by Elaine Fox
What she needed to do, she decided, was find other people to confide in, other friends to talk over her problems with. Not that Jack was a friend. No, Jack was just…just an unexpected distraction. A distraction with great charisma and a dangerously magnetic smile. But that was all.
Unfortunately, Kim had been on vacation all week, so she hadn’t been able to cultivate a friendship with her, as she’d planned. But she would. As soon as Kim got back into town she would make friends.
Because she had to get rid of Jack. The temptation to talk to him was getting too strong. She needed to put him off. Show him that he didn’t have a place in her life other than as her landlord.
She had to remember her husband.
Chapter 9
Sadie’s Diner was nearly full the day Delaney and Kim went to lunch, with the waitresses hollering at the cook and Rodney, the owner, scowling at everyone.
Kim and Delaney stood at the door a second before noticing that a booth in the back near the rest rooms was empty.
“Come on,” Kim said, grabbing two menus off the counter by the register and taking her by the arm. “We’ll just slip into that one before Rodney tells us he’s too full to take anyone else.”
Kim marched across the room in her stiletto heels and short skirt, drawing not a few stares as she went. She definitely looked more New York than Harp Cove.
“He’d do that?” Delaney asked. “Turn away business?”
“Oh yeah. He’s the laziest son of a bitch ever to own a successful restaurant. Not that you can exactly call this a restaurant.”
Kim took the side of the booth looking out into the dining room while Delaney slipped onto the vinyl bench seat across from her. Salt stuck to her palm as she slid across the seat and she brushed it away.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen this place so crowded. I wonder what’s up?”
“August,” Kim said with a grimace. “Biggest vacation month of the year. And this last week before school starts is always the worst.” She propped up a menu in front of her while her eyes scanned the room. “Oh God, the diners club is here. Well, at least it’s too crowded for them to hear anything.”
“The diners club?” Delaney craned her neck around to look at the teeming room.
“See the guys at the middle table? Bunch of old men?”
Delaney saw the men she’d heard talking about Jack the first week she was here, the morning she had breakfast at the counter and he’d joined her. “Oh, yes. Why do you call them the diners club?”
“Because they’re an institution in this town. They’re always here and they know just about everything about everyone. I bet they’ve got a file on you already, figuratively speaking.”
Delaney turned back to Kim, alarmed. “What do you mean? Why would they be interested in me?”
Kim laughed. “Because they’re interested in everyone. That’s what they do. They’re like journalists who can’t stand anyone else scooping a story from them.”
“But there’s nothing to know about me.”
Kim gave her a patiently amused look. “Are you kidding? The new doctor in town? You were news before you even arrived. But now, you’re here, and you’re a female with a kid—which took them by surprise, I’m pleased to say—and without a husband…well, it’s kept them going for weeks.”
“I’m not without a husband,” Delaney said, aghast.
Kim shrugged and looked at her menu. “To them you are. If he’s not here, he doesn’t exist.” Kim’s eyes shifted to Delaney’s face, and she laid a hand on Delaney’s forearm. “Hey, don’t look so worried. Everyone gets gossiped about sooner or later. They don’t do any harm.”
Delaney forced herself to smile and give a little laugh. “Oh I know.” She waved a hand nonchalantly. “I’m not worried. I’m just not used to small towns like this. Coming from D.C., I guess I’m used to a lot more…anonymity.”
“Tell me about it,” Kim said, nodding. She slapped her menu shut and laid it on the table. “Rueben for me. I don’t know why I even look at the menu anymore, I get the same thing every time.”
“I’m going to have the chicken salad.” Delaney placed her menu on top of Kim’s. “So who are those guys, anyway? The diners club.”
“Oh just a bunch of local guys, retired lobstermen, mostly. I think they’re here because their wives don’t want them hanging around the house all day long. But they’re all nice guys—Sam especially, the guy with the white hair. He’s a merciless teaser. Always looking for a good joke. But really nice.”
Delaney looked back and noticed the man with the raspy voice she’d heard that morning. He had seemed sort of the ringleader of the group.
