“But you’ll talk about it on Thursday with Doctor Michaels,” she said, not really asking but sort of.
“Yes,” he said. “I’m going to get a brownie.”
She let him go, because it never did any good for Alice to press an issue with Charlie. He didn’t have to talk to her—that was why she paid for his therapy. As long as he spoke to someone about the dangerous, festering feelings inside him. That was all Alice wanted for him.
She was just about to go get a cheesecake square when someone knocked on Eloise’s door. She veered that way, because she was the closest.
She wasn’t sure who would be standing there, because the only people missing were Aaron and Duke, and they would’ve just walked in.
Alice opened the door and froze.
“Hello,” the man there said, flashing a brilliant smile. “I believe my wife is here.”
Alice remembered all of her prestige and proper manners from the years of living in the Hamptons. “Yes,” she said, her voice cool and crisp. “Come in, Julian.”
She stepped back, turning to the group behind her to find Kelli. She’d also frozen, the hand holding the plate with a slice of Robin’s cake on it hovering in midair.
“Julian,” she said, and the plate fell to the floor, shattering the silence as it broke into dozens of pieces.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Dad!” Parker abandoned his snack and ran toward Julian. Her husband laughed as he swooped the boy into his arms and held him on his hip. They spoke, but Kelli was distracted with the women around her, all of them trying to clean up the shards of porcelain that had come from the plate she’d dropped.
“I’m sorry,” she said, standing still in the middle of the chaos. “I was just surprised.” She watched Robin scurry around to get the bigger pieces. Eloise arrived with a broom and Alice with a wet paper towel to get all the tiny shards that the naked eye couldn’t see and even the broom couldn’t get.
“It’s fine,” Eloise said. “I broke two or three glasses just yesterday. No big deal.”
AJ had taken up a position about halfway between Kelli and Julian, her feet shoulder-width apart as if she were expecting Julian to have to barge his way through her friends to get to Kelli. And AJ wasn’t going to let that happen.
Kelli looked back to where her husband grinned at and talked with their son, and everything in her world shifted. How had she thought it would be a good idea to separate them? Parker adored his father, and while Julian worked long hours, he’d always loved Parker as much as she did.
Julian’s eyes finally drifted toward her, and Kelli drew in a deep breath.
“Kel,” Eloise said. “You don’t have to talk to him.”
“It’s okay,” Kelli said.
“Are you sure?” Alice asked.
Kelli looked at Alice, who’d always been the strongest of them all, at least in Kelli’s eyes. AJ was a powerhouse too, but Kelli knew her deepest, darkest secrets and desires, and AJ was more real for Kelli. Softer, with real human emotions.
Alice was almost robotic in how she dealt with things, and Kelli had aspired to be more like that when it came to Julian. She wondered if she’d made the right decision or not.
“Yes,” she said, hating the weakness inside her. “I can handle Julian.”
“I’d like to meet him,” Robin said.
“Okay.” Kelli stepped out of the circle of her friends and led the way over to Julian. He put Parker down and said something to him in a soft voice that sent Parker back to the breakfast bar to get another treat.
“Julian,” Kelli said, her voice steady. She was grateful for that. “These are my friends. Alice Kelton, who answered the door.”
“So good to see you, Julian,” Alice said smoothly, and she was perfectly poised and professional. They shook hands, and Alice stepped back.
“Robin Grover,” Kelli said. They exchanged pleasantries, and she added, “Eloise Hall. She owns the inn.”
After Eloise had said hello, Kelli linked her arm through AJ’s. “And AJ Proctor.”
“Yes, Kelli talks about you often,” Julian said, and he was definitely acting like the attentive husband who knew all of his wife’s friends as intimately as she did.
With the introductions out of the way, Kelli had no choice but to say, “Should we talk outside?”
Julian played his gentleman card and opened the door, even going so far as to put his hand on her back as she passed him, A spark flared within Kelli, and she tried to tamp it down.
