Tessa McDermid - Family Stories (27 page)

Alice had barely dropped the last box on the counter when the apartment door opened. "This is much better."

Ben Hard- castle tucked the key in his pocket and joined her on the couch. "Sneaking around like we did, I was always worried I'd run into a client."

She melted into his embrace. "No talking. I have one hour before I have to go and get Marcia. And I expect to celebrate my freedom."

He grinned, immediately unbuttoning his shirt. "Then let me oblige you."

She leaned back against the cushions, savoring the sight of him undressing, his long legs emerging from his slacks, the tight muscles of his torso, his black hair tousled from his rough handling of the shirt.

Everything about him excited her. Including the facts that he was her boss—and that he was married. Two reasons she shouldn't be seeing him at al . But ever since the night she worked overtime and he'd bumped against her in his insurance office, she'd been crazed with need. His wife lived across the state, in the house they'd bought just after their marriage.

"She chose to stay there," he explained one afternoon at the office. "I was transferred but she wouldn't leave."

Her sympathy had been aroused.

Alice knew she wasn't his first affair. But the other women had lasted less than a month. They'd been together for almost a year.

"Ready for the bedroom?" He'd finished undressing and was starting on Alice's clothes, untying her tennis shoes, stroking off her socks, his lean fingers playing with the arch of her foot.

"No." She stretched against the arm of the couch, bringing her leg up to his shoulders. He was gorgeous naked. "We're going to christen the couch tonight. We can take care of the bed another time."

Forty minutes later, she whispered, "The couch is suitably christened." She ran her fingers lightly down his back.

"Which means what?"

She grinned. "Which means that whenever I sit on this couch, I'll think about you."

He nipped her nose with his teeth and grinned when she yelped. She rubbed a finger over the injured spot. He grabbed her linger and peppered her nose, her cheeks, her eyebrows with kisses. When he stopped, they were both breathless again.

"I have to get Marcia," she panted.

His hands roamed over her breasts. "You will. You might just be a few minutes later than planned."

She was half an hour late. Marcia's grandparents didn't mind. "She could've stayed the night, Alice," Tom's mom said. "We know how hard it is to move."

Alice nodded, unable to speak. Ben had been hard, she recal ed with an inward giggle that immediately had her squirming.

Marcia chattered al the way home. "Gramma and Grampa said I could stay anytime I want," she confided.

"I'm sure they did, honey." She turned into the apartment building's parking lot. "And next year, when you go to kindergarten, you can spend the night once in a while."

"But I want to stay now'' She kicked her feet against the dashboard.

Alice rested a hand on her legs, holding them stil . "When you're five."

She'd made the decision arbitrarily. Now that they'd moved, she was glad she'd held to it with Tom's family; she would be consistent with her own family, too.

Marcia would be a natural deterrent to Ben's sneaking up the stairs from his apartment and into her bed every night. She had explained her conditions when he'd told her an apartment was available in his building.

"I could come up after she's asleep," he said.

"No." She didn't want her daughter tainted by any gossip. "Only when she's at her grandparents'."

She would make him keep to the agreement or move again. Her daughter came first.

She was treading on slippery ground, as her father would say. Sleeping with her boss. Her position in his insurance office should be stimulating enough; she had control of the smal office, hiring temps when the workload was heavy, organizing his schedule, keeping up-to-date on the latest company policies.

The thril of their affair enlivened the routine of paperwork and checking claims. During the day, they were careful to keep their relationship strictly professional. He was aware that his reputation in the business community would suffer if he was caught with the daughter of a leading citizen.

She parked the car. "Come on." She swung Marcia into her arms. "Let's go see your new room."

Chapter 19

Lincoln, Iowa

1965

A Flurry of warm August air announced the opening of the office door. Alice finished typing the last words, her eyes on the woman crossing the carpet. Not a local, she thought, pasting a smile on her face. She would remember a face that serene.

"Good afternoon," she said politely.

