by Rebeca Seitz
“Oh! That’s all, Jenny. Thanks.”
“Everything okay?”
“Everything’s fine. Just trying to figure out my morning is all.”
Jenny gave her a quizzical look but didn’t question the explanation. Instead, she went back to her dusting.
Meg returned to the laundry room, needing a quiet place to think and knowing the kids wouldn’t bug her in here. The last time they had she’d put them to work. She sat down on the stool in the corner and stared out the small window to the backyard. Why did it bug her so much that Jamison had breakfast out of town? She knew he’d never in a million years cheat on her and the kids, so it wasn’t a suspicion of that.
Of course, probably half the women in the world who’d ever discovered their husbands cheating would have said their husband would never do such a thing. She let herself consider the idea that Jamison could have an affair.
At first her mind refused to allow the possibility. But then she thought about how difficult things had been the past few months—not just while she recovered from surgery but even before that, when she’d had headaches all the time. She and Jamison hadn’t exactly been close and intimate for a long while until this weekend. And a man had needs. Had Jamison gone elsewhere to get them met?
The thought sat like a boulder in her mind. No, this must be a figment of her surgery-riddled brain. If the receipt had been for dinner somewhere, then maybe. But it was clearly for breakfast, and she did not envision Jamison running off for a quickie before work with some floozy. She was being ridiculous. All her brain hadn’t quite returned to normal.
Jamison merely went somewhere for breakfast. He probably wanted to eat where he didn’t have to cook the food or clean up after himself. Not that he had to do either of those things now that they had Jenny. Hmm, that didn’t completely explain things either, then.
Why did this bug her so much? She’d already decided he wasn’t having an affair. Why did it matter where he ate breakfast?
The deception. That had to be it. She felt like he’d hidden something from her and, in all their years of being together, they’d never hidden things from each other. Not intentionally. There had been times when they forgot to share something and it came up later, but neither of them had deceived the other on purpose for anything other than a surprise gift or party.
The idea that Jamison could deceive her about something as silly as his breakfast locale didn’t sit right. Had her behavior during recovery pushed him to hide a part of his life from her? To need time away from their home every morning?
Not that she had any proof he went to Wimpy’s every morning, so she shouldn’t assume such a thing.
She’d just ask him about it when he came home. She slapped her hands onto her legs, her mind made up. Marriages ran into trouble when partners became suspicious of each other for no good reason. All she knew was that Jamison had breakfast at Wimpy’s and didn’t tell her. Not a big deal. She’d ask him about it this afternoon, he’d give her a completely honest explanation, and life could go on in bliss.
* * *
A FEW HOURS later Meg settled into a chaise lounge by Joy’s pool and sighed. “Ah, this is the life.”
“Isn’t it, though?” Joy agreed.
“Should we call Kendra and Tandy to see if they want to come over?”
“Already done.” Joy poured lemonade for them from a pitcher covered in painted orange and lemon slices. Of course Joy would have designer poolside dishes. “They’ll be here later. They’re wrapping up some things at the Sisters, Ink offices.”
“Speaking of which, how’s the business going? I know we said we’d be silent partners, but I think we should know what’s going on, don’t you?”
“From everything I’ve seen, it’s growing by leaps and bounds. They get more membership requests every week from scrapbookers wanting to connect at the local level. If we want a formal report, I’m sure Tandy would draw it up for us.” She offered a glass to Meg.
Meg took it and shook her head. “No, if you say things are going well, then I trust you. I have no desire to read through a report, and I’m sure Tandy wouldn’t enjoy writing one.”
“You’re right about that.”
They watched while James and Savannah played together in the shallow end of the pool. Hannah, her arms outstretched and encased by floatie wings, giggled alongside them.
“This is great. They’ll be so worn out by the time we leave, bedtime will be a breeze.”
“Happy to be of service. So, how are you feeling?”
“I think I turned a corner on Friday.” Meg shared with her some details from her wonderful weekend.
