In Your Dreams (Blue Heron #4)(73)
“One pair, Jack! I think I deserve one pair of Christian Louboutin shoes!”
Except, he learned, she had four pairs.
They sat down that night and worked up a budget on how much discretionary spending money they had. She sulked.
It was obvious she’d had the wrong impression of just how much Jack earned. Yes, Blue Heron supported the family. Yes, Jack was a part owner and received a salary in addition to vineyard profits (most of which went back into the land or a savings account—farmers never took income for granted). She gave him the silent treatment for the rest of the night.
But the next morning, she apologized, said she’d been childish and kissed him sweetly. She baked a pie using one of Mrs. Johnson’s recipes, and, after dinner, she called Faith and had a long giggle-filled chat.
They flew down to Savannah for a Southern Thanksgiving. Hadley was overjoyed to be with her family again, and they were happy to see both of them. He played Southern football (which was an awful lot like Northern football) with her dad and two brothers-in-law, both very good guys, as well as the kids and Frankie.
“You guys planning on having kids?” asked Beau, who was married to Rachel. The game had pretty much finished, and Jack was tossing a nephew in the air.
“Absolutely,” Jack said.
“Might want to think that through,” Frankie said, flopping on the grass. “Kids make things permanent. Right, ankle-biter?” she added, grabbing her niece around the waist.
“Now, Frankie,” Hadley’s dad said, shooting Jack an apologetic look. “Come on, kids—I smell ham and turkey. Your grandmother’s worked too hard for us to be late to her table. Y’all get in there and wash up, now!”
Everyone went in, except Frankie and Jack.
“Sorry if I put my foot in it,” she said. “You just seem like a real nice guy is all.”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“I mean, Jack,” she said with a smack to his head, just like one of his own sisters, “Hadley’s a handful. Gives us Southern chicks a bad name. Just be sure you know what you got there.” She started in, then glanced over her shoulder. “By the way, I’m coming out to the family after dinner. Hope I can count on you not freaking. You knew I liked girls, right?”
“What? Oh, yeah.” He was still digesting her words about Hadley.
Frankie’s announcement wasn’t exactly groundbreaking. Ruthie and Rachel stated that they’d known since Frankie was eleven, and Bill and Barb admitted that they had suspected but had hoped to be wrong, because it could carry some “difficult consequences.”
“What are y’all talking about?” Frankie said fondly. “I’m a Yankee now. There’s lots of us lesbians up north. We’re all the rage.” This got a laugh, and Bill came over and kissed his youngest and told her they all loved her no matter what.
“You’ll look after her, won’t you, Jack?” Barbara asked.
“Of course,” Jack said. He liked Frankie a lot. “Not that she needs looking after, but we’re just an hour away from Cornell.”
“Jack and I are about ready to start a family,” Hadley announced.
He looked at her in surprise. Since that first conversation after the honeymoon, the subject of kids hadn’t been brought up. But the conversation turned to babies and pregnancy, and when Jack looked across the table at Frankie, she said nothing. Just cocked an eyebrow, and it dawned on Jack that maybe his wife was, in some weird way, trying to steal Frankie’s thunder and turn the attention to her.
Hadley seemed a little blue at Christmastime, so Jack surprised her with a trip to Manhattan, earning a lot of happy shrieks and kisses (and the wrath of his grandmother and Mrs. J.). They saw a show, stayed in a nice hotel (though not in a suite this time), went skating at Rockefeller Center, Hadley clutching his arm and giggling as she wobbled and skidded.
Though she paused meaningfully in front of Tiffany’s, Jack didn’t take the bait; he’d already bought her some very nice earrings in Manningsport and arranged this trip. He wasn’t about to break the budget just for a turquoise box. She didn’t seem to mind, and took his hand as they walked down Fifth Avenue.
When they got back home, she seemed happier. The bumps in the road seemed to have smoothed out.
Then, in February, Jack stopped by the post office, which was one of Hadley’s jobs. She had clearly defined ideas about what husbands should do and what wives should. It was a husband’s job to empty the trash and clean up Lazarus’s victims (and Princess Anastasia’s hairballs); it was a wife’s job to make the bed and pick movies. Husband shoveled the snow and scraped cars; wife went to the post office.
But Honor was expecting a package, and she asked him to swing by. He checked his own post office box while he was there.
Inside were three envelopes—one from MasterCard, two from Visa—addressed to John N. Holland IV.
Which was strange, since he only had one credit card, an American Express. He only used it when he had to, preferring to use cash whenever possible.
With a cold feeling in his stomach, he went out to his truck and opened the envelopes, his breath frosting the air.
One bill was for $6,008.01, one for $8,772.15, and one for $4,533.98.
Almost twenty thousand dollars. At 24 percent interest, no less.
The charges went back as far as October...well after he and Hadley had the talk about the red-soled shoes that cost so much. They were from stores that Jack knew only by reputation. Tiffany’s...he remembered how good a sport she was when they didn’t stop in at Christmastime. Guess she could afford to be, since she’d already bought herself a little something. Henri Bendel. Neiman Marcus. Chanel, Coach, Prada, Armani.