Great, actually. We get along really well and hardly ever fight. I’m really happy. But doesn’t everyone say that about their first year? Honeymoon phase and all?”
“No, not everyone! For some couples, it’s the hardest time of all. Especially when one of you is older, like your William. You become set in your ways, you don’t know how to adapt, or don’t want to. Suddenly there’s someone wanting your attention, your time, doing things their way instead of yours. It can be jarring.”
“I suppose so,” Liz said as she flipped a pancake. “I’ve always lived with someone—at home, in the dorm, then roommates—so I don’t know if I really got a chance to have everything my way. I just had my room and kept to myself.”
“But it’s nice to run your own home, isn’t it?” Gran said with a knowing expression.
Liz laughed. “Yes, it is! I don’t know if I could go back to living with roommates.”
“Well, luckily you don’t have to. That man of yours isn’t going anywhere any time soon. He’s not the leaving kind. He doesn’t have it in him. Besides, it’s plain to see he’s head over heels for you,” she said before scooping the bacon out of the pan and onto a plate covered with a paper towel.
“Yes, he’s a very good man,” Liz said distractedly, wondering about what her grandmother had said.
“You hold onto him. Good ones are hard to find. Especially good ones that look like that.”
“Gran!” Liz turned to her with wide eyes.
Gran Barrett just laughed. “You girls are so easy to shake up. In my day, we weren’t afraid to brag about our men. If he had a good job, you boasted about it; if he was smart, you told everyone; if he was good looking, you showed him off to everybody.”
Liz laughed. “Gran, you are cracking me up! Somehow I can’t see you running around town showing off Grandpa.”
“He wasn’t as handsome as your man!” she said indignantly. “But boy, was he smart, and so good to me!” She had a dreamy look on her face for a moment and looked away, blinking rapidly. “Now,” she said, her voice wobbling slightly, “you take this plate to the table. I’ll bring the bacon.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Liz said quietly as she hugged her grandmother from behind and squeezed her tightly around her shoulders. Her grandmother just patted her arm and shooed her into the dining room.
A few hours later, the family spread out on the beach. Liz shared a blanket with her sister Tiffany and asked her about her plans for when she graduated high school next year.
“Are you going to start looking at colleges this fall?” she asked.
“I think so. Mom wants me to go to State so I’m not too far away and she can see me more, but I’m thinking about art school and their program is okay, but not the best.”
“Really? That’s great! You’d be amazing at art school!”
“Really? You think?”
“Of course! You don’t know how many compliments I’ve gotten on that frame you made me for Christmas.”
“Thanks,” Tiffany said.
“So, have you looked into other schools?”
“Yeah. So far I’m thinking about Rhode Island School of Design, of course, and SCAD in Savannah. That would be close to the water and it’s only an hour from the beach house so I could see whomever when they came down.”
Liz nodded. “Have you thought about New York at all?”
“Yeah, but I’m not sure. It’s a really expensive city and mom and dad could help me out a little with expenses, but not much. They’ve promised to pay tuition and supplies, which will probably be a lot, but I’ll be on my own for living expenses.”
“I could help you out a little there.” Tiffany shot her a look. “I don’t mean with money exactly, though I could probably slip you a little cash here and there, but you could eat with us sometimes, I could take you to lunch, that sort of thing.”
Tiffany nodded. “Yeah, that would be helpful.” Tiffany looked around for a second, then fixed Liz with a serious expression. “So were you ever going to tell us your husband is loaded or did you plan to keep us in the dark forever?”
Liz stared at her open-mouthed.
“Oh, come on! Did you really think I wouldn’t figure it out? I know you’re supposed to be the smart sister and all that, but it’s kind of obvious. You have that huge apartment in the middle of Manhattan and a beach house in the Hamptons. I’m not an idiot.” She shook her head and looked toward the water. “And I googled him when you left after Thanksgiving. You looked great in those pictures, by the way.”
“Tiffany! You’ve known all this time and you didn’t say anything?”
“I didn’t say anything? You’re the one being all uptight about it!”
“I’m not uptight! I just didn’t want everyone to know and make a big deal out of it. Do Mom and Dad know?”
“If Mom knows she hasn’t said anything to me about it. Dad knows.”
“He does?” cried Liz. “Did you tell him? Is he mad I didn’t tell him myself?”
“No! I didn’t tell him. I’m not a nark! Heather told him,” she said simply.
“Heather knows?!”
