Page 62 of The Housemaid Is Watching

“Perhaps,” she says, “but I don’t want to ruin everyone’s fun.”

“Do not worry about fun,” Enzo says. That’s when I realize she is still holding his hand. Or he is holdingherhand. Either way, their hands are very much linked. “You must take care of yourself.”

“You truly saved my life,” she says. “Honestly, I was so scared and you… you saved me.”

“Is nothing.” Enzo waves a hand, but he’s eating it up. He loves being the hero. Who could blame him?

Enzo helps Suzette to her feet, and Jonathan reaches out to assist her, but she doesn’t make any moves to go to him. We end up packing all our stuff, because everyone is so shaken and it’s too hard to enjoy a day at the beach at this point. I mean,Icould’ve still enjoyed myself, but even the kids look like they want to leave.

Unfortunately, Enzo is helping Suzette, who you would think suffered some kind of leg trauma where she can’t walk anymore, so we end up having to grab most of the furniture ourselves. The kids take one chair each, I grab two, and I manage to stuff the umbrella under my arm as well. It’s not easy going, but somehow we make it back to the cars.

“Thank you again.” Suzette gazes up at Enzo as he helps her hobble to Jonathan’s Mercedes, depositing her directly into the passenger seat. “You saved my life.”

And when she says it, she puts her arm on his biceps. Which, honestly, feels a little unnecessary.

The way she is gazing at him, I feel like if her husband wasn’t a couple of feet away, and I wasn’t standing there staring daggers at her, the two of them would be making out as we speak. Not that I think Enzo would do that to me. But if I didn’t exist, who knows? Suzette is a very attractive woman, and although I dislike her, he doesn’t seem to dislike her the way I do.

“Drive home safely,” he says to her.

“We will!” Jonathan says cheerfully. “Thanks again, Enzo! I appreciate you looking after my wife!”

Is he genuinelythankingmy husband for pawing at his wife?

I wish I could say that I’m relieved when they drive away. But it’s hard to ever get rid of somebody when they live right next door to you.

THIRTY-NINE

“What? You think I should let her drown, Millie? Is that what you want?”

I have been moping around all evening, ever since we returned home from the beach. Despite only having been there less than an hour, there is sand all over everything. Every crack of my body seems to have a few grains of sand in it. Even after showering, I still feel a bit sandy.

So yes, I’ve been cranky. And when we got into our bed to turn in for the night, I couldn’t help but remark about Enzo’s heroic rescue in the ocean.

“I didn’t want you to let her drown,” I grumble. “But did you have to save her likethat?”

“Like what?”

“Like…” I sit up in bed, scratching at my toes, which still feel like they have sand between them. “Like, so…heroically.”

His lips twitch. “Heroically?”

“I mean, she could have walked back to the car by herself. Or Jonathan could have walked with her.”

He shrugs. “She wanted me.”

“I’ll bet.” I grit my teeth. “And howconvenientthat the client canceled.”

“No, not convenient.” He frowns. “I wanted to meet the client. I want this job.”

“You didn’t look surprised when they didn’t show.”

“Because she told me this morning. But I still wanted to have beach day with you and the kids.”

“Right.”

He grunts. “Millie, this is ridiculous. I do not understand why you are upset.”

“Okay, so if some handsome guy pulled me out of the water and was fawning over me, that wouldn’t bother you at all?”