She did what many a woman her age would do—she drove by Hadley’s house a dozen times a week. Then one morning she saw what she should have known she would see. He stood in the doorway with his beautiful blond wife, an arm around her waist. She still wore a robe or dressing gown. There was a small blond child holding on to his leg. The child was also beautiful. Angelic. Hadley’s wife had a small baby bump. Hadley pulled her against him and covered her lips in a loving kiss. A deep and long kiss. One of his hands cradled her head while the other ran smoothly over the bump.
Hadley wasn’t kissing his wife as though he was planning on getting a divorce.
Adele was supposed to have an abortion while Hadley got the gears moving on his separation and divorce. He said he’d try to scrape up some money for the procedure, but he couldn’t be obvious about it or his wife wouldn’t let him go. They would have to be discreet.
Eight years later, she still couldn’t believe she’d bought those lies. She didn’t go through with the abortion but her baby slipped away, stillborn. And Hadley never came looking for her. While she cared for her parents and mourned the loss of her son, she’d heard he was suspected of other affairs with students.
Scott and the woman he was with materialized again. The bastard was stepping out on her sister. She briefly thought about rushing over to them and pouring something over their heads, like a pitcher of beer. Luckily, she didn’t have anything like that on hand.
She noticed out of the corner of her eye that Jake looked at her, looked in the direction of her stare, looked back at her. Her mouth was open and gaping, and a large piece of pizza drooped limply in her hand.
“Addie?” he asked.
“Shit,” she muttered. She closed her mouth and looked at him. “Jake, I need a favor. Can we get a box for the pizza and leave? Right now? I can explain when we’re in the truck.”
“Something happened,” he said. “What happened?”
“Shh,” she said, hushing him. “Can you go back to the kitchen, ask for a box, pay the bill and get me out of here? Quietly?” she whispered. “The guy in the front booth with the blonde—that’s my brother-in-law. And that is not my sister he’s making out with.”
Jake couldn’t resist. He looked again. “Whoa,” he said, probably recognizing Scott at last. Then he slid out of the booth and made tracks to the kitchen. He was back with a box very quickly, and they transferred the pizza into it.
“I hope everything was okay,” Bonnie said as they were leaving.
“Oh, it was fine, I just remembered I left the stove on,” Adele said with a smile. By the time she got to Jake’s truck, she felt weak. When he got in and closed his door, she was shaking. “That bastard!”
“What’s he doing here?” Jake asked. “He lives in San Jose, right?”
She held out her hands, examining her trembling fingers. “He probably thinks no one knows him here, which except for me, maybe no one does. And he probably thinks I’d never be out for the evening, because what are the odds? While my sister is home worrying about her job, her husband is out deep kissing some woman—”
“Cat,” Jake said.
“Huh?”
“Cat Brooks. She owns that kayak and snorkel shop on the beach. Cat’s Place. It should make a killing, but it’s been through three or four owners in the last dozen years. I think she owns it with her brother or something.”
“Well, that makes sense,” Adele said. “Scott works part-time at a sporting goods store in San Jose where he gets a discount on all the gear he can stuff into his car. That’s what he does—plays. He loves to kayak. And golf and scuba dive and play ball and you name it. I bet his salary doesn’t even cover the cost of his toys. Justine works such long hours, he complains that she works so much and this is what he does instead.”