The Husband Hour(93)

Lord help her—she wanted that too.

She sat on the wicker bench, remembering the night he’d first appeared, when she’d been swinging on this same bench, never imagining what the summer had in store for her. And now here they were.

“So…now what?” she said.

“Lauren, I meant what I said the other night. Come visit me in New York.”

She looked at him, incredulous. “I’m not talking about us. I’m talking about the film.”

“What about it?”

“You can’t make this movie,” she said. She spoke the words before the thought had fully formed in her mind, but as soon as she said them, she knew they were true, and they were absolute.

“Lauren,” he said, touching her shoulder. “Come on. You know that’s not realistic.”

She jumped up. “You said you weren’t out to make Rory look bad.” And then it hit her: Why was she still protecting Rory? She was murderously angry with her sister. Why not at him?

“I’m not trying to make him look bad. He was a flawed person. We’re all flawed. But Rory Kincaid’s highs were higher than most people’s, and his lows might have been lower than most. That’s what makes him an interesting subject. It’s not about him being a terrible person.”

“What about the rest of us? I’m not just thinking about myself, though that’s part of it. God knows I don’t want this humiliation made public. But I’m thinking of…my nephew. He doesn’t know, and if you open this up…you have to leave Ethan out of the movie!”

He shook his head sadly. “Lauren, I can’t do that. It’s my job to tell the whole story—the truth about Rory’s decisions and their consequences.”

Furious, all she could say was “I never want to see you again.”

A car pulled up in front of the house. Her father?

She watched, dumbstruck, while he parked and calmly headed up the walkway. He spotted her, and she saw the surprise on his face when he noticed Matt.

“Dad, how did you know I was here?”

“Your mother is a good guesser,” he said. He turned to Matt and shook his hand. “Howard Adelman.”

“Matt Brio. Nice to meet you.”

Um, no. This is not happening.

“You need to leave,” she said to Matt. Maybe if her father weren’t there, he would have refused. Maybe he would have said something to give her hope that he still might choose her feelings over the film. But as it was, he just nodded. When he said, “Good-bye, Lauren,” she felt her entire body run cold.

And then he was gone, and her father said, “I’m here to take you home.” And she didn’t have the strength left to argue.





Chapter Fifty



Beth had to hand it to Howard: when he said he was going to do something, he did it.

“Do you want some French toast?” she asked Lauren by way of greeting.

Lauren mumbled something, brushed past Howard, and dragged her bag upstairs.

“Well, at least she’s here,” Howard said.

“What did you say to her?”

“Not a hell of a lot, to be honest. She doesn’t want to talk.”

“But you told her that Stephanie was still here, right? That the answer isn’t to run away? The things we discussed?”

He poured himself the last of the coffee. Beth retrieved the bag of coffee beans from the freezer to make a fresh pot.

“There was a man with her,” Howard said. “Matt somebody. Do you know about this guy? Is she finally dating after all this time?”

The filmmaker. Howard still didn’t know anything about the documentary. “It’s a long story,” Beth said.

“You’ve been holding out on me?”

She turned sharply but then realized he was teasing her.

“I’m glad you’re here,” she said. “I couldn’t deal with this alone.”

“Of course I’m here.”

“Mom!” Lauren yelled from the second floor. Beth, with a quick, alarmed look at Howard, bolted up the stairs. She found Lauren standing in the doorway of Stephanie’s bedroom. “What is all of her stuff still doing here? When is she moving out?”

Across the hall, Ethan’s door clicked open. When he spotted Lauren, he dashed over, threw his arms around her legs, and gazed up at her with adoration.

Lauren looked down at him and burst into tears.



It’s just a house, Lauren told herself, throwing her clothes into a suitcase and then emptying her drawers; she’d pack the rest in garbage bags or whatever she could find. It’s just a house and it was never truly yours and it’s time to move on. That’s all.

Lauren would have to find her own apartment. Maybe it was something she should have done a long time ago. Every summer, year after year, she’d felt encroached upon, but instead of staking out her own private space and doing the hard work of moving on, she’d just told herself it was temporary. Now the day was here, and she would not cry about it. She was just thankful that she’d been working hard, had saved her money, and was in a position to take care of herself and rent an apartment. As for tonight, for the next few weeks, a hotel would have to do.

But the boxes. She could not lug all the boxes with her, and yet she could not leave the artifacts of her life with Rory behind in enemy territory.