Thy Neighbor's Wife (23 page)

“Honey, it was Rita’s idea. I sure as hell don’t want you there.”

Jackie’s eyes twinkled as she tried to cheer Nikki up by taunting

her.

“A glass of wine and Rita’s cooking and you’ll be a new

woman,” Alex assured her.

“I promise it won’t be more than a few days,” Nikki said

quickly, still concerned about being an imposition. “The landlord

said early next week.”

Jackie reached back and grasped Nikki’s chin in her hand.

“Sweetie. It’s okay. You’re welcome at our place as long as you

need to stay. Okay?”

Nikki smiled gratefully. “Okay. Thanks.”

Jackie’s gaze shifted to Alex. “Before I forget, Rita wants you

to come by for drinks next week some time. She wants to talk about

the book so far.”

Alex’s heart jumped. “Great. Let me know what night works

best.” Her nerves went on red alert; she always got incredibly ner-

vous before receiving feedback from Rita—mostly because she was

painfully honest. She had the power to send Alex’s ego soaring like

an eagle in flight or she could crush it like a bug beneath her heel.

“And how is the book?” Nikki asked.

“Yeah,” David piped in. “Am I in it?”

“Not yet, but it’s still early,” Alex replied, a slight blush tinting

her cheeks. “It’s moving along nicely, though. More smoothly than

I expected.”

“You must have been inspired,” Jackie said, winking.

Alex glared at her. “The publisher that bought my short story

last fall is interested in seeing it when it’s finished.”

Nikki squeezed her shoulder, smiling proudly. “Alex, that’s fan-

tastic!”

“Yeah, well, I have to get it done first.”

“You will.”

Nikki had always been very supportive of Alex’s love of writing

when they’d been together and it touched Alex that it still seemed

to ring true. She wanted to say a number of things to her ex-girl-

friend, things about how stupid Diane had been to let her go, about

how lucky she’d make her next partner. None of it seemed appropri-

ate, though, given her status as somebody who’d left. Instead, she

simply smiled and said, “Thanks, Nikki.”

Thy Neighbor’s Wife 123

Nikki grinned back at her as they drove on.

* * *

Jennifer had spent most of the day soaking up the sun’s rays

and trying to relax. Her mind had been a whirlwind for several

days. It had been a week since her conversation with her father-in-

law, as well as her invigorating and arousing tour of the lake with

Alex. Thoughts of the two events, along with thoughts of Eric and

of Sarah, had all jumbled into a giant potpourri in her mind and she

couldn’t seem to get any of them to leave her alone. She was

exhausted and she wished more than once that she could just turn

her brain off like any household appliance, simply to have a little

peace and quiet.

She’d tried to wash away some of her anxiety—along with the

combination of sweat and sunscreen on her skin—with an early

evening shower. As she stepped out, she heard her own voice on the

answering machine in the kitchen. She swore softly, wrapped her

dripping body in a thick, purple towel and tried to get to the phone

next to the bed. The machine beeped just as she picked up the

extension and she swore again as the dial tone assaulted her damp

ear.

She padded back to the bathroom and finished drying. Tossing

on a pair of black cotton shorts and a white, long sleeve t-shirt, she

shivered involuntarily, having gotten a bit too much sun. She was

chilly, despite the temperature still being in the seventies, and she

rubbed her arms vigorously as she headed downstairs to play the

message on her answering machine.

“Hi, Jen, it’s me. I’ve still got a stack of stuff to work on, so I

think I’m going to just crash here tonight.” Eric had left for Buffalo

that morning after being at the lake house with her for less than half

a day. “The battery in my cell phone is about to croak and as soon

as I hang up, I’m going to put it in the charger. So if you have trou-

ble getting me, that’s probably why. I should be back some time

tomorrow and I’ll try not to make it such a late night, okay? Have a

good one, babe.” The machine clicked to a stop.

Jennifer stood looking at the wall for a long time. “Liar,” she

muttered softly. The thing that surprised her most was her complete

lack of anger, the missing indignation, and she realized that she

needed to examine that very thing thoroughly. She should be furi-

ous. She was ninety-nine point nine percent sure her husband was

being unfaithful and she didn’t really seem to be concerned. He was

constantly away and consistently sleeping away from home. They

spent more nights apart than they did together, yet she never got

upset with him or called him on any of it.

124 Georgia Beers

What the hell is wrong with me? she thought, horrified. What

kind of wife am I?

The answer came immediately, clear as a bell, and the weight

of it dumped her into the overstuffed chair forcing the breath from

her lungs in a heavy sigh.

“The kind that doesn’t want to be married,” she said.

The thought was a lot to absorb, despite its simplicity. She

shouldn’t have been surprised, but she was…if not by the answer

itself, then by the fact that it had taken her so long to accept the

idea. Obviously, Eric was having concerns of his own about their

marriage, given the fact that he would rather sleep elsewhere. It was

depressing and sad—not so much the state they were in, but the fact

that they’d let it go so far and neither one of them had said a thing

to the other.

“Welcome to the Land of No Communication.” She rubbed her

forehead, trying to slow the typhoon of thoughts flying in circles in

her brain.

She wondered if Eric had been feeling as trapped as she had. At

that moment, she knew they needed to sit down and have a talk.

She knew it was the only way to alleviate the stress they’d each been

under, but it wasn’t a comforting thought. Rather, it made her

uneasy. She stared off into space for what might have been minutes

or hours; she wasn’t sure.

When she finally realized she was having trouble seeing, that

dusk had fallen and she hadn’t noticed, she decided she needed a

pick-me-up. She wanted to talk to somebody, to be around people

who’d make her laugh and tell her that she was okay. She stood and

peered out the back window, noting with a smile of relief and antic-

ipation that Alex’s lights were on.

