Page 99 of Happy Wife

“You want to take the boat out for some fresh air?” He kissed my other cheek. “I don’t need to work anymore this weekend.”

“No,” I huffed in fake annoyance.

His brows knitted.

“I was prepared to have a big conversation and tell you that you were wrong. And I was going to be so respectful and mature and tell you I belong here just as much as you. And you can’t shut me out anymore.”

“You’re right,” he said softly.

“I had a lot of really good things I was going to say.”

“I want to hear them.”

“Well, you’re just taking the wind out of my sails completely.”

“You want to do this over? I could go out and come back in. We can start from the beginning, and you can say all the things you want to say. I promise to agree with you.”

“When you say it like that, it sounds like overkill.”

“Do you really think you don’t belong here?”

I shrugged. “People say something to you often enough, it gets easier and easier to believe it.”

“Fuck them. You belong with me. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”

“I just wish other people saw it that way.”

“Oh, Nora. These people are wretches. Trying to win their affection is Sisyphean. They don’t like people. They like shiny things—diamonds, private jets, black cards. But how about this? I will throw you a party. Ply my nearest and dearest friends with alcohol until they fall in love with you. It wouldn’t take much. You’re easy to love and my friends are all lushes.”

I stifled a laugh, warming up to him again. “What about your birthday? You’re going to be forty-six soon.”

He looked up at the ceiling for a second. “Don’t remind me.”

“I could throw you a party.Andply your friends with alcohol until they fall in love with me. Think of it as strategic altruism.”

He snorted as he brushed my hair away from my face. “Would that make you happy?”

“Celebrating you? Or being beloved? Because I’m mostly in it for the second thing.”

He laughed as he kissed my neck. “I’ll ask Autumn to give you a call this week. She’ll have people eating out of your hand by the time they cut the cake.”

I stared at him for a beat, letting him wonder if I was in, even though I was sure he knew I was.

“Now, can we go to bed?” he murmured into my ear. “I’ve got a few other ways to make it right with you as well.”

It might have been wrong to fall back into his arms so quickly. But love makes you do crazy things. As he slid a warm hand under my shirt, I began to mentally erase the darkness from the last twenty-four hours.

Fuck it. I’m his.

And my little lies about Marcus faded into the background.

Chapter38

Thirteen days after

I turn on the TV in the bedroom while I’m waiting for the shower water to heat up. I tell myself it’s opposition research while I’m pacing and rerunning my conversation with Ardell at the police station. It takes effort not to flinch at the photo of me and Marcus as Lindy Bedford flashes it up on the screen for the umpteenth time. As I step under the hot water, Lindy Bedford’s voice is jabbering on in the background, echoing off the shower glass. Este’s right. I can’t shut out what they’re saying about me or hide from the fact that I might be one step away from being arrested for murder.

What the hell happened that night? How did Will and I end up like this?