The Woman He Married (31 page)

“How you
holdin
’ up?” he asked, crossing the area rug warming the hard wood floor beneath. His smile was easy but his eyes watchful. With his shirtsleeves rolled up twice and tie loosened as usual, he moved a heavy box effortlessly and eased casually into one of her chairs.

“Fine.”
Josie’s voice cracked.

“Right.”
Brian raised one brow doubtfully. “You forget that I know you.
In every sense of the word.”

Josie’s eyes narrowed. “Is sex
all
you men think about?” she asked, concluding that he was no different from John.
Dogs, all of them,
just looking
for the next bitch to screw.

“Pretty much.”
He looked to the ceiling. “And food, and football—in that order,” he said, pursing his lips deviously.

Josie decided to unleash her anger on Brian sitting conveniently at her disposal.

“And, physical appearance, that’s more important than brains, or let’s say, any semblance of a moral compass?”

“Josie, you are the most
sexy
, interesting woman I’ve ever known.” Shaking his head while brushing his hands absently over his trousers, he said, “The man’s a damn fool.” His balmy chocolate eyes twinkled from across her desk. She felt her resolve soften a notch or two.

She took a deep breath to calm her anger while studying Brian’s face.
Damn, he’s cute.
She’d been wrong. He was nothing like John.

“Shouldn’t you buy me dinner before engaging in such talk?” she said, a smile tugging at her lips.

“When you’re ready, you’ll let me know, and I’ll buy you that dinner.” After holding her gaze for a steamy moment, he pushed up from the chair and changed the subject. “But for now, we have a staff meeting and after that I’m going to help you hang these pictures and unpack these boxes. It’s time you settled in.”

As he spoke, Josie watched his lips, remembering how they felt pressed against hers. She’d always loved the way he moved, casual but confident, his strong hands capable of gentle touch.

“Oh, and no more phone calls from estranged husbands or I’ll go broke buying pencils.” Smiling, he placed the broken remnants of Josie’s tantrum on her desk with finality.

Maybe spring’s coming early this year
, she hoped.

* * * *

Standing in front of the refrigerator, Josie studied the
calendar,
trying to decide which days she needed her mother to pick Beth up from pre-K, and what days she’d be able to do it. She rubbed her moist palms together and took a few cleansing breaths while feeling anxious but excited about spending the day with Brian. After changing her outfit a half dozen times before settling on a winter-white cashmere wrap sweater, single strand of pearls, black crepe skirt, tights, and heeled Mary Jane’s, Josie looked professional, but feminine.

She closed her eyes for just a second, circling her head around, trying to work out a stress kink while wishing she had another hour, maybe two more, to sleep. Although Josie had been going to bed alone for at least a year now, somehow knowing John was gone, and not expected to come creeping in at some point, made the bed feel massive and empty. Since he’d left,
Josie’d
spent too many nights being kicked in the back by her little angel girl.

The pantry was becoming sparse, the laundry and dust piling up. Josie hoped that in time her life would come together and she would miraculously become that elusive twenty-first century woman who looked fabulous every second of the day while working, raising children, and keeping a perfect home. It had been just over two weeks since they’d come back from the
Caribbean
and living life as a single, working mother was already starting to wear on her.

Looking at the front of the refrigerator, swarming with pictures and drawings, Josie decided to take a few moments to de-clutter. As she snatched items long overdue for removal, she hesitated when reaching for a newspaper clipping about how John had saved twenty people from a burning bus. The whole event had taken on a life of its own since they’d gotten home. A few days after the trip, Bobbie had come home with this article, proud as pie that his father was a “hero.” Then, Josie heard Jack on the phone with Ashley, telling her how John “saved his momma from a burning bus.”

Although she couldn’t conceive of how John had allowed the facts to get so distorted, Josie had been a pretty good sport about the whole thing. Except that one time when she’d hung up on the producer of a local nightly news program after he’d asked her if she’d like to be interviewed live, with John, telling all of Birmingham how he had saved her life, along with all the others. She scoffed at the memory.
What’s next, the Nobel Peace Prize?
As she plucked the article off and added it to the other papers destined for the “round file”, Josie’s heart stopped momentarily when a flyer, trimmed in gold with
Roy’s Holiday Sale
written in swirling calligraphy, showcasing
the bracelet
, fell into her hand. Josie’s eyes gazed woefully at the image of the bracelet. Running her fingers lightly over the page, she felt pangs of disappointment as she remembered how excited she’d been after leaving
Roy
’s store that day.

When she finally tore her gaze away from the ad, she looked up with a start and dropped the paper to the floor.

“Good Lord, John! What are you doing here?” she asked, reaching down to pick up the flier. “How did you get in?”

“It’s good to see you too, Babe,” John said coolly. “You left the garage door open.” Dressed in an olive-colored suit, his dress shirt disheveled and his eyes drooping and dull, he looked tired and… She stared into his face—
Downright
miserable.
Resting on the floor, next to his leg, was a suitcase.

