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“You’re the one who brought up some lunch we’re not having,” Deb replied and began to remove her dress. “She kept bringing that up, searching for an invitation, asking me if you were okay and if she could help.”

Harriet followed suit and unbuttoned her own dress right down the middle, which caught Deb’s attention. They didn’t always make love when Harriet stayed the night. Sometimes, they just held each other until she had to hurry off early the next morning. But just watching Harriet remove her dress now, revealing her undergarments beneath, had her wanting to tonight.

“Sorry. I froze,” Harriet admitted and let the dress fall to the floor. “I’ll pick that up and put it away just in case,” she said reflexively.

That was one of their plans: nothing of the other person could be discovered in Deb or John David’s room. It meant that they had to always remember to clean up or put thingsaway in places where no one else was likely to look and that there should be no trace of Harriet in the house, which Deb hated, but it was necessary to keep them safe.

“Leave it,” she replied and let her own dress fall to the floor.

“Oh,” Harriet said with a smirk. “Yeah? I thought we were just sleeping tonight. You said you were too tired when I came by earlier and asked about our plans.”

“I was, but I’m not anymore,” she said.

“I love hearing that. I’ve missed you.” Harriet moved to her and pulled Deb against her body. “What’s JD doing down there?” she asked as she began pushing and pulling at Deb’s undergarments to get them off.

“He went outside. I think he knew what you and I would be getting up to, and he can’t exactly do that himself since Jacob went home with Delilah.”

Harriet pulled back a little to remove the remainder of her clothing and said, “Poor guy. I can’t believe how lucky we got.”

“Neither can I. But–” Deb stopped herself then.

She had no idea what had her about to say what she’d been about to say in this moment because they were about to make love. This was the worst possible moment for her to bring this up.

“What?” Harriet asked once all articles of her clothing were on the floor.

“Nothing,” she lied, moving back into Harriet’s body, feeling it press against her own and loving how safe it always made her feel.

“No, you were about to say something.” Harriet pulled back.

“Let’s make love, Harriet. I want to make love with my wife,” she replied, wishing Harriet couldn’t read her so well.

It had always been part of their relationship, their ability to read each other. Very rarely had they been wrong. And with that ability, it was too hard to lie to the other person, even if that lie was for the other person’s benefit, like it was right now.

“Oh,” Harriet let out before she moved back to the bed, sat down, and picked her dress up off the floor.

“What are you doing?”

“It’s time, isn’t it?” Harriet asked, slipping the dress over her shoulders as if she didn’t want Deb to see her naked body, which she’d memorized long ago.

“What’s time?”

“Deb, just tell me.”

“His parents have been asking. They’re assuming something’s wrong with me.”

“Because it’s always the woman’s fault,” Harriet said sarcastically.

“Well, it doesn’t matter whose fault it is, does it? We’ve already been able to postpone it for this long, with his father’s passing and saying he’s been so busy taking care of everything, including his mother. She has asked to move back in here, but we’ve put that off, too. He’s been working on the house there, making sure it’s just what she wants so that she won’t want to move in with us.”

“Deb, if she moves in here, that’s the end,” Harriet replied. “You’ve never told me that.”

“She only brought it up once a few months ago after he passed, but she’s mentioned it a few times this past month. John David is taking care of it.”

Harriet stood and buttoned her dress.

“You don’t know that. She’s his mother.”

“He doesn’t want her living here, either.”