“And Norman,” Kim continued. “He’s a little odd—always has that cap on—but just as sweet as can be. He makes a living clamming now. Boy, talk about a tough life.”
The waitress arrived, breathless and harried, with two cloudy glasses of ice water and a tattered pad. She took their order and as she wrote down Delaney’s chicken salad, she paused just long enough to look toward the door, roll her eyes and say, “Ah jeez, here comes Mother Hubbard.”
Delaney looked back over her shoulder, wishing she’d taken the seat Kim had, to see a robust woman in her sixties with steely hair and a steely look in her eye push assertively through the door.
Delaney turned back to Kim, brows raised, as the waitress marched off. “Mother Hubbard?”
Kim’s red lips curved and her eyes glittered. She leaned forward. “Mother Hubbard is Rodney’s mother. She’s the one who started this place. When she comes in Rodney damn near shits a brick and the waitresses all have to step lively or be in for a lambasting.”
Delaney laughed and sipped her water.
“I wonder what brought her in this time. Last time it was because Rodney’s wife had caught him cheating on her with one of the waitresses. Lola, if you can believe that. She lives in Machias now. Mother Hubbard gave him an earful that time.”
Kim watched Mother Hubbard apparently long enough to determine she wasn’t going to do anything interesting, then turned back to Delaney.
“So this is fun,” she said, leaning both elbows on the table and smiling at Delaney. “I’m glad we did this. I’ve been wanting to get together with you.”
Delaney smiled. “Me too. You know, I don’t know many people in town yet, and you and I seem to have some things in common.”
“Like being from a place with more than thirty-six people in it?”
They both laughed.
“Exactly.”
The waitress arrived with their sandwiches in record time. Mother Hubbard’s influence, no doubt.
“So tell me,” Kim said, plucking a potato chip from her plate and eating it. “How are things going with—Jim is it? Is he coming up soon?”
Delaney looked down at her sandwich and pulled the ribboned toothpick from its center. She didn’t want to get into anything about her “husband,” didn’t want to compound the lies she’d told to Kim because she wanted to get to the point of telling her the truth. But she couldn’t just dive right into it, not without Kim thinking she was nuts, could she?
Delaney sighed. “They’re not going great, to be honest. I’m pretty sure he won’t be coming up anytime soon.”
She had an almost overwhelming urge to come clean to Kim. Just tell her the truth and see what happened. Kim, of all people, was in a position to help Delaney, both with the legalities of the lie—not having to give false information to the IRS, for example—and the logistics of it. Having one good friend in town and in the office who knew the truth could help keep unwanted questions at bay.
Kim thoughtfully chewed another chip. “Hm. It’s gotta be hard to mend a relationship when you’re five hundred miles apart.”
“Impossible,” Delaney agreed. “And it’s seven hundred.”
“Wow.”
She could lean over right now, Delaney thought, and say Kim, I’ve got something to tell you that I really need to share with someone. Kim see
med like the type who might take it in stride, the type who was not easily shocked. But then, Delaney probably didn’t seem like the type to make up a husband. And what would she tell her the reason for the Faux-Jim was? Should she confess about Jack and Emily at the same time? No, that would be too much. And that secret wasn’t just hers, it was Emily’s too. She’d just say she was worried about being a single parent in this small town. Girl talk, after all, was the icebreaker for all good friendships.
“You guys have been married five years?” Kim asked.
Delaney nodded and took a big bite of her sandwich. Maybe if she kept her mouth full, she wouldn’t be expected to say much. More time to think about her course of action.
“How long have you been having trouble?” Kim spooned coleslaw onto her Rueben, causing Delaney to wonder how she stayed so thin, eating such extravagantly fatty foods. “If you don’t mind my asking, that is.” She gave Delaney a mischievous smile, the kind of smile that, Delaney suspected, allowed her to ask all manner of probing questions without seeming nosy.
Delaney shook her head, swallowing. “I don’t mind. There’s just not much to tell.”