“Okay, we Googled him together. You don’t have to freak out. We were just curious.”
Liz groaned and let her head fall to her knees.
“Don’t worry, no one is going to tell Mom. She’d be shrieking with joy for a month and nobody wants to listen to that.”
“What about Gran?” Liz asked, her voice muffled by her arms.
“I don’t think she Googles much, but I’m pretty sure Dad told her. I heard them talking about you one night at his place.”
“Oh my God!” Liz fell back dramatically on the blanket they were sitting on. “Is there anyone in Farmington who doesn’t know?�
�
“Nobody told Grandma Phillips. And I suppose that side of the family doesn’t know, so Mary and Uncle David are probably in the dark, though they do own computers and know how to read, so, you know…”
Liz groaned again and sat up. “I don’t even know what to do with this!”
“Why do you have to do anything? So people you’re related to know more about your husband than they did before. Big deal. It’s not like they found bodies in the backyard or anything,” Tiffany replied with a roll of her eyes.
Liz sighed. “I’ll have to think of something to say to Dad and Gran now. You don’t think they’re mad?”
“Not really. They didn’t seem angry to me. Gran thinks you didn’t tell us the full scope because you wanted us to get to know him for who he is, not what he has, or something like that. Anyway, she made it sound like a good thing.” She looked at her sister skeptically. “So why didn’t you tell us?”
“Lots of little reasons, really.” Liz looked away uncomfortably. “Partially because of what Gran said, and what you said about Mom freaking out. It’s just a lot for most people to handle, you know? And I didn’t want everyone to treat him strangely and I knew Mom would go on and on about what kind of wife I need to be and tell me to pop out a couple of kids so he won’t leave me.” She shook her head. “It’s just nicer if everyone thinks of him as the guy I married. Well off, sure, but still a person.”
“You like your privacy. That makes sense.” Tiffany nodded and nudged her shoulder. “Well, now I won’t have to feel bad if you slip me a little cash when I see you on school vacations.”
Liz laughed. “I’ll do you one better. I have a gorgeous Versace dress I already wore twice that would fit you like a glove. You interested?”
Tiffany’s eyes lit up. “You had better not be teasing me, Lizzy!”
36
Take me Away
Early June
1 year, 1 Month Married
Liz sat on the private jet, book in hand, headed to Will’s mystery vacation house.
After a week of schedule rearranging and working late so they could get away, they escaped on their little graduation/anniversary trip. Their first anniversary had come and gone in a flurry of Liz’s birthday, graduation, and family visits. They’d gone out to a nice dinner and Liz had worn a new lacy negligee, but otherwise, it had been pretty low-key.
Now, he was whisking her off to who knows where. He had only told her to bring a bathing suit and summer clothes, though not too many since he planned to keep her naked most of the time. She’d laughed and packed happily, looking forward to spending two weeks lying on the beach with her very sexy husband.
Looking out the window of the plane, she wondered where they were.
It was dark when they landed and Harper nudged Liz’s shoulder to wake her up. She groggily followed him to a car and through what she supposed was beautiful scenery but she couldn’t see it because it was pitch black outside. Wherever they were, it was not near a big city.
They eventually came to a gate along a high white stone wall. The driver punched a code in and the gate swung wide, revealing a tree lined driveway, lights shining upward to make the leaves look silvery. Liz rolled down her window. She could hear waves crashing in the distance. Eventually, a large white stone house came into view, glowing in the moonlight. It was built partially into the side of a cliff with flat square roof lines and arched doorways. The path to the door was lined with small lights in blue and green, which she realized later were from the glass mosaic lanterns lining the walk.
“Oh, Will! This is magnificent!” She breathed as she stepped out of the car. “Where are we?”
“Technically, we’re in Greece. This is a small island about twenty miles from Mykonos, about fifty miles from the mainland.”
“Wow.”
He led her around the back terrace to a low wall overlooking an infinity pool and beyond that, the Mediterranean Sea.
“Welcome to Valhalla, Elizabeth.”
She leaned back against him and tightened her arms over his where they wrapped around her stomach. “Valhalla,” she repeated. “I love it.”
*
After three days of being in Greece, Liz was looking much browner and had lost count of how many times they had had sex. They did it in the bedroom (of course), in the kitchen after breakfast, in the pool before lunch, and between conversations of how the house got its name (a Norwegian man had named it when he bought and refurbished it years ago and Harper had kept it because he liked it) and how long they could manage to stay (Liz voted for forever). They had a private stretch of beach and only shared this side of the island with five other houses, so they’d managed a few interludes in the sand and water as well.
