It's a Wonderful Wife (16 page)

“Jesse's mom died when he was young.”

“Oh, I'm sorry,” Sally murmured.

Cadi waved her hat with a laugh, wanting to lighten the mood again. “I'm sure Jesse and I will figure it out. I really love that tote, Sally. You said you ordered it from L.L.Bean; do you know if it comes in a smaller size?”

The bell over the door jingled again and Eva Dean came rushing in clutching a cell phone to her chest. “Oh, good, I haven't missed it,” she said in a winded rush as she sat down at the dryer next to Sally.

“Hi, Aunt Eva,” Joanne said—Eva being Ken Dean's wife and therefore Sally's sister-in-law. “What haven't you missed?”

“Oh. Ah . . . Cadi!” Eva blurted to her niece before giving Cadi a smile. “I was gone to the post office when you stopped by the grocery store earlier, so when Lindsey Beckman mentioned you were heading to Dee's for a haircut, I decided to run over and say hi before you went back to the island.” Music started coming from Eva's chest, and she held her phone at arm's length and squinted at it. Sally leaned into her to also see as Eva slid her finger across the screen with a murmured, “Excuse me, I just need to read this text.”

Cadi watched from the corner of her eye as Eva returned the text, whatever she typed causing Sally to giggle just as the bell over the door jingled wildly again. Joanne froze in mid-snip and Cadi looked in the mirror to see two women she recognized but couldn't immediately place rush inside.

“Oh, good, we didn't miss it, Mary,” one of them said as she pulled her companion over to Eva and Sally. She practically pushed Mary into the shampoo chair, then walked to the line of chairs Joanne had for waiting customers and dragged one over between the dryer and shampoo station. She sat down and shot Cadi a smile. “You may not remember me, Mrs. Sinclair,” she said, pulling off her blue canvas bucket hat, then fluffing her heavily highlighted hair. “I'm Janie Dean. Ray's wife? I was in the hardware store the day you purchased the garden cart and all those rolls of surveyor tape.” She gestured at the woman in the shampoo chair when all Cadi could do was mutely nod. “And this is my sister, Mary. She works at the Between the Covers bookstore.”

“I showed you our selection of field guides,” Mary piped in, “and searched online for that book on beekeeping you then ordered.” She frowned. “I tried calling you yesterday and again this morning to let you know it came in, but you didn't answer.”

“Cell phone reception is spotty on the island.”

“I left you several voice messages.”

Cadi felt her cheeks fill with heat, remembering how she'd gone up to the high ridge last night to text Bea and also watch the sunset, only to discover her phone battery was dead. “My phone's out on the island plugged into my solar charger. I remember you both,” she rushed on, moving her eyes to include Janie to find the woman had
her
eyes trained on the front windows. Good Lord, what was going on here? “But thank you, Mary, for coming to tell me in person that the book is in.”

“Oh, it's nothing,” Mary said, her own cheeks flushing. “I needed to get something at the drugstore anyway.”

“Will it be okay if I pick up the book the next time I'm in town? I need to leave for Hundred Acre just as soon as I'm done here, so I don't miss the tide.”

“That's fine,” Mary said. “If I'm not there when you come in, just tell whoever's working that it's right under the counter.”

The door opened again and three women—one carrying a toddler—came rushing inside to the cheery jingle of the bell. They stopped and looked around and blew out what sounded like a collective sigh of relief, then two of them sat in the two remaining chairs and the young woman with the toddler walked behind Joanne and plopped down at the second workstation.

“Can someone please tell me what's going on?” Joanne asked her suddenly full salon.

“We all just wanted to come say hi to Mrs. Sinclair,” Janie Dean said, standing up and walking to the window. She glanced up and down the parking lot, then suddenly turned and all but ran back to her chair, her lips pursed as if she were fighting not to blurt out something and her eyes bright with excitement as she looked at each of the women.