Now would be the time, she thought. Just say it now. Actually, Kim, I don’t really have a husband…But her caution was hard to let go of.
“The only part that was good was the beginning, really,” she continued, thinking about Jack, about how easy it was that first night, and how awkward it was now. “But ever since the baby I’ve begun to realize that he’s just not responsible enough for me. I think that’s what it boils down to.”
Kim looked at her with interest and nodded. “Uh-huh. I can see that. You need someone you can really count on, especially with a child.”
Delaney’s thoughts strayed further, seeing in her mind’s eye the black tee shirt, thrown by Lisa Jacobson, draping across Jack’s chest. Maybe she could talk about this without really talking about it. Get Kim’s input without telling the whole truth just yet.
She looked up at Kim. “Plus there’ve been…other women.”
Kim’s eyes widened appreciably and she leaned forward. “Really.”
Delaney’s cheeks burned, and she looked back down at her sandwich. A blob of chicken salad fell out the back as she picked it up.
“Yeah. It’s just the way he is, it seems,” she continued. “And while I know that’s really my problem, and not Emily’s, I can’t help thinking his infidelity makes him a bad father. Do you know what I mean?”
“Sure,” Kim agreed, nodding heartily. “If he can’t be honest and upright with you, how will he be honest and upright with Emily?”
“Exactly,” she said, then thought, “though to be fair he hasn’t exactly been dishonest.”
“You mean he tells you about these other women?” Kim looked scandalized.
“Not exactly. But still, it’s a matter of integrity, isn’t it? I mean, if a man’s a playboy, it shows a certain lack of character, doesn’t it? Even if he’s up front about it?”
“Certainly if he’s a married man.” Kim looked confused. “Plus, I’ve got to tell you, the very fact that he won’t come up to see you has got to make you think he’s not committed to making things better. I mean, if he can’t even be bothered to help you move…” She shook her head and picked up her sandwich. “Well, I can see why you forgot all about him on your W-4.”
Delaney froze, chicken salad stopping halfway down her esophagus and threatening to crawl back up. She was suddenly sure beyond all reason that Kim suspected her lie. What had she said earlier, about the diners club? Something about if her husband’s not here, he didn’t really exist? And now, saying that she’d forgotten him on the W-4, why had she put it that way? Who forgot their husband on a tax form?
Delaney swallowed hard. “You know how it is. Someone gives you trouble, you try to put them out of your mind.”
Kim laughed. “You sure did that! Wish I had as much luck with that when I’m mad at Chris. And I’m mad at Chris a lot.” She paused thoughtfully. “But seriously,” she said then, coming directly back to the point with a concerned expression, “it sounds to me as if you’ve kind of made up your mind. Or is there actually a chance he might show up?”
Delaney hesitated so long, caught up in wondering if Kim suspected something or if she was just being paranoid, that Kim added, “I mean, I’m worried about you. You seem so stressed. You’re in a new town, a new job, a new baby. Your husband’s nowhere to be found. I can see where it must be really hard on you.”
“It’s a little difficult,” she said vaguely. She had to tell her, Delaney decided. She couldn’t possibly build a friendship with the burden of this lie on her back, driving herself crazy with paranoia. She took a deep breath. “Kim, I’ve got something to tell you that I really need to share—”
The sound of a ringing cell phone piped up from Kim’s purse. Kim, who had just taken another bite of her sandwich, rolled her eyes, wiped her mouth on a napkin, then dug through her monstrous purse.
“Sorry, hold that thought, Delaney.” She swallowed. “Hello?” she said into the phone, winking at Delaney. But the look on her face changed when the voice on the other end of the line spoke, and she shifted uncomfortably.
It was one of those phones that are amplified enough that anyone nearby could hear the other party, and hear him Delaney did.
“Are you done?” a male voice asked.
Jack’s voice, Delaney was sure. She stopped breathing, not wanting to miss a word.