"Good afternoon. You must be Alice." The woman raised a hand toward her.

She half rose in her seat and extended a hand. "May I help you? I'm Mr. Hardcasde's assistant."

"I know." The woman beamed, turning around to take in al corners of the office. "I've heard so much about you. If it weren't for you, well—" Her voice broke off and she gave a quick shake of her head.

She touched the col ar of her pale yellow suit jacket. "You must think I'm a complete ninny. Gloria Hardcasde, Ben's wife."

Alice blinked. Ben's wife? In al their years together, she'd never imagined a woman like this as her competition. Not that they were in any competition. Ben had made it clear from the beginning that his marriage was dead, that he and his wife believed in modern living and hadn't secured a divorce because of the mess they'd have dividing up their property. Alice had accepted his excuses, not wanting to enter into a second marriage, content to live on the fringes with him, enjoying their clandestine nights when Marcia was out of the apartment.

But seeing this woman, his wife... She shook herself out of her trance. "Is Ben expecting you?"

Gloria smiled. "No. I thought I'd surprise him. Bring him some news about Adrian."

"Adrian?"

Gloria's sunny expression vanished. "He never mentioned our son?"

Alice shrugged. "Not to me. But then, he tends to keep his personal life separate from his business."

"Of course." Her eyes were shadowed. "He always did work too hard."

Alice came around the desk. "Why don't you sit down?" She gestured toward one of the soft chairs Ben provided for his clients. "He's investigating a claim right now. I expect him back any minute."

"Thank you." Gloria lowered herself graceful y into the chair, holding her purse on her lap.

Alice hovered, unsure what to do next. What was the proper etiquette for entertaining your lover's wife?

"Would you like a cup of coffee? Or some tea?" Marian always served tea during an emotional crisis.

"Tea would be nice. With a splash of milk, if you have it."

"Be right back."

Alice sagged against the cupboard of the smal kitchen. A son.

Ben had a son. And a lovely wife who wasn't anything like the woman she'd imagined. This woman exuded friendliness, kindness, concern. And from their short conversation, she could tel that Mrs. Hardcastle had no idea her husband didn't love her and respect her.

Alice poured hot water into a cup and added a tea bag. Rummaging through the cabinet, she found a smal measuring cup. Fil ing it partway with milk, she placed the meager offering on a metal tray and carried it into the front office.

"Nothing too fancy, I'm afraid." She set the tray on the low table between the chairs.

"It's fine." Gloria waved at the desk. "Feel free to finish your work. Please, don't let me interrupt you."

"Thank you."

Alice typed the last few lines on a page, ripped it out, then slid another piece of paper into the machine and made short work of the letter. She carried both documents into the inner office, where she placed them on Ben's desk. She signed the one on top, scanned the room for a moment, then walked back to her own desk.

She was covering her typewriter when the door opened. Another blast of heat came into the room. "You wil not believe what that numbskul Overton is claiming," Ben said. "He—"

Alice cut off his next words. "Your wife is here."

If she hadn't stil been so stunned, his expression would have been comical. "Gloria?"

"Hi, darling." His wife stood up and approached him, settling her hands on his shoulders, lifting one foot slightly while she kissed his cheek. "I thought I'd surprise you."

"You did." He sent Alice a quick glance over his wife's shoulder.

She crouched down and col ected her purse from the bottom desk drawer. "I'll leave you to your reunion."

Opening the door, she paused. "Your letters are on your desk. You'll want to sign them before you go home tonight."

"Alice—"

"Good night." She gave Gloria a genuine smile. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Mrs. Hardcastle."

"And you, Alice."

She'd have to move, she thought, pacing the living room of her apartment. Maybe to one of the new duplexes being built at the edge of town. Tom's child support had kept pace with his increase in earnings as a doctor.

She and Marcia could survive for a few months while she searched for a new job.

Leaving Lincoln wasn't an option, not with both sets of Marcia's grandparents stil alive and in town. But her daughter would be changing schools at the end of the summer, transferring to the middle school for her fifth-grade year. A new location wouldn't affect her friends or her education.