The sun shone down brightly, and Kelli detoured toward the trees lining the back of the yard. She folded her arms and turned to face Julian. “You didn’t say you were coming.”
They’d interacted over the weekend, doing one of the rituals they did whenever Julian traveled. They hadn’t spoken about anything but Parker, but Tiffany hadn’t been there.
“I decided last-minute,” Julian said. He tucked his hands in his pockets, something Kelli had seen him do while they were dating. Not much since. “I’m sorry, Kelli. I miss you desperately, and Parker, and I want you both to come home.”
Kelli didn’t know how to say yes. She also couldn’t deny him outright either. “Julian, it’s not that simple.”
“I know that,” he said. “But Kelli, we belong together.”
“Do we?” She turned away from him and gazed out over the island.
“I think so,” he said, coming to stand beside her. Without the weight of his gaze on her face, Kelli could think more clearly. “I love you, Kel. I’ve been in love with you for years, and I think I just…forgot.”
Kelli wanted to scream at him, a new type of storm brewing inside her. “What if you forget again?”
“I’m not going to,” he said, his fingertips touching hers. “I’ve learned a lot in the past few weeks since you left, and I’m going to do better.”
“Tell me how,” Kelli said, surprised at her boldness with Julian. He’d run everything in their marriage, and he’d probably been shocked that she hadn’t just gone along with his plan to have two women living with him—sleeping with him.
“I’m going to come home from work,” he said. “And spend real time with you and Parker.”
That was a good start, and Kelli nodded but didn’t say anything.
“I’ve been cleaning the house,” he said.
Kelli couldn’t help the giggle that burst from her mouth. “Wow,” she said. “I didn’t know you knew how to do that.”
“I didn’t either,” he said, chuckling. He took her hand fully in his, and Kelli let him. “But I can, Kel. I make my own dinner, too. And I’m just miserable in that house without you. It’s depressing.”
Kelli didn’t want to say she missed him too. She did, though, and she wondered if she could just step back into her New Jersey life. That townhome and the job where she taught other housewives yoga felt thousands of miles away. It existed outside her grasp, and standing there on the cliffs overlooking houses, and trees, and beaches, and the vast ocean, Kelli realized she didn’t want to grab back onto that life.
“So much would be different,” Kelli said.
“That’s okay,” Julian said.
“I’d want to go to counseling together,” she said. “And by myself. You should go yourself too.”
Julian didn’t respond immediately, and Kelli felt herself mentally digging in her heels on this issue.
“I can do that,” he said a few seconds later.
“I’d need my interests and life to be as important as yours.”
“I really failed there, didn’t I?”
Kelli wanted to take the blame, because she’d let him, his life, and his business become more important than anything else. But she didn’t take the blame. Every marriage had at least a dozen different things that made it work or caused it to start to erode, but Kelli’s devotion to Julian and their marriage had been absolute.
“Where’s Tiffany?” Kelli asked, sucking in a breath afterward.
“I don’t know,�
� Julian said. “She doesn’t work for me anymore.”
“Did she quit or did you fire her?” There was a very big difference in Kelli’s eyes, and it was so big that she turned and looked at her husband’s face.
He was a handsome man, and she’d always thought so. His strong jaw flexed as he tightened it, and his throat constricted as he swallowed. He moved those dark, penetrating eyes to meet hers, and Kelli remembered all the reasons she’d fallen in love with him. Could she throw those away because he’d made a few mistakes?
“I asked her to go,” Julian said.
“But you didn’t want to.”
“It was hard for me,” he admitted. “But only because I’m no good alone, Kelli.”
“Is that why you need two women, Julian?” She let go of his hand and put a few steps of space between them. “Because you made me feel like I wasn’t good enough. I couldn’t satisfy the great Julian Thompson, so he needed to get someone else to share his life with. His child. His bed.” She shook now, every part of her. Perhaps she was angrier than she’d thought.
“I won’t go through that again,” she said. “I’m not going to return to New Jersey—pulling Parker from school here—and quit the job I have here, only for you to decide next month or even in six months that I’m not good enough for you.”