“Not yet…” Kim said musically, her tone obviously trying to tell him she was in the middle of something. Her eyes skittered to Delaney’s, then she turned sideways in the seat, looking toward the men’s room. She was apparently unaware that Delaney could hear the other end of the conversation.
“Well hurry up. Meet me on the boat when you’re done.”
Definitely Jack, Delaney thought, inhaling slowly.
“Keep your pants on,” Kim said. “You don’t want me to cut my lunch short, do you?”
“God no.”
Delaney heard him laugh, and her stomach lurched. She pushed her plate away.
“Then leave me alone.” Kim laughed. “I’ll call you when I’m finished.”
“No, come to the boat.”
She smiled, flipped her eyes at Delaney apologetically. “Jeez, you’re demanding. I can’t. I’ve got to go back to work. I have a job, remember?”
“Just for a minute.”
Kim sighed heavily.
“All right, where are you?” Jack asked.
“Sadie’s. And I’ve got to go. This is rude.”
“Okay, okay. Over and out.”
“I’ll talk to you later.” She hung up. “Sorry,” she said to Delaney, the color high in her face. “That was my mother. She’s always bugging me on this thing.”
She pushed the power button and the phone beeped off.
Delaney’s skin felt cold. Had Jack been trying to set up an assignation? Were Kim and Jack involved? Why else would Kim lie about who it was? Thank God she hadn’t said anything about Jim. She might have been confessing the truth to one of Jack’s girlfriends.
She’d been saved, literally, by the bell.
“So, you were saying?” Kim asked, looking at her with great interest.
Delaney shook her head. “I…I can’t remember now.” She laughed lightly, feeling sick.
“We were talking about you and Jim. Were you mad when Jim didn’t come up to help you move? Jack said it seemed you thought he might come, and then he didn’t, so he helped you move in. That would have pissed me off no end.”
“Yeah…” Delaney picked up her sandwich, then put it back on the plate and wiped the corners of her mouth with her napkin.
“Not that he minded,” Kim said quickly. “Jack, that is. No, he’d do anything to help anyone. Salt of the earth kind of guy, is our Jack. He just mentioned, you know, that he was concerned because you seemed so all alone.”
Delaney watched the juice from her pickle soak into
one of the nearby chips. “So you and Jack are—are friends.”
“Oh yeah. We’re buds. I think the world of Jack. He’s a great guy. Just a great guy.” Kim downed another hearty bite of Reuben.
Delaney felt what chicken salad she’d eaten compress into a ball as her stomach turned into a fist.
“You guys do a lot together?” Delaney asked, picking up a chip.
“We do. He’s always picking me up to do something…he’s just considerate like that. Sometimes I think I’d go nuts in this town if not for Jack. Last week, for example, after that crazy day in the clinic? You know when all those old people and babies were in—and all of them, I’m telling you, every single one, wanted help filling out their insurance forms—well, Jack took me out on his boat, and I swear it saved my life. It was the most gorgeous night, and there was one of those tiny little moons out and the stars and everything…” She sighed heavily. “Well, it was fabulous. Just exactly what I needed. He’s always coming to my rescue like that.”
Delaney pictured them under the stars on Jack’s boat. She could picture Jack most clearly, his hair ruffled in the breeze, tee shirt molding to his muscled back, hands steady on the wheel…or on Kim. Suddenly Delaney was back on that beach at night with Jack, but instead of seeing herself in his arms she saw Kim. Kim, who was always mad at her boyfriend Chris, who thinks the world of Jack, thinks he’s just a great guy, who is rescued by him apparently on a regular basis.
Something unnervingly like jealousy nibbled within her chest, and she wondered if she were going insane. First she’s paranoid that Kim suspects something, then she’s worked up because she thinks Kim and Jack might be involved.
This last seemed to be the most immediately important, however. Because how could she be friends with Kim, how could she possibly tell Kim the truth or even part of it, if Kim was involved with Jack? Disappointment swept over her, but whether it was for the lost friendship with Kim or this further proof of Jack’s lack of moral fiber in helping her cheat on her boyfriend, she wasn’t sure.