The Husband Hour(85)

“How can you be sure?”

“This is just a draft of a script. It’s only seventy pages. I doubt it’s finished. It sure as hell isn’t a shooting script.”

She looked unconvinced. “I’m really upset about this,” she said.

He sat next to her. “I know. It’s understandable. But there’s nothing you can do about it except know that (a) most feature-film scripts don’t even get made, and (b) you helped bring the true story to the screen. You have your own say, which people will care about and listen to infinitely more than this guy’s crap.”

She looked at him. “I never thought I’d say this, but I’m glad you’re doing this movie.”

“Really?”

She nodded. And then, in his exhaustion and stress and relief and simple raw attraction, he kissed her. Again. She kissed him back, her arms moving around his neck. He pulled her on top of him as he fell back on the bed. The absolute force of his desire was shocking to him. It was as if the hours of intense conversation had been leading to this moment.

“Lauren,” he said, gently moving her off him and onto her back. Her hair was coming loose from her ponytail. He found the purple elastic band and gently tugged it off. He kissed her just under her jaw, then lower, feeling the pulse at the base of her neck. He tried to slow it all down, to give her a chance to stop him. Hoping against hope that she wouldn’t.



Lauren didn’t want to speak, afraid the intense feelings she had for Matt, the overwhelming drive to have him touch her, would burst like a bubble if she said a word. In that moment, she felt like she was coming up for air after nearly drowning, and all she knew was that she could still slip back under. She took his hand and moved it to her breast, kissing him. He slipped his hand under her tank top, touched her, and then pulled it off. He unhooked her bra and drew her in close so they were chest to chest. The sensation brought tears to her eyes.

When his hand moved lower, to the top of her shorts, she helped with the button and zipper.

“Do you have anything here?” she asked.

“God, no…this was the absolute last thing on my mind.”

It didn’t matter, not really. She hadn’t had her period in a while. Maybe it was the running. Or maybe her body had just given up, the way she had.

It was reckless, but she didn’t care. Where had being careful, being safe and good, gotten her?

She pulled him on top of her, and all that had been weighing on her, strangling her, finally released its hold.

Afterward, her eyes filled with tears. For the first time in as long as she could remember, they were tears of happiness instead of grief.





Chapter Forty-Five



I’m too old for contact sports,” Beth said, balancing on a raft across from Ethan, who whacked her in the shoulder with a noodle.

“Oh, come on, Mom,” Stephanie said from the chaise longue. “It’s fun. A good way to get out your aggression.”

“That’s what baking is for.”

But she was just playing the part of the curmudgeon. She was thrilled to see Stephanie spending time with her son. And she had heard Stephanie knocking on Lauren’s door first thing in the morning. Her instinct about this summer had been right. Things were getting better, at least where the girls were concerned. As for Howard? He was gone for the day, back in Philly working on sublease prospects. They’d barely spoken since the argument about moving. And now she was about to double-down on the house.

When Ethan climbed out of the pool for a snack, Beth swam to the shallow end and called for Stephanie to join her.

“I want to talk to you about something,” Beth said.

“Wait, Mom. I have to say something first. You were right. I need to spend some time by myself. Be alone for a while. Focus on what’s important.”

“Really? And what about Neil?”

“I’m over it. Not happening,” she said.

“Okay, well. I’m proud of you, sweetheart. And I want you to know you have my support. That actually brings me to what I wanted to talk to you about.” Beth hesitated, wondering if the suggestion would seem too pushy, controlling. “I’m not planning on leaving here at the end of the summer. And I would like you to stay too.”

“For how long? Ethan has to get back to school.”

“He can go to school here. They have a wonderful elementary school.”

“You want us to…live here?”

Beth nodded.

“What about Lauren?”

“Gran left the house to us as a family.”

Stephanie’s eyes filled with tears. “You mean it?”

“Is that a yes?”

Stephanie hugged her. Beth exhaled.



Lauren inched away from Matt under the sheet so he could slip from the bed to turn up the air conditioner. It was a window unit, and it wheezed loudly and seemed to rattle the entire room.

“How do you sleep with that thing?” She smiled, sitting up against the headboard, pulling the sheet high over her breasts and tucking it under her arms like a tube top.

“I usually don’t,” he said, sliding back onto the bed, next to her but over the sheet. He’d put his boxers back on. “So…that happened.”

She smiled. He kissed the top of her head. “You okay?” he asked, and she nodded.