“My, you did turn a corner.”
“It feels so great to be familiar to myself again. I mean, I know that’s a weird statement, but it’s like something clicked in my brain finally, you know?”
“I can’t say that I do, but I’m happy for you nonetheless.”
Meg sipped her drink, enjoying the sugary sweetness. Giant puffy clouds filled the sky and sunshine streamed down through them in small patches. She couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day after a happier weekend, but here she sat brooding about that dumb receipt.
“Joy?”
“Hmm?”
“Does Scott tell you when he goes out of town to eat?”
“What?”
“If Scott went to, say, Gleason or Dresden and had lunch, would he tell you when he came home?”
“Probably not, unless he told me all about his day. Sometimes when he gets home I’m so tired from running after Maddie all day, I just hand him the parent reins and escape to a bubble bath. If he went out to eat on one of those days, I wouldn’t know if he sold four mansions, much less went somewhere for food.”
Meg considered that.
“Is something going on?”
Meg set her glass down. “I don’t think so.”
“You don’t think so? Details, please.”
“I found a receipt in Jamison’s pocket from Wimpy’s.”
“The burger place in Greenfield?”
“Mm hmm. It showed he’d had coffee and the breakfast platter. And I just wondered about it because he hasn’t mentioned driving all the way to Greenfield for breakfast.”
“I doubt it means anything. He probably met with a client or something.”
“Well, that’s what I thought, but the receipt was for one. Jamison always picks up the tab when he’s eating with a client or even a potential client. So he had to have been there by himself.”
“Are you looking for trouble? Because I’m not seeing anything sinister at work here. Jamison had breakfast without you. What’s the big deal?”
“I think it’s that he didn’t tell me. Jamison and I tell each other everything.”
“Everything?”
“Yeah. When he comes home from work, I ask how his day went and he tells me.”
“You’ve done that every day?”
“Well … not so much since the surgery.”
“There you go. He probably went on a day you didn’t ask him how his day went, so there was no point in bringing it up.”
“Maybe.” Meg sat back, uneasy. Was she making a mountain out of a molehill? “I’m being dumb, aren’t I?”
Joy crossed her delicate ankles. “I don’t know about dumb, no.”
“Who’s dumb?” Tandy came up behind them and plopped a beach bag down by another chaise lounge. She readjusted Clayton on her hip.
Meg held up her hand. “I am.”
Tandy sat down and began pulling out arm floaties for Clayton. “Why are you dumb?” She found the floaties and slid them up his arms, then began blowing them up.
“Because I’m a suspicious, overly inquisitive wife.”
“You? No way. What happened?”
Meg explained again about the receipt, beginning to feel a little ridiculous for ever thinking it could mean anything but that Jamison had breakfast.
“Hmm, I wonder why he didn’t say anything to you?�
�� Tandy moved to the other floatie.
“That’s what I wondered.”
“Has he told you when he’s gone out to eat in the past?”
“Yeah. Always.” The butterflies in Meg’s stomach took up flight again. “You think something’s up?”
Tandy stood up and carried Clayton to the pool. “I think it’s worth asking him about. I don’t think I’d be jumping to any conclusions, though. It’s not like you found a receipt for flowers or dinner or something.”
“Man, get out of my head.”
Tandy chuckled and waded into the pool with Clayton. He gasped when his little feet and legs hit the cold water, but Tandy kept a tight hold on him. It didn’t take long before he was slapping his hands into the water, laughing at the resulting splash.
“He sure seems to like the water.”
“Yeah, I’m hoping it holds. Clay wants to take a trip to Florida soon and Zelda’s offered us her house in Naples if we want it for a week or two, so I think we’re going to go.”
“Zelda offered to let you stay in her house?”