“Kelli—”
“Because I am good enough,” she said. “I am. I’m a good mother, and I was good at teaching yoga, and I’m good at working with the kids at the junior high too. I’m capable, and I’m strong, and I’m not going to let you—or anyone else—tell me directly or indirectly that I’m not.”
She pulled in a breath through her nose, trying to calm herself. She hadn’t felt this unsettled in a long time. She didn’t let herself feel things like this at all, and she certainly never vocalized them.
Julian’s eyes blazed too, and Kelli felt the same fire burning through her. She was not going to back down from this. She was not.
“If it was so hard for you to let her go, maybe you made a mistake.”
“It’s harder for me to let you go,” he said. “You wanted me to choose, Kelli. I chose. I chose you.”
She studied him, trying to find the dishonesty in his face, hidden in his words. She wasn’t sure about anything right now, and she didn’t know what to say or do.
“Kelli,” Robin called from behind her, and Kelli turned toward her. “We’re headed down to dinner.”
“Okay,” Kelli said. “I’ll be two minutes.”
Robin hesitated, and Kelli waved to her to let her know she was okay. She would’ve never stood up to Julian like she had without her experiences over the past few months.
She looked at him. “I think you should move here to see if we can work things out.”
Julian opened his mouth but nothing came out.
“A change of scenery might be exactly what we need,” she said. “You can manage the courier business via texts, videos, or calls.”
“I don’t know, Kelli.”
Voices started to fill the air behind her, and Kelli hooked her thumb over her shoulder. “Come to dinner with us. You don’t need to decide right now. But I think that’s what I would want. My mother is here. Parker started school here. I have a job here. I’d like to see if we can make things work here before we just try to go back to New Jersey.”
She felt like he was a drug addict, and if they stayed in the same neighborhood, doing all the same things, he’d simply fall back into his old habits. She wasn’t willing to relocate herself and Parker only to come back in four or six months.
She realized how negative her thought process was, almost like she was dooming their second chance without even giving it the opportunity for success.
She needed to be cautious though, and if he’d agree to come here, she could get him out of the environment that had led them to the point where he had a girlfriend in their bed, and they could make a real attempt to reconnect and rebuild their life together.
“Okay,” he said. “I can start with dinner.”
“Great.” Kelli turned and headed back toward the caretaker’s suite, finding AJ waiting for her and Julian on the stoop.
“Ready?” she asked.
Kelli linked her arm through AJ’s. “Yep. Is Matt meeting us there?”
“Yes, he’s with Duke and Aaron already.” AJ increased her pace. “I’m actually kind of nervous about what they’ll say to him.”
“Duke and Aaron?” Kelli laughed. “They’re not going to grill him over his intentions,” she said.
“You’ve met Aaron Sherman, right?” AJ asked, and they both laughed as they piled into the group RideShare.
“You’re right,” Kelli said, leaning forward. “Can you hurry? We’ve got a guy down there who might have to answer questions he’s not comfortable with.” She and AJ laughed again, and once Julian got in the passenger seat up front, the RideShare driver started down Cliffside Drive to the restaurant AJ had chosen for dinner.
Kelli didn’t whisper, because she found that rude. She let the conversation between AJ and Kristen go on around her, and she participated when Eloise asked her something from the way back seat of the minivan.
She’d have to fill everyone in later, but right now, she just wanted to see how dinner went.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Laurel strode toward Aaron’s cruiser, her temper on the verge of exploding. He’d caused problems between her and Paul, and she was so done being the Chief’s gopher.
She yanked on the door handle, and slid into the seat. “Here you go,” she said, practically throwing the folder of documents she’d collected over the past few days.
Aaron wanted her to work on things in her spare time, but he wasn’t paying her. She disliked how she’d so readily jumped at the chance to work more closely with him, and now that she had a real relationship with another man, her crush on the Chief of Police had faded to nothing.
“What is wrong with you?” he asked.