Cadi once again decided she really needed to stop coming to town. Everyone in Castle Cove had been super friendly to her these last two weeks—some, like Oren Hatch, Jeff Acton, and Ray at the hardware store being exceptionally helpful—but this was bordering on bizarre, especially considering she didn't recognize any of the last three women. “Please, all of you, call me Cadi. And it's really sweet of you ladies to want . . . For you to rush up here just to . . .” Every one of them was looking at her so intently that she simply couldn't go on. So she shrugged and shot them all a big, warm smile. “Hi.”

“Hi,” the last three arrivals all said in unison.

“So, Cadi, how's your aunt?” Eva asked.

Cadi wracked her brain trying to remember when—and for crying out loud,
why
—she ever would have mentioned having an aunt. “My aunt?” she repeated.

Eva nodded. “Ken told me you had to rush home the morning you stayed in our parking lot because you got a call that your aunt wasn't feeling well.”

Good Lord, she had to remember
Jesse's
lies, too?

Eva suddenly smiled. “She must have recovered quickly, since you were back less than a week later.” But then her smile turned sad. “Only Ken found you in your car in our parking lot, crying because your husband had left before you got back.” She glanced at the door again as several of the women did the same, then looked at Cadi with bright eyes. “You poor newlyweds are like two ships passing in the night. How long did you say you expect him to be away?”

“Jesse has one more week overseas, and I'm assuming it's going to take him at least another week to plow through all the work that's been piling up on his desk in New York.”

“Jeepers, Jo, get those scissors going,” Sally piped up. “We can't have the poor girl sitting there with half a haircut.”

“Yeah,” Janie added. “And turn her chair toward the back wall so we can watch.”

No longer bizarre, Cadi decided; this was getting creepy.

Joanne made eye contact with her in the mirror and gave an apologetic shrug, then turned the chair toward the second workstation and started combing and cutting again.

Cadi found herself facing an adorable toddler sitting on her mother's lap, staring at her from huge, bright blue eyes as she quietly gnawed on a pink rubber pretzel. “Is she teething?” Cadi asked over the sound of scissors snipping and excited whispers and shushes behind her.

The mother—who barely looked twenty—mutely nodded, her entire complexion turning as pink as her daughter's pretzel.

“I'm sorry to have to ask,” Cadi said, “but have we met?” She laughed softly. “I've met so many new people in the last two weeks, I realize now I should have been taking notes.”

The young woman shook her head. “We haven't met, Mrs. Sinclair. But you probably know my grandfather, Oren Hatch. The harbormaster?”

“You're Malinda's sister?”

“No, Mal's my cousin. My dad and her mom are brother and sister.”

“Please, call me Cadi. And it's nice to meet you . . . ?”

“Oh, I'm so rude! It's Mandy. Mandy Hatch.” She smiled down at her daughter. “And this little gremlin is Abby.”

“Oh, my middle name is Abby. She's adorable. And so quiet.”

That got Cadi a snort, which immediately kicked Mandy's blush up again. “I'm sorry, Mrs.—Cadi, but Abby's usually about as quiet as a flock of seagulls circling a picnic. And my mom says that once she starts—”

The bell suddenly jingled again and Mandy's eyes widened as her gaze shot to the door. Joanne stopped snipping, and Cadi closed her own eyes as the jingling slowly faded to utter and complete silence, even as she wondered how many more women the salon could hold.

Oh yeah, she definitely needed to start buying her groceries in Fender Cove.

“Excuse me, ladies. I was told my wife might be here?”

THIRTEEN

Cadi snapped open her eyes at the undeniably familiar voice, then immediately shut them again. Oh please, God; if wishes really could be horses, could one come galloping to her rescue, like
right now
?

“There you are, sweetheart,” that deep, masculine voice said, moving closer.

Cadi clutched the arms of her chair when she felt it swing around, then opened her eyes to see Jesse standing in the middle of the salon, his arms held away from his sides as he smiled at her . . . expectantly.

