“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