While Lisa had gone to college and then pharmacy school, Suzanne had gotten a job after high school to help her mother pay the bills. It didn’t seem like a big deal. Suzanne’s intelligence wasn’t geared toward books and learning; she was more savvy than smart.
So there she was, looking on enviously as little Paige ran to her father’s arms, as Brad laughingly scooped her up and draped an arm around Lisa. Then the attractive family would stroll back into his office, like they didn’t have a care in the world.
Even Brad himself had little to say to her back in those early days. Suzanne doubted he even knew her name. But then something happened. Lisa’s visits became less frequent and then stopped altogether, and the office scuttlebutt was that the Betancourt marriage had crumbled.
Suzanne engaged in watchful waiting, and the moment Brad removed Lisa’s photograph from his desk she tentatively knocked on his office door and asked if he could answer a few questions about medicine for a school paper her little sister was doing. That had been a fabrication, of course, but he had taken the time to answer her questions, which led to him asking about her family, which led to him asking about her.…Suzanne did her best to be sparkling and enchanting. She recognized that Brad was lonely and uncertain from the breakup of his marriage, and she wanted to be the one who brought laughs and fun back into his life. It seemed only natural for Brad to ask her to join him for dinner, and from that point on neither of them ever looked back.
The only sticky point in their marriage was when, as they prepared to move into their dream house in Jacksonville, they learned that the house under construction next door was being built by none other than Lisa and her second husband, Darrell Canfield. Sometimes Suzanne still couldn’t believe that such a crazy thing had happened. Brad decided he wanted to live closer to Jacksonville rather than the remote area where they formerly resided on the outskirts of St. Augustine, well south of the city. He purchased a newly constructed home on a riverfront cul-de-sac from a colleague whose marriage had broken up. He and Suzanne didn’t learn that the house under construction next door belonged to Lisa and Darrell until after they closed, when the entire Canfield family pulled up to inspect the progress of the construction. The already existing tension between Suzanne and Lisa had only gotten worse once they became neighbors. In the five years since, they’d managed to make the best of it. Suzanne treated Lisa politely to make Brad happy, and she suspected that Lisa tolerated her at Darrell’s insistence.
“Well, that was a lucky break,” Micheline said now. “I’m sure you were only too glad to offer comfort and a shoulder to cry on to the boss during his time of trouble. And look what ended up happening,” she concluded brightly.
It was all Suzanne could do not to pick up the deviled eggs from the tray Micheline had removed from the refrigerator and hurl them at her. Micheline had her figured like a carefully executed chess move. Instinct told Suzanne that Micheline knew all about how she’d schemed to land Brad and was making fun of her.
Suzanne managed to control her temper and get to her point. “Well, it all happened a long time ago. We’ve been married sixteen years,” she said, her voice steady with pride.
“Sixteen years! My, my. How old are your children, Suzanne?”
“Our son is fifteen and our daughter is thirteen.”
“Wow. They’re almost grown up. When you said you were a stay-at-home mom, I imagined your kids were much younger. It’s been what, eight or ten years since they started school?”
Once more Suzanne’s hackles were raised. Micheline was getting bolder. She’d practically come out and called her a lazybones for staying home while her children were teenagers. Suzanne straightened her spine, her shoulders back and chest out. If it’s war she wants, it’s war she’ll get. “It’s true they’re older,” she said pleasantly, “but there’s still plenty to do. My son plays basketball, and my daughter and I go to most of his games in the afternoons. And I like to be there to watch my daughter run track. Besides, with me being home and then knowing I’ll be home after they get out of school, there’s no hanky-panky with friends of the opposite sex. Teenagers can get into all kinds of trouble when they’re not supervised.” She smiled and smugly said, “But of course, you have to be a mother to understand that.”
“Yes, I suppose so.” Micheline clapped her palms against her hips after setting down more dishes from the refrigerator.
“That’s everything. Can you help me carry these to the table, Suzanne?”
“Sure. That’s why I’m here.” She sounded as cheerful as she felt.
She’d just put her hostess in her place.
Chapter 2
“Nice couple, huh?” Brad remarked as he climbed behind the wheel of the Cadillac SRX he’d downsized to after turning in his massive, gas-guzzling Escalade.
“Charming.” Suzanne had to fight to keep the sarcasm she felt out of her voice. All the bad vibes she had initially detected from Micheline Trent came back during their encounter in the kitchen, and this time they were there to stay. No one in attendance was as happy as Suzanne when the game ended and they could leave. As uncomfortable as she felt around Brad’s first wife, Lisa Canfield, Suzanne would have preferred to have spent the evening with her and Darrell than with that slinky bitch Micheline. At least Lisa only spoke to Brad in English…and she didn’t flirt with him at all. “Uh…is this your first time meeting Micheline?”
“No, I’ve met her a couple of times before. She comes to the club and meets Errol for dinner. Sometimes she plays.”
Suzanne’s acknowledgment came out as a grunt. Another reason for her to dislike Micheline. She played golf, a sport Brad was crazy about that Suzanne had no interest in.
“Errol talks about her all the time,” Brad continued. “He’s crazy about her. They’ve only been married a few years. You know how it is.”
She looked at him sharply. Was he saying that love diminished after a few years? They’d been married a long time now. Yes, they’d been under some strain lately, but surely he loved her as much now as he did in those early days…didn’t he?
Suzanne’s annoyance toward Micheline Trent transformed into cold fear for her own future. If Brad got tired of her, what on earth would she do? She was past forty. Brad would soon be fifty, but age didn’t matter for men, unless, of course, they were fat, ugly, and poor, none of which applied to him.
Once more she remembered how Micheline bent over Brad and how his gaze lingered on her cleavage. She wasn’t sure if Micheline was up to something or not, but she decided to nip it in the bud and send a clear signal that Brad was off-limits.
She was silent for a few moments as she thought of how she could accomplish that. “Brad,” she finally said, “I was thinking it might be a nice idea to celebrate your fiftieth birthday with a really nice party. What do you think?”
“Sounds good to me. Are you sure you wouldn’t rather take a vacation somewhere, maybe a cruise? Your mother can take care of the kids while we’re away.”
The thought of romance on the high seas held plenty of appeal and would probably help them strengthen their somewhat shaky bond, but she also wanted to get the point across to Micheline Trent that she and Brad had not only a happy marriage, but a strong one, and to tell her to butt out. A party, on the other hand, held at their home with Micheline present, would do the trick. Suzanne would make it the party to end all parties. “No, I think I’d rather do the party,” she said after a few moments’ thought. “Maybe we can go up to Maine this summer.” What she and Brad really needed was time alone, not to be on a cruise ship with hundreds of other people, even if Brad had a tendency to spend much of his time fishing when they