Tandy nodded. “She and Daddy came in the diner last night and we got to talking and Clay busted out with, ‘I think we need a vacation’ and of course I told him we didn’t have a budget for a vacation right now since we didn’t exactly plan for this little guy, and next thing I know Zelda’s offering to let us stay at her place. Said it’s not doing anything but sitting there vacant anyway, so someone should get some use out of it.”
“Hmm.” Joy tipped her head. “Did it come with strings?”
“None so far, but she did say something weird—or, weird for her.”
“What?”
“She kept asking when we’d like to go down, like she was eager for us to leave. I finally said, ‘Are you trying to get rid of us?’ and she said ‘No, I just think it’s important to always work on your marriage.’”
“To work on your marriage? What does that mean?”
Meg pushed her sunglasses up on her head. “Are she and Daddy having trouble?”
Tandy shrugged. “Beats me. They looked fine. He had his arm around her after they finished eating and I didn’t sense any animosity from either of them.”
“So why the sudden need to work on marriages?”
Tandy shook her head. “I have no idea, but it’s weird, isn’t it?”
“Very.” Meg pulled the sunglasses back down over her eyes. “And I don’t like it when she starts acting strange. It’s bad enough she’s so distant all the time.”
“She is, isn’t she? Such a cold fish. I don’t know what Daddy sees in her.” Joy poured Tandy a glass of lemonade.
“Well, regardless of what he sees in her, he married her, which means we’re stuck with her for life,” Tandy reminded them.
Joy huffed. “And isn’t that a fine mess of worms we’ve got. I have tried and tried to befriend that woman. I’ve taken pies and cakes and helped her get the house in order when she and Daddy got home from their honeymoon—you should have seen the disorganization Daddy lived in—and even taken her clippings from my hosta outside. But does she do anything other than give me an insincere ‘thank you’? No. When we were over there scrapping, I checked and didn’t see hosta anywhere. I think she threw out my clippings.” The outrage in Joy’s voice could have rivaled the Queen of England’s in finding a fork out of place on the royal table.
“I didn’t know you were trying so hard with her,” Meg said.
“Like Tandy said, Daddy married her and we’re stuck with her. I thought it might be a more pleasant experience for us all if we could forge some sort of friendship. But the woman simply has no manners, no good graces, that I can find. She just blunders through life, spouting off opinions and stories like everybody around her should hang on every word and covering her ears with those turquoise earrings and appearing in public wearing those boots with spurs on them.” Joy’s mouth turned down. “I thought she’d trade them in for sandals when summer hit, but I heard she was at Heartland Friday with them on.”
“She was.” Kendra waltzed onto the patio. “Darin and I asked her where she got them and she said an old friend gave them to her years ago.”
Joy harrumphed. “I’d say her debt of gratitude has been more than paid.”
“Maybe if we got her a new pair, she’d chuck the old ones and start wearing the new ones,” Meg offered.
Joy pointed a finger Meg’s direction. “Now that’s not a half-bad idea. Though if it goes anything like the hosta did, we may simply be wasting money on a pair of boots.”
Kendra spread a blanket on a chaise lounge and slipped her T-shirt off. “So, who called the pool day? Because, if I have a vote, I say we do this all summer instead of scrapping day, then spend all the cold weather time in the scrapping studio.”
“Another great idea!” Joy leaned back in her chair. “We’re on a roll here.”
“It’s the sunshine. Gets the brain flowing.” Meg adjusted the back of her lounger so it lay back at a greater incline. With Tandy in the pool, she didn’t have to keep such a close eye on Hannah, and James and Savannah were fine since they both knew how to swim.
She let the conversation of the sisters roll over her and the sunshine warm her face. After the worry of the morning, what she needed was a nap.
It didn’t take long before she had her wish.
* * *
JAMES’S BUBBLY LAUGHTER brought Meg back to consciousness. She opened her eyes and sat up, noting that the sun had moved further down in the sky. “What time is it?”
“About 3:30.” Kendra popped a tortilla chip in her mouth. “Have a nice nap?”
