decision and stuck to it, and had notified her tenant, in case he was interested in buying it without a realtor’s commission, before it went on the market. He was thinking about it. And Gemma started to look more relaxed.
They all enjoyed the rest of Caroline’s stay, and she and the children were genuinely sad to leave. They had covered a lot of ground. Morgan and Billy had fun, the girls had met their mother, and they’d spent some good time together on the ranch among sisters.
Gemma and Kate saw them off the morning they left, and their nephew and niece hugged them and thanked them for a wonderful time. They were sorry now they were going to Aspen, and wanted to stay. But Caroline wanted to see Peter. She felt slightly guilty for having been gone for more than a week, but it had done her good. And she wanted to tell him all about Scarlett, and how meaningful it had been to her. She’d told him on the phone, but wanted to tell him the details in person. He had been very moved by the story.
Caroline had had a lovely time with her sisters. She enjoyed the ranch so much more now without her father looming. But she was anxious to see Peter before they left for Aspen. She was grateful that he had been so understanding about letting her spend the time with her sisters on the ranch. He had been very sweet about it, and sent her text messages every day, hoping she was having fun and relaxing.
Caroline and the children were home in Marin by lunchtime, and the house looked surprisingly orderly. He hadn’t left a mess. The refrigerator was full. Their cleaning person had left everything tidy, and Peter was good about that too. He was organized and neat, and she never came home to a mess. Once she was home, she realized how much she had missed him. They had texted and talked on the phone while she was away, but it wasn’t the same as face-to-face, or having his arms around her. He was planning to be home for dinner that night, and she bought steaks, which she knew he loved, artichokes, his favorite dessert, and put flowers on the dining table. Both children had plans to go out with friends, so Peter and she would have time alone, and maybe enough time for a little romance before they got home. She smiled at the thought. He was a thoughtful lover, and even after seventeen years of marriage, they had an active sex life that they both enjoyed. As reserved as he was, in their private moments, he could be very loving. And he had told her several times on the phone that he couldn’t wait for her to get back.
She unpacked that afternoon after she dropped Morgan and Billy off at their friends’, got almost everything put away, and opened the drawer of her night table to drop in a book she hadn’t finished reading, and her reading glasses, which she had just gotten, and stared into the drawer with a look of surprise. She usually kept things to read in it, a pad and pen, and now her new glasses. Instead, she found herself staring at several packets of condoms, some flavored sex lubricant, and a blue Goyard datebook that wasn’t hers. She felt as though she had been stabbed, or a bomb had gone off in her face when she opened the drawer. Her head was reeling and she felt sick. There was no way to explain the condoms and the lubricant except that he had used them with someone else. They didn’t use condoms, because they didn’t have other partners and she was on the pill, and had been for years. And she was allergic to lubricant, and they didn’t need it.
She took the datebook out, feeling strangled, and wondering who it belonged to. She didn’t have far to look. The girl’s name was written on the front page, Veronica Ashton, with her address, phone number, and email address, in case the datebook was found. Not even feeling guilty, but suddenly ill, she flipped through it and rapidly found printed out photos of a woman in various highly suggestive positions, and three photos of them having sex, two of Peter naked, smiling at the camera, and two more of his erect penis, and she had drawn a heart around it in red marker. Caroline didn’t know