Page 56 of Happy Wife

“Fuck Fritz. Constance appointed herself the family press officer, and she owed me an explanation for all of this Kristy bullshit.”

“Are you sure it’s Constance you’re pissed at? Is it possible Constance is a surrogate for your anger over Will being missing?”

I glare at her. “Do you ever tire of being right?”

“Oh, no. I love it.”

“Anyway, I ran into the guy in the gray sedan.”

“You ran into him?”

“Not quite literally, but almost. Over on Alabama. He was behind me. Turns out his name is Perry Conroy, and he knew Will when he was growing up.”

“Wait, what?”

“I know, it sounds crazy—”

“It sounds fucking insane. Are you sure you can trust what he says?”

“He knew the guy—Dean—who plowed through Carol Parker’s fence. The one who died. He came up to check on him. Dean knew Will, too.”

I leave out the PI part for now.

“Nora, he could be anyone. Will’s face is all over the place. This guy could be a journalist, or someone trying to exploit you.”

Even Este is second-guessing me now.

“He wasn’t trying to exploit me,” I argue. “He was a legitimate person. And he’s the only person who has given me any sort of answers.” I’m so keyed up I feel my entire body starting to shake. “Okay? So, here’s what’s going to happen. Perry is going to help me do some research. And then we’ll figure out where Will is, and he will come home. Will can do anything. Ask anyone. Whatever bind he’s in, he can get himself out of it. He can get himself out of anything. So we’re just going to keep doing what we’re doing until he comes back.”

“Nora, honey,” Este says again as she walks over to me and puts her hand on my shoulder. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but I think it’s time you start to consider the possibility that Will might not be coming back.”

Something from deep inside of me starts to boil over and I can’t control it. “Goddamnit, Este! Stop it. Stop talking about it. I don’t have to consider anything.”

“Nora—”

“You can either have a glass of wine with me and let it go, or go home.”

Este stands there. I think it’s the first time in our friendship that I’ve fired back at her.

I throw my hands up. “Fine, go home.” I storm past her into the living room, bottle of wine in hand.

A few minutes later, I hear the front door open and close, and then I can see Este making her way through the hedge to her house. I flip on the TV to find something mindless. I’m done playing amateur detective. I’m going to watch Bravo until Will comes home.

But watching middle-aged women squabble over who gets the best room on a girls’ trip doesn’t do much to block out the look on Este’s face. It was the same pitiful look she gave me when I claimed my marriage was fine.

She knew I was lying.

Chapter24

Before

“Babe!” Este called. “You ready?” She must have let herself in through the side door by the kitchen. The way her voice traveled through the house told me she wasn’t waiting for me to welcome her in.

After the first night we met and she cleaned me up, Este letting herself into my house quickly became the norm. I made her swear to always announce herself—I didn’t need her to have some weird I-have-seen-your-husband’s-junk story in her back pocket to trot out at dinner parties. So, she often entered by shouting, “It’s Este. I am in your house. Please cover your wang, Will.”

The morning after the party, she had made good on her offer of coffee and Advil when she knocked on the kitchen side door around eleven with both in hand. I had introduced her to Will, who was already on his way to his home office for a call. He had waved politely, and she and I had gone out to the patio to dissect the gossip from the night before.

We started hanging out together almost daily after that. We had a lot in common. We both felt like fish out of water in Winter Park—although Este couldn’t have cared less about this fact. And we were both in search of ways to fill our days. Este had left her job sometime after Beau had sold his company and before theymoved to Florida, and I quit my job at the museum shortly after Will and I eloped. Between the two of us, we had hours—if not days—of free time each week. I think we mutually found solace in the morning runs, shopping on Park Ave, yoga classes, spa trips, and evening cocktail meetups. We made up our own little world with a full schedule of diversions.