“You can’t just come waltzing in here whenever you feel like it, John,” Josie said. “And what’s with the suitcase?”

“First of all, I wrote a mortgage check the other day and that means I can come here whenever I want. And I need a place to stay for a little while,” he said, probably not as forcefully as he would have liked.

Josie tried to brush him off. “Why can’t you go back to wherever it was you’ve been staying up until now?” She didn’t need this today, or any day.

“Andy’s condo flooded. It’s going to take a couple weeks to clean everything up,” John said, shifting his anxious gaze.

“Andy has a condo?” Josie asked.

“Yeah.”

“Andy has a condo no one knows about?” When John looked away again, Josie figured it out. “Oh, I see! Infidelity runs in your family. That would have been good to know eleven years ago.”

With a hard sigh, John said, “I need to stay
here
a while.”

“Go to your momma’s.”

“Be serious, Jocelyn.” When Josie gave him a
don’t-I-look-serious
stare, he said, “She doesn’t know anything about…any of this yet.”

Of course she didn’t. If John told his mother, he would either have to lie about the reason he needed a place to stay, or tell his mom the truth. Josie wondered what excuse he’d given for her not showing up at the last family gathering.
Coward!

“Well, you are
not
coming back here. We had an agreement.”

“
We
didn’t agree on any such thing. Blackmail’s more like it.”

“Whatever.”

“Come on! What’s the worst that can happen?” With his hands on the counter, he leaned closer, and said, “I’ll stay in the pool house.”

“No!”

“You’re being ridiculous—I can help out.” Removing his hands from the counter, John waved them around. “You’re working now. I’ll help with the kids…pick ’
em
up—whatever you—”

“Daddy, Daddy!” Beth came running down the hall yelling. Jack and Bobbie were right on her heels. She slammed into his legs, knocking him back.

Reaching down, he picked her up and spun her around. “I’ve missed you, baby girl.”

“I’ve missed you too, Daddy.” She squeezed her little arms tight around his neck.

Jack and Bobbie wrapped their arms around him too. “You missed my game, and I scored fifteen points,” Jack said.

Yeah right, like he’s ever come before.
Josie rolled her eyes.

“I’m testing for my blue belt in two weeks—that’s one under black,” Bobbie said.

John probably doesn’t even know what that means.
Josie interrupted. “All right, it’s time to go. Get all your things together, including everything you’re bound to remember when we’re pulling down the drive, and let’s
go.
”

When John set Beth down, and gave Josie a
try-and-say-no-
now
 
look
, she felt that unrelenting need to make him suffer boiling to surface. Her first reaction was to say,
“Too bad, you made your bed; now can you can lie in it.”
But as she watched Beth follow her brothers down the hall to gather their things, looking back to make sure John was still there, she knew that hurting John would only make her feel better temporarily. Her vengeful heart warmed with the love in her daughter’s innocent eyes.

So, for the kids, she heard herself saying, “Lord, I must be crazy or something.” Pointing a finger in his direction, she laid down the law. “You’re staying in the pool house. And don’t even think about bringing
that
woman around here.”

“I wouldn’t. You should know better than that,” John said before adding weakly, “and that’s not going to be a problem anyway.”

Why wouldn’t that be a problem?
 
Josie wondered, and then decided she didn’t care. “Two weeks, and then you’re gone. Understand?” She couldn’t believe she was agreeing to this.

“Sure, but I’m going to need a key.” John eyed his wife skeptically. “For some reason mine doesn’t work anymore.”

Josie bit her lip to hide her embarrassment. Although it seemed like a good idea at the time, she felt slightly ridiculous now. Re-keying the house was probably…well, overreacting. Josie set down
Roy
’s ad, reached into one of the kitchen drawers, and pulled out a key. Avoiding his gaze, she placed it on the counter and slid it over to him.

Instead of picking up the key John reached over and turned the flier around so he could see it. Sighing, he said, “Just so you know, I didn’t buy that bracelet for Trisha.”

Josie eyed him a moment, wondering if she’d heard him right. “But
Roy
said you did.”

“Trisha saw the flier in my stuff.” John lifted a shoulder. “I don’t even know how it got there.”

I put it there, you moron!

“
Denton
told her to buy herself something nice for their anniversary, and she asked me to pick it up for her.”

Josie thought somehow this information should make her feel better. Only now, Trisha showing up with
her
 
bracelet
seemed considerably more sick and twisted than what she’d originally thought. Instead of John buying it as a gift for his mistress, John had bought it as a gift for his mistresses’ husband to give as an anniversary gift—to his wife…whom John was…
Good Lord, what a crazy mixed-up life.

An uncomfortable silence fell over the room as they regarded one another through ambiguous eyes. The re-emergence of the kids, clad with jackets and backpacks, broke the stillness. As she took up her laptop and purse, her anxiety about riding with Brian was replaced by the dread of having John back at home. Josie ushered her children out the door, leaving John standing alone in their empty kitchen.