Meg stretched. “Mmm, I did.” She checked the pool. “Where’s Hannah?”
“Needed a nap as much as her mother. Tandy got her down about half an hour ago.”
James’s head plopped back into the water. A snorkel tube rose up beside his face. The kid loved swimming. “And Savannah?”
“We thought she might need a break, too, so she’s watching Madame Blueberry in the living room with Joy and Maddie. Joy says that video puts Maddie to sleep every time.”
Meg sent up a prayer of thanks again for her wonderful sisters. Her stomach grumbled. “Can you pass me some chips?”
Kendra brought over the bag from which she’d been eating. “Don’t tell Joy we were eating straight out of the bag. She’d have our heads.”
“My lips are sealed.” Meg retrieved a chip and crunched into it, remembering the receipt from Wimpy’s and the drama of her morning. She didn’t feel like talking it over again, though, so she stayed silent.
“I need a new bathing suit.” Kendra picked at the material across her stomach. “I bought this one for our honeymoon in the islands and I think I may have worn it out with all the time we spent in the water down there.”
“Sara might still have some in stock.”
“Yeah, want to run down there with me?”
“Right now?”
“No time like the present right?”
“Hmm, I do need some new clothes.” She hadn’t purchased one thing for the summer, having spent all of it so far recovering from surgery.
“It’s settled then. I’ll see if Joy or Tandy minds staying with the kids. Be right back.”
Meg watched her go, then turned back to the pool. The sunshine danced along its rippling surface. She enjoyed the feeling of relaxation that had seeped into her bones while she slept. The faint scent of honeysuckle came to her on a breeze and she breathed deeply, taking the fragrance into her being. Summer in the South might be full of humidity, but it also came with the sweet scent of flowers and—in Joy’s yard, anyway—lush leaves of plants. Not to mention lemonade and the laughter of kids at play.
Summer might be her favorite time of year, if she thought about it long enough. Winter was great, full of Christmas tradition and sweaters and mittens. But all those mittens and boots on kid hands and feet left quite a wake of snow through her house. And spring came with rain and mud puddles—fun for
jumping in, not so fun for the person having to wash the muddy clothes afterwards. Then there was fall, with the rich-hued trees and piles of leaves, but someone had to rake those leaves and the roads stayed clogged with farm machinery on the move while farmers went about their harvests.
No, summer took the prize as her favorite.
“Okay, Tandy’s asleep in one of the guest rooms alongside Hannah, so she’s staying here. Joy said she had some things to catch up on, so she doesn’t mind staying here with the kids while we go shop. Come on, sister, let’s hit it!”
Meg swung her legs over the side of the lounger and stood. Thankfully, her leg continued to obey. “I’m right behind you.”
Twenty
Jamison powered down his computer and leaned back in his office chair. Good grief, this had been a long day. If he didn’t look at one more number the rest of the week, he’d be a happy man. Sometimes, when he got this tired, the numbers took on a life of their own. When he tried to concentrate on them, they simply swam all over the place like psychotic minnows.
“Mr. Fawcett?” Amber cracked the door and stuck her head around it so that she looked like a floating, sideways decapitated head. Jamison blinked. He really needed to go home. “I’m going to head on home, if that’s okay.”
“Sure, Amber. See you tomorrow.”
The floating head nodded and disappeared. Jamison gathered up his things, hoping Meg’s good humor had lasted the day. His bones ached he was so weary, which left him ill prepared for moodiness right now.
He left the office and got in his car, slipped the key into the ignition … then paused. A Wimpy’s burger would taste pretty good right now. But he’d been there just that morning. Now that he’d told Karen things were better at home, he had no need to go.
So why this longing to do so?
He pushed the longing away and started the car, turning it toward home. The drive, never long, seemed particularly short tonight. He pulled into the garage and killed the engine but made no move to get out. This was why some men stopped at a bar on their way home from work. It was less about the drink than about the downtime between office and home. Sort of a detox, ironically enough.