Jennifer was surprised at how a person could become instantly

comfortable with another—that it could happen without either one

even noticing. She’d only known Alex for a couple of months, but

she thought nothing of popping in on her unannounced. There were

not a lot of people with whom she’d feel okay about doing that, and

she’d be irritated at most people for doing it to her, but she felt that

her connection to Alex was different. She knew without a doubt

that Alex would be just as happy to see her as she’d be to see Alex.

She had a nice bottle of Chardonnay chilling in the fridge. She

quickly cut up some sharp cheddar cheese and tossed it into a Tup-

perware bowl, along with some stoned wheat crackers. Then she

scooped up the bowl and the bottle and headed next door.

Alex saw her coming through the sliding glass door and smiled

and waved. Being the one to make her smile was something Jennifer

found absurdly pleasing and she grinned back at her, holding up the

wine bottle. Alex scooped Kinsey up in her arms and opened the

Thy Neighbor’s Wife 125

door.

“Hi, you,” she said happily.

“I come bearing gifts.”

“I see that. Come in. All gift-bearers are welcome here, espe-

cially those bringing food and wine. Kinsey and I were just going to

sit on the deck and relax. Care to join us?”

“I’d love to.” Jennifer entered, seeing papers scattered across

the desk in the living room. “I didn’t interrupt your writing, did I?”

Alex waved her off. “Nah. I was done for the night, anyway.

My brain’s fried.”

Jennifer hoped her relief wasn’t too visible. “Well then, why

don’t you and Kinsey go out and get comfortable? I’ll open the wine

and bring out the munchies. Okay?”

Alex’s sparkling brown eyes held Jennifer’s gaze for a few sec-

onds. Jennifer could feel her heart beat in the pit of her stomach.

“Yes, ma’am,” Alex said softly.

This must be what they mean when they say two people have

chemistry, Jennifer thought with a slight shake of her head. The

buzzing in her ears was a bit distracting.

She poured two glasses of wine, then found a small plate with-

out a problem and arranged the chunks of cheese on it, fanned by

the crackers. Turning out the inside lights, she headed out onto the

deck.

A thick, squat candle was burning in the center of the glass

table. Alex was stretched out on the lounge, her long, tanned legs

crossed at the ankle, Kinsey sitting next to her knee and tethered to

the chair. She looked amazingly comfortable in her sleeveless, but-

ton-down shirt and cargo shorts and Jennifer tried hard not to stare

at her exposed shoulders, simultaneously grateful for and cursing

the lack of light. Alex had moved one of the small tables next to the

lounge, along with a chair for her neighbor. Jennifer handed her a

glass, set her own glass and the cheese on the table, and made her-

self comfortable, propping her bare feet up on the end of Alex’s

lounge, very close to her calves.

The night was gorgeous. The breeze was warm and blew gently

off the water, the soft lapping sounds soothing and relaxing.

Alex sighed in contentment. “It’s totally impossible to be

stressed on a night like this.”

“I would think this would be the perfect place to live if you’re a

busy corporate executive or something,” Jennifer said thoughtfully.

“If you’re job is nothing but stress all day long, this would be the

place to unwind, I’d imagine.”

“Well, what does Eric think? His job’s pretty stressful, right?”

“Yeah…” She let her voice drift off into the night air.

“I’m sorry,” Alex said softly. “Sore subject, huh?”

126 Georgia Beers

Jennifer took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Alex? Have

you ever done something you realized later that you never should

have done? And you sort of knew it at the time, too, but you were

too chicken to make the right decision? So you just did what was

expected of you?” She waited for a few moments before looking at

Alex.

Alex’s eyes were focused on her and she smiled sadly. “Oh,

yeah. I know exactly what you mean.”

“Do you?”

Alex looked at her for such a long time, so intently, that Jenni-

fer could feel it despite the growing darkness. She seemed to hold

some sort of internal debate, then sighed and leaned her head back

against the chair. “My mother outed me at the school where I

taught.”

Jennifer was incredulous. “Your mother?”

“Yep.”

“Wow. Ouch.”

“That’s an understatement. My point, though, is that I left my

job without even trying to fight. Like a coward.”

Her voice was self-deprecating and Jennifer was caught com-

pletely off-guard by the confession. Alex didn’t seem like the kind

of person to walk away from a battle. “Why didn’t you fight?”

“At the time, I told myself it was because I was afraid. School

faculties have the most rapid grapevines you’ve ever seen and every-

body knew in a very short span of time, even a lot of the parents.”

“Oh, Alex. That must have been awful for you. Anybody would

have been afraid in that position. With no support, what could you

do?”

“That’s just it. I had support. My principal was the greatest guy

in the world. He said he had no intention of letting me go. The peo-

ple opposed to my being there were loud, but the group I had sup-

porting me was bigger. I think I could have stayed without a

problem.”

“But…why’d you leave?”

“Because of my mother.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Yes, you do. Didn’t you say to me when we were first getting

to know each other that your parents were almost more excited

about your wedding than you and Eric were? Because they wanted

you to get married so badly?”

“Yes.”

“Well, my mother obviously thought I shouldn’t be teaching.

So I was a good little girl and did like mommy wanted.”

“What happened…exactly?” Jennifer couldn’t help but flash

back to Dawn’s explanation of why Alex left her position and she

Thy Neighbor’s Wife 127

suddenly wanted more than anything to hear Alex’s side of the

story.

Alex sighed tiredly, as if she’d told the story a thousand times.

“I had a student—a female student—whom I suspect was grappling

with her sexuality. She’d sent me a couple of poems. They were by

no means explicit or erotic, but they were pretty obviously love

poems. I had mentioned them to my mother, but I never told her

they were from a girl. I had them in my apartment on my desk