"Go away," she snapped through the door later that night. Marcia was at Tom's parents'. They hadn't minded the short notice, eager to have another visit before school started.

Alice had needed to be alone. She'd considered cal ing her mother, but Marian would've figured out instantly that something was wrong. And as much as she was tempted to spil everything, she couldn't. This was her mess. She had to clean it up.

She'd guessed he would come to her door. The letter, his wife's appearance... He didn't do wel with changes to his routine.

"Alice, let me in."

She rested her head against the door for a moment, then stood back and yanked it open. "For five minutes,"

she said firmly.

He tumbled into the room. "Alice, you have to believe me! I had no idea she was coming."

She edged away from his outstretched hands, putting the couch between them. "That doesn't bother me as much as learning you have a son. I've worked for you for seven years. Not once did you mention your child."

Or give her a clear impression of his wife. But that was a discussion she would never have with him.

She had known as soon as she saw his wife that their affair was over. She should have ended it long ago. Or forced him to divorce his wife and make an honest woman of her. But it was easier to hide, to play the game.

No real emotions were involved that way.

He ran his hand through his hair. The tousled mane didn't thril her as it usual y did. "Alice, I couldn't talk about him. Not to you, not to anyone."

"Why?"

He whirled away from her. "He's in a state hospital, Alice. He's mental y retarded."

She gasped. No wonder he sounded anguished. The injustice would be daunting— Ben with his perfect body, his keen wit, to have a son who wouldn't even be able to carry on a conversation, who would need constant care.

"That's why Gloria wouldn't move with me. She had to stay near him. We agreed that I would work from this office, that we would stay married and not inflict the probability of having another child like him on anyone else."

No wonder he'd been so insistent about using protection. She'd been touched that he was willing to forgo his pleasure by using a condom. They didn't need the complication of a child, he'd said. At the time, she'd believed he was concerned about her.

"I know you think I'm a heel, not tel ing you about him." His words were muffled, his back to her. "I just couldn't live with the knowledge that my only son is a retard. And now she's talking about taking him out of the hospital, finding him a place in one of these new community living centers. She expects me to move back and help with him."

She had frozen at his first words. "A retard.' That's what you cal your son?" He had yet to use his son's name with her.

He spun around. "Don't be righteous with me, Alice Robertson! You've spent the last seven years committing adultery."

"No, no, I haven't. "She shook her head. "I'm not married. You are. I made a stupid choice and I've wasted years. But I'm through. You read my letter of resignation?"

His laugh was harsh, destroying any last remnant of feeling she had for him. "Get out of here!" She jerked the door open, pointing toward the hal way.

"Alice, please."

The pleading tone didn't move her. "No, get out. I believed you, that your marriage was dead, your wife was a witch, every one of your horrible lies. Al because I didn't want to go to bed alone."

She rubbed a hand over her eyes. Tomorrow she'd have to look for a new place, find a job, come up with an explanation for her daughter. Now she had to survive these last few moments, maintain her dignity and her pride. "Some things are worse than being alone," she said quietly.

She'd never understood this before. But seeing his wife, listening to his cal ous comments about his son...

He didn't say a word. He walked out of the room, his shoulders stiff, his shoes scuffing the carpet. She shut the door behind him, resisting the urge to slam it.

No more. No more men. I can live by myself, for myself. Steeling herself against the lonely days ahead, she went into her bedroom and started sorting through the clothes she would pack for her new life.

*****

"Hey, Mom sent me a postcard!" Preston waved it as he came into the house.

"Anything for me?"

He sifted through the rest of the stack. "Nope. Maybe yours wil come tomorrow. Or maybe she forgot you." He gave Hannah a devilish grin. "I am her favorite."

"Son!" she reminded him. "I'm her favorite daughter."

Preston laughed and ran into the kitchen to bring Grandma the mail.