Well, she certainly didn't need to feign shock, because— Wait, he'd said
my wife
.

He
knew
she was running around town pretending to be Mrs. Sinclair?

His deep, masculine chuckle broke the utter and complete—and pregnant—silence. “I can't believe I've finally managed to shock you speechless.” He stepped closer and spread his arms wider. “I realize we have an audience, but I'm sure we're all friends here. Come on now, honey, don't be shy. Show everyone how much you've missed me.”

Dressed in jeans and a slightly wrinkled flannel shirt, his jaw shadowed with a couple days' growth of beard, and his own hair in need of a cut, Cadi could almost believe this was the man she'd designed a house for—if not for the competition-crushing gleam in his eyes that said he'd stand there all day if he had to, waiting for her to run to him.

“Cadi,” Joanne whispered in her ear, giving her a soft nudge. “Don't ruin his surprise.”

“For gosh sakes, Jo,” Sally said, “take that ratty old cape off her.”

“The poor thing's not shocked,” someone added. “She's embarrassed.”

No, Cadi was fairly certain she was shocked.

“Yeah,” someone else said. “No woman wants her husband to catch her not wearing makeup and having wet, half-cut hair.”

So what, Cadi wondered, was the minimum sentence for impersonating a . . . person?

“I'm afraid I have to disagree,” Jesse drawled, that gleam intensifying as he continued to stare at her, still holding out his arms, “as I can't imagine my wife ever looking more beautiful.”

Joanne ducked down close again. “Go on,” she whispered just as there was a soft ripping sound and the cape disappeared and the chair sank with a loud whoosh. “Put the poor man out of his misery.”

Near as Cadi could tell,
she
was the only miserable person present. And since that horse didn't seem to be materializing—although she doubted even a figment of the imagination would dare push its way past Jesse-the-businessman—Cadi finally stood up. She started toward him on legs threatening to buckle, but suddenly stopped. Because really, even if he had discovered she'd been racking up bills in his name all over town, what was the worst he could do to her?

Not much, she decided, if he ever wanted to see his house plans.

She canted her head. “I'm sorry, have you been away? I guess I hadn't really noticed,” she added over the collective gasp of their audience, “what with being so busy traipsing all over Hundred Acre looking inside hollow logs for pots of—”

Cadi barely had time to register the brief flare of his eyes before he closed the distance and lifted her clean off her feet, his deep, masculine laughter vibrating every cell in her body as he gave her the mother of all bear hugs. “I can explain,” she whispered, taking advantage of the fact that her mouth was right next to his ear as she gave him a very wifely hug in return.

He lifted his head; not to respond, but to kiss her to the collective
sigh
of their audience.

Cadi was only peripherally aware of someone's excited clapping being cut short, what with her being so busy kissing Jesse back, because . . . well, because she was
not
a virgin. And because she did need the practice for when she finally met her for-real Mr. Right.

Except she probably shouldn't be practicing on a man she'd spent three months dreaming about, because she really didn't want to start thinking he could be Mr. Right
Now
.

“Eww, Mama! No-no! Ew—mmm.”

At the sound of the toddler's protest ending in a muffled growl, Jesse broke the kiss and slowly lowered Cadi down the length of his body until her feet touched the floor. “That's what I rushed home for,” he said to more sighs from their audience, while graciously letting Cadi hide her face in his shirt until she stopped blushing from boldly kissing him back.

Well, and from finally realizing what all the women were doing here. Good Lord, text messages must have started zinging through the airwaves the moment someone realized Jesse Sinclair was back in town two weeks before his wife was telling everyone he would be, and they'd all rushed up here to see him surprise her.

Cadi stepped away when the bell over the door jingled madly again and four women rushed inside, only to bump into each other as the first one stumbled to a halt. “Dang, we missed it!” their leader cried, turning to the women behind her—every last one of them well on the north side of eighty years old. “Jehoshaphats, Maude, didn't I tell you nobody waits for a light to turn green if there ain't no cars coming? You made us miss it.”