Across the island was a village with a hotel that had a store for tourists to buy whatever they needed that wasn’t available in the village market. Liz found bikes with baskets in the shed and they rode all over the island: to the market to get produce for the day, to the local café for dinner, and to a lovely stall where an old lady made yoghurt fresh and sold it in little glass jars. It quickly became Liz’s favorite breakfast and the first week of their trip went by in a haze of lazy days and passion-filled nights.
Harper brought the camera Liz had given him for Christmas that he had heretofore only used off and on. He played with all the different settings and lenses and took hundreds of pictures. He snapped the scenery, local wildlife, a few children at the market… but mostly he took pictures of Liz. He said that since she had planted the idea in his head in the first place, she should model for him. She laughed and posed, making silly faces and teasing him about how bossy he was becoming with all his “stand over there” and “raise your arm higher” and “look over your shoulder” commands.
The second week they went to Athens for a day. They spent the afternoon fighting the crowds to see all the famous statues and landmarks, then spent the night at a hotel in the city and the morning shopping for souvenirs. They went back to their island haven and went nowhere but their house and the market for the remainder of their trip. It was paradise.
Two days before they were scheduled to leave, Harper lay on the beach next to Liz and surreptitiously watched her. He never would have guessed last year when Jamison told him he had immigration trouble that it would lead to this. To her. She had quickly become his partner in life, his best friend, his lover. He realized he was glad Alicia Winters had gotten mad and turned his name in to whoever she knew at immigration. The investigation was over and he had come out on top—with a new green card, but more importantly, with Liz.
“Stop staring at me, you pervert,” she said with a tiny smile.
“Who says I’m staring?”
“I can feel your eyes on me.” She kept her sunglasses on and her face forward.
“How can I help myself when you’re doing that?”
“Doing what? I’m just lying here.”
“With your hair down and your top off,” he said with a look.
She laughed. “It’s a private beach! And you’re the one who suggested I go topless, not me.”
“Well, I get to, it only seemed fair that you should also,” he reasoned.
She snickered. “So this is all about equality then, huh?”
“Yes, of course. You should be free to enjoy everything that I do, including the sun on your bare chest.”
She laughed. “I’m not sure which of us is enjoying this more.”
“I am, of course. I get to feel the sun on my chest and enjoy watching it on yours as well. I’m definitely the winner here.”
Liz threw a towel at him and laughed before rummaging around in her bag for her bathing suit top.
“Hey,” he protested, “what are you doing?”
“Putting my top on.”
“Are you cold?”
“Maybe.”
“Come here,” he grabbed her arm and pulled her toward him and onto his lounge chair.
“I’ll hold you and then you won’t need
that pesky top.”
“Really?” she asked with a raised brow.
“Anything for you, love. Your breasts are safe with me.”
He pressed her to his chest as she giggled, then looked down at her breasts and asked if they felt warmer now. He smiled smugly at the imagined response while Liz rolled her eyes. She nestled her head onto his shoulder and relaxed, listening to the waves and the birds and feeling her husband’s even breathing beneath her.
***
Eventually, it was time to pack and head back to New York.
“When can we come back?” Liz asked as she zipped up her suitcase.
“Maybe in the autumn. We can see how our schedules look. It’s beautiful here in October,” he answered.
“Maybe in time for your birthday,” she said slyly. He shrugged but smiled at the thought. Lying with Liz on a beach seemed like an excellent way to spend his birthday; certainly better than the stonewalled silence they’d been in for his last one.
She sighed and looked around her while Harper took the bags downstairs. She slowly followed, dragging her hand along the banister and saying a silent goodbye to the house.
“I wish we could stay longer,” she said wistfully.
“Me, too. I’m glad you like it. This is one of my favorite places. It’ll be nice to come here together.”
She smiled gently and took his hand, then turned to look at the house once more and climbed into the car.
37
Hard
Mid June
1 Year, 2 Months Married
“So what are you looking for, exactly?” Jacqueline asked at breakfast with Liz after she and Will returned from Greece.
“Well, I’m not entirely sure. Will said that property could be a good investment, and I’m looking toward long term goals. So something I could renovate and sell fairly easily, though I don’t know if I know how to do that, and it might make me crazy. Or something that would be a decent rental property.”
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