Page 16 of Nash Falls

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NASH HAD DRAGGED HIMSELF UPSTAIRSat two in the morning. The slumbering Judith was breathing deeply, her face partially obscured by a sleep mask. Nash stood there for a bit looking down at her and wondering how he was going to deal with all this. With her.

He changed into his pajamas, flossed and brushed his teeth, and also gargled with mouthwash to get the remaining vomit out. He slept on the couch in the sitting room just off the bedroom. When he awoke the rain had passed and the sunlight was slanting in the large window. It was like a buzz saw to his skull. That was when he noticed Judith standing over him wearing only a sheer, clingy lace nightgown.

“Walter? Are you okay?”

He rubbed his eyes and nodded. “Sure, why do you ask?”

“Well, why did you sleep here for starters?”

“Came up late, didn’t want to wake you.”

“I’m impossible to wake,” she reminded him.

It was true. She fell asleepbeforeher head hit the pillow.

Judith had majored in English Literature in college, with minors in Spanish and art history. Nash sometimes thought she had married him because none of those fields would necessarily support the lifestyle to which she aspired, while his degree could, and had.

And she said she was on the pill, but then Maggie…

But still lucky me, he thought as she bent down to kiss him, her hand reaching to his crotch and staying there.

“I was so worried about you after yesterday,” she said, slidingher fingers up and down the lengthening part of his groin. “Is there anything I can do to make it better?”

“I think we’ll figure out something,” he said, sliding down his pajama bottoms.

She slipped off her nightgown, moved the chain necklace with the attached locket so that it hung across her back, and pushed him flat on the sofa. She climbed aboard, and for the next twenty minutes Nash forgot all about FBI Special Agent Reed Morris. Although he might have taken out his fury against the federal agent in the form of his lovemaking, because when they were done, his wife fell off him, sweaty and breathless.

“What got into you?” she gasped.

“You just know how to press all my buttons, babe,” he replied, tacking on a pained smile, because what he was keeping from her was burning a hole in his gut.

They bathed together in the walk-in shower, the floor of which was done in river rock and pebbles, so their feet got a nice massage too.

Judith went to her closet to get dressed, and Nash ventured to his to do the same.

Her much larger space, full of custom cabinetry, looked like a haute couture clothing and accessory boutique after an earthquake had struck. His looked like a haberdashery run by a longtime obsessive-compulsive off his meds.

His tailored suits were arranged by color, purpose, and season, as were his shoes on a section of slanted shelves. Drawers with dividers contained folded socks and underwear, fancy knit sweaters, pocket squares, belts, and cuff links. Shirts were sorted by office or leisure. He had a section for casual wear like jeans, shorts, and chinos. A pullout rack held his ties, of which he had more than a hundred, although he generally selected from the same half dozen or so.

He had a watch winder box for his timepieces, a thoughtful Christmas gift from Judith; he tended to wear the same TAG Heuer because he liked the heft and how it felt on his wrist. At one pointhe’d wanted to purchase a Patek Phillipe but could not justify paying more for a watch than he had spent on his first home.

As he sat in his underwear on the upholstered chair in his closet, he thought back to what Reed Morris had said:There’s more to life than luxury.

Nash’s father would have hated his son’s closet, along with pretty much every other facet of his life. Ty Nash had basically worn the same four sets of clothes during the whole time Nash had lived with him. And he had purchased them all at Walmart, just as they had purchased all of Nash’s boyhood clothes from there as well.

Judith popped her head in. She was already dressed and looking radiant, the gentle sheen of recent sex imprinted on her high cheekbones.

“Thanks for the workout, big boy, I can skip the gym today.”

He knew that Judith would never skip the gym, great sex or not.

“Itwaswonderful.”

“I’ll get the coffee on. Can I make you breakfast?”

“No, I’m, uh, not really hungry.”