Maude, who had to be ninety if she was a day, lifted her chin defiantly. “And I told you that if I mess up one more time, they're going to take my license away. Or need I remind you that you'd still be back at the diner if I hadn't swung by and picked you up?”

“At least I wouldn't be deaf from Fran's caterwauling when you run up on that curb.”

“Ladies,” Jesse said, the gleam back in his eyes, “would an instant replay help?”

Jehoshaphats, another kiss like that and she'd be permanently sunburned! “Now behave yourself,” Cadi said with a laugh, gesturing at Abby, who was quietly gnawing on her pretzel again. “Not
everyone
wants to see that again,” she added into the disappointed sighs of the newcomers. Cadi walked over and sat down in her chair, then gave Jesse a very wifely wave of dismissal. “I'll be a few more minutes, so why don't you go visit Ken and I'll come find you when I'm done.”

Everyone
else
likely bought that wounded look. “Knowing how much I love kids,” he said as he walked past, “you honestly believe I'd leave this poor little cherub scandalized?”

What she believed is that he expected her to run the moment he left.

“Uppy!” Abby cried when he stopped in front of her, the poor little cherub so scandalized by the kissing man that she dropped her pretzel and lifted her arms. “Uppy!”

“May I?” Jesse asked Mandy, holding out his hands.

“I . . . I think her pants are wet,” Mandy whispered in obvious embarrassment.

“Uppy! Uppy!” Abby growled as she squirmed against her mother, her little cherub fingers opening and closing with each demand.

“Having a niece and nephew under three years old, it won't be my first wet shirt,” Jesse assured her, chuckling when Abby hurled herself at him the moment Mandy loosened her grip.

And just what, Cadi wondered, was the sentence for assaulting a man for making his fake wife's heart melt at the sight of him holding an adorable little girl in his large, masculine hands?

More sighs filled the salon as every last feminine heart present also melted.

Eva, Sally, Janie, and Mary suddenly stood up; Cadi's relief that half their audience was leaving was short-lived, however, when they merely gave the four older women their seats.

“So, Cadi,” Jesse said as he started walking and bouncing Abby as the little girl ran her fingers over his bristly jaw, “how have you been occupying yourself while I've been gone? I'm especially curious what you and Paul Acton have been doing out on the island that requires a garden cart.”

A soft snort came from the side wall. “I'm more curious as to what she's doing with all those rolls of—”

“It's a surprise!” Cadi blurted out. She shot Janie Dean an apologetic smile for cutting her off, then gave Jesse a very wifely scowl. “Which you ruined by arriving
two weeks early
.”

“Now, now,” Eva Dean chided just as Joanne wrapped the cape around Cadi again. “You can't be mad at a man for wanting to hurry back to his new bride. You two have been married, what . . . only a few months?”

“Almost five,” Cadi rushed out when Jesse stopped bouncing Abby.

“You got married in February?” Sally Barnes said in surprise, her gaze darting between them before stopping on Jesse. “I hope you took her someplace warm for your honeymoon.”

“He took me to Antarctica,” Cadi answered before he could.

“Only she didn't know it was their honeymoon,” Joanne interjected as she grabbed the bottle of water again, “because they'd only been dating a couple of months when he surprised her with the trip. But when they were at the South Pole he suddenly got down on one knee and proposed, and they were married while standing on a glacier two days later by the minister he'd secretly brought on the cruise ship.” She started dampening Cadi's hair again. “And they had a whole colony of penguins for bridesmaids and groomsmen.”

Cadi watched through the gentle spray of water as Jesse resumed walking around the crowded salon while bouncing Abby again, but instead of being able to read his mood, all she could see was her impending jail time expanding exponentially.

