The Husband Hour(83)

“It’s complicated, sweetheart,” Howard said, looking at the wine list, then closing it abruptly.

“Are we getting a bottle?” Stephanie asked.

“I don’t think we need to drink tonight,” he said, glancing at Lauren. She gave a subtle nod of agreement.

Stephanie slumped in her chair.

“So tell me what’s been going on the past few weeks? A good summer so far?” Howard said.

“Are you serious?” Stephanie said. “We’re going to sit here and pretend this isn’t totally fucked up?”

Lauren was shocked to see tears in her sister’s eyes.

A waitress came by to take their drink orders. Howard asked her to give them a minute. “Sweetheart,” he said to Stephanie. “I don’t want you to take this so hard. Whatever happens between your mother and me, we’re still your parents. I’m here for you, always.”

Stephanie started bawling. What the hell?

“The one thing I could count on was you and Mom. No matter how messed up things got, I knew I could always come home.”

Lauren felt bad for being cynical, but really, what had Stephanie lost? A crap husband of a year and a half? And of course she had to make the whole dinner about her.

Their father got up from his seat and embraced her.

Is something wrong with me? Lauren thought. From her perspective, okay, her parents were having problems, but it wasn’t the end of the world. She didn’t want either one of them to be unhappy, so if this was what they needed—ultimately, it was their lives, not hers. And, yes, Stephanie always tended to make things about herself. But this was an unusual degree of drama even for her.

“We’re still a family,” Howard said, finally sitting back down. Nearby, the waitress hovered like a moth. “Right, Lauren?” He looked at her, and she recognized her cue.

“Um, yeah. He’s right, Steph. It’s going to be okay.”

In a summer filled with craziness, this was maybe the most absurd moment yet: she was reassuring Stephanie—who had been pushing her away for years, who’d boycotted her wedding, who hadn’t shown up when her husband died—that they were a family no matter what.

Maybe she’d been too quick to say no to the bottle of wine.



Beth tucked Ethan into bed, closed the door, and stood alone in the dark hallway. All night, she’d fought a persistent creeping sense of unease. Maybe staying home instead of joining them for dinner hadn’t been the right thing to do. She was just so angry with Howard!

As a young wife, she’d sacrificed her dream of catering to join his family business. Her mother-in-law had seemed eager to pass the torch to the new Mrs. Adelman, hoping to attract a younger clientele. And she’d told Beth that, contrary to conventional wisdom, it wasn’t children that kept a marriage intact, it was the common interest of working together. “Someday you’ll thank me,” Deborah Adelman had said.

Restless, feeling like the house was too quiet, Beth sat on the couch in the living room that had been decorated by her mother’s own hand. She missed her terribly in that moment. She opened the latest Michael Chabon novel, but she doubted she would have the concentration to read a word.

She should go to bed, but she wanted to talk to Lauren. A conversation had been brewing in her mind for days now, and the reappearance of Howard and his push about the house gave it a sense of urgency.

But exhaustion won out, and she realized she had dozed off when the sound of the back door startled her. She moved the book from her lap, left it on the couch, and padded to the kitchen. Lauren was sitting at the table and drinking a glass of water in the dark.

“Hi, sweetheart,” Beth said.

“Hey,” Lauren said. “You doing okay?”

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Well, because of your problems with Dad.”

Sweet Lauren. Beth turned on a light and sat down.

“I’m fine, hon. Where’s Stephanie?”

“She went to Neil’s.”

Of course she did—without so much as a text asking about Ethan, never mind a call to say good night to him. All the more reason to have the conversation with Lauren.

Lauren stood with a yawn, pushed in her chair, and bent to kiss Beth on the cheek. “Good night, Mom. See you in the morning.”

“Wait, I want to talk to you about something.” Tonight, while Ethan was asleep and Stephanie was out.

Lauren sat back down, wearily. “What is it?”

“I want to live here, at this house. Year-round. And I want to ask Stephanie to stay too. To raise Ethan here.”

Lauren’s face turned red. “Wait—back up. I thought you were selling this house?”

“That’s your father’s idea. I don’t want to.”

“So you plan to live here with Ethan and Stephanie? What about me?”

“This is your home too. For as long as you want to live here. But I want to give Ethan a sense of family. He needs us now.”

Lauren nodded. “I get it. Does Stephanie know about this?”

Beth shook her head. “No. I wanted to talk to you first.”

Lauren bit her lip. “I’m really used to being here alone in the winter.”

“Hon, if you want privacy, maybe it’s time to get your own place.”