“Maybe that I’ve been working on this nonstop for three days, just so you’d have this by tonight,” she said. “I missed dinner with my boyfriend on Monday night, and I had to skip bowling tonight.” She glared at Aaron.
He gaped back at her, resignation and realization finally dawning on his face. “I’m sorry, Laurel. I didn’t realize.”
The fight left her. “I know. I should’ve said something.” She folded her arms and stared out the windshield. “I had to tell Paul that we were working on something off the books,” she said, her voice more wooden. “He might ask you about it.”
“I can handle Paul.”
“If you’ve messed this up for me,” Laurel said, but she didn’t finish the threat. She didn’t know how to complete it anyway. She couldn’t actually do anything to the Chief of Police.
“I’ll talk to him,” Aaron said softly. “Make sure he knows what we’ve been doing, and that it’s not what he thinks.”
“Thank—” Before Laurel could finish saying “you,” a loud, high-pitched rapping noise filled the cruiser. She yelped as she turned toward her window. A scream escaped when she saw a face there.
A moment passed, and she recognized the woman. Adrenaline spiked and surged, quickly dropping as she said, “It’s Eloise.”
Laurel reached for the door handle and got out of the car as Eloise backed up a couple of steps.
“Eloise,” she said.
“What is happening here?” she demanded. She grabbed onto her jacket and pulled it closed with her hands, folding her arms over the unzipped pieces.
“Nothing,” Laurel said at the same time Aaron said, “Eloise, what are you doing here?”
“What am I doing here?” She wiped at her eyes. “I didn’t want to believe that you were sneaking off to see another woman. I was sure Laurel was just training a new cop.” She swayed wildly, like she was on a ship pitching madly in the stormy sea.
“Sweetheart,” Aaron said. “Nothing’s happening here.” He approached her, but Laurel wanted
to tell him to back off. Eloise did not want to be touched right now, and sure enough, she swatted his hand away from her arm.
“Isn’t that what you said? That you had a new guy on the graveyard shift, and you liked to drop by to make sure they all knew you saw everything in that blasted station?” She threw one arm out as if to indicate a building or a person.
“And I find you in this dark parking lot, with her?” Eloise tossed a glance at Laurel. “I’m sure she’s great. A good cop, and someone you can talk your police shop with. Or whatever.” Tears streamed down her face, and Laurel wanted to wrap her in a tight hug and assure her that absolutely nothing had happened between her and Aaron.
“Eloise,” Aaron said, glancing at Laurel too. “Nothing is happening between me and Laurel.”
Eloise sobbed, her anguish and pain pouring from her in waves of sound and feeling that made Laurel’s heart hurt.
“You can go, Laurel,” Aaron said quietly. “I’m so sorry. I’ll talk to Paul too.”
Eloise looked up, her eyes wide. “Who’s Paul?”
“My boyfriend,” Laurel said. “Eloise, honestly, this isn’t what you think.” She took a step toward the other woman, thought better of it, and nodded to her boss.
Then she got the heck out of there before Eloise Hall clawed her face off.
She pounded her steering wheel in frustration as she drove out of the grocery store parking lot, and instead of turning right on Saltwater Way, she went left.
She seemed to make turns without thinking, and she pulled up to Paul’s house a few minutes later. Without hesitating, she jumped from her car, not bothering to turn off the engine or the headlights, and jogged up to his front door.
“Paul.” She used her fist to pound on the door, not caring that the sound echoed like gunshots in the stillness of this neighborhood. Several seconds passed, and she’d just raised her fist to knock again when he pulled the door open.
“Laurel?”
“There is nothing going on between me and Aaron Sherman,” she said, her chest heaving. “Not only would that be inappropriate, but I have no feelings for him.” She took in a huge breath and added, “He’s been having me research some people for him, as a personal favor to him. People in the life of his girlfriend—his very serious girlfriend—and her friends. That’s it. We meet in the parking lot behind the grocery store, and I give him the things I’ve found.”
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