“Oh, you romantic rascal, you,” one of the women said—Cadi presumed to Jesse, since she'd closed her eyes as her little charade continued slowly exploding around her. “It takes a very confident man to spring that kind of surprise on a woman.”

“Really?” Jesse said curiously. “And here I thought I was merely desperate.”

“Desperate?” someone repeated.

Cadi heard Jesse stop walking. “You obviously don't know my wife well enough yet to realize she's the one who's full of surprises. That's why I decided I better whisk her off to the end of the Earth before some
other
Mr. Right came along.”

And just when had she mentioned—

Okay, she was never drinking around Jesse ever again; not if he was going to remember
everything
she said. Yeah, well, he better remember he'd not only gone along with her being Mrs. Sinclair three weeks ago, he'd actually added several embellishments of his own. Come to think of it, it was his fault she'd come up with the idea of hiding out in Castle Cove.

“All done,” Joanne announced as the cape disappeared and Cadi opened her eyes to find herself facing the mirror. “Well, what do you think?”

“I wouldn't have thought it possible,” Jesse said as he walked behind them and handed Abby to her mother. “But you've somehow managed to improve on perfection.” He reached in his rear pocket and pulled out his wallet. “How much . . . Joanne, isn't it?”

“Ah, fifteen,” Joanne said, flushing at his compliment. “And I didn't really do . . . I only trimmed a little off the ends.”

Jesse handed her a twenty. “Don't bother making change,” he said when she rushed to the counter and opened a drawer. “And you can look for me to stop by later this week for my own haircut.”

“It's perfect, Joanne. Thank you,” Cadi said as she walked up to the mirror. She turned her head back and forth while fluffing her curls and tried to decide if the fact that she wasn't being carted off to jail meant Jesse was going to give her a chance to explain, or if he was waiting until they didn't have an audience before calling the sheriff to lead her away in handcuffs. Figuring there was no avoiding the inevitable, Cadi picked up her backpack and canvas tote full of groceries, then straightened facing the women. “It was wonderful seeing all of you again.”

Jesse took the backpack from her and slung it over his shoulder, then took the tote in one hand and
her
hand in the other.

“Before you go, Cadi.” Eva Dean glanced at Jesse, then moved closer and lowered her voice. “My oldest daughter, Samantha, has been trying to get pregnant for over a year now, and I was wondering if you can tell me the name of those mushrooms that increase a man's . . . well, you know—the ones that helped you get pregnant.”

“Excuse me?” Cadi said on a gasp, spinning toward Jesse to see him arch a brow. “I'm not pregnant!” She turned back to Eva to find the woman blushing to high heaven. “I'm not pregnant,” she said calmly.

“Yet,”
Jesse added as he possessively tucked Cadi up against his side. “But considering I can't eat a salad without my bride smothering it with mushrooms, I'm pretty sure the first room we'll need to finish in our new house will be the nursery.”

Eva looked at Cadi. “So what's their name?”

How was she supposed to know? This was Jesse's lie;
he
could answer. Wrapping her arm around his waist as she melted into him, Cadi pinched his side—
not
noticing it was like pinching granite or that he didn't even flinch.

“Most any mushroom is good,” he told Eva, “but Cadi's friend said medicinal cordyceps did the trick for her. Although you might want to warn your son-in-law they taste pretty much like they look,” he added with a shudder, shuddering Cadi with him. “I'll have our cook send you some along with the address of the market where she gets them.”

“Oh, thank you,” Eva said, her embarrassment replaced by a beaming smile.

Cadi stepped away from Jesse and gave a general wave good-bye as she headed for the door. “I'm sorry to have to run, but we really don't want to miss the tide.”

Not that she was looking forward to spending even one night on an isolated island with Jesse. Well, except she supposed it was better than spending it in jail. And right now a hundred acres was preferable to a salon full of women expecting to see two long-separated newlyweds acting all touchy-feely—a role
her husband
appeared to be enjoying far too much.