The Temporary Wife - By Jeannie Moon Page 0,69
about Meg and you keep Molly’s money safe. I’m happy. She makes me happy. It’s nice to see a marriage doesn’t have to be toxic like Mom and Dad’s.”
“There’s no such thing as a happy marriage, brother. There are advantageous marriages, profitable ones, and necessary ones, but not happy. Which one is yours?”
***
Meg took a sip of her wine and bit into the scallop wrapped in bacon. It was succulent, flavorful, and while she’d had something like this before, the version being served here was nothing like the kind found in the frozen food section of the local discount club.
Harper slithered up beside her, and Meg looked around for something else to eat. If she was eating, she wasn’t talking. But if she was eating, she wouldn’t fit into a size two like the Harpy. Damn calories.
Why did Harper have to be so gorgeous? The woman was tall, dark-haired, and looked like she stepped out of a Ralph Lauren ad, wearing her black evening gown like it was made for her. Meg loved her own dress, but she knew Harper wore the clothes better, fit into the whole charity benefit scene better—Harper belonged here, sipping champagne and eating canapés.
Meg felt like she should be at the local bar having a beer and some wings, especially after the way Josh looked at her.
“Your dress is gorgeous,” Harper said. “It’s so hard to wear couture when you’re short.”
Meg glanced over and hated Harper in all her tall, gorgeous, Ivy League perfection, but she wasn’t going to let her get off a shot without returning fire. If she wanted to make this a middle school fight, that was fine. “I’m sure you’re right,” Meg said. “I had such a hard time finding dresses to fit my body. Everything is designed for women who are tall, skinny, and flat-chested.” Glancing up and down Harper’s body, Meg shrugged. “I bet everything fits you perfectly.”
Harper turned her head and snarled. Literally snarled at Meg. “He’s not going to stay with you, you know. You don’t belong in his world, you didn’t when you were in high school and you don’t now.”
“Maybe not, but you know what? I had a life before I married Jason, and if it doesn’t work out, I’ll have a life again without him. You, on the other hand, depend on him for your life. Don’t depend on a man for your life, Harper. It’ll end badly.”
Meg saw Jason on the other side of the living room, and she started to move toward him, needing to be with him.
“Are you telling me I should get a life?” Harper’s voice was incredulous.
Meg looked long and hard at the woman. She was a picture of elegance, but she didn’t have anything that was her own, and Meg suddenly felt sorrier for her than she did for herself.
“I guess I am.”
Chapter 17
The limo left the museum, and before the driver made the turn to cross Central Park, Meg’s head had dropped onto Jason’s shoulder and she’d settled in to sleep.
It had been an amazing night. Meg had been amazing.
Aside from being so beautiful that everyone in the room stopped to stare at her, it seemed she made a decision to stop letting others define her. The insecurity about what people thought about her profession, the worry about not being from money, all of it vanished. He wasn’t sure exactly what changed, but something had, and the woman who emerged was one he never wanted to lose. Never.
The high point of the night came when the director of the charity congratulated Jason on his marriage. When he asked about Meg, who was talking to a hot A-list actress that minute, Jason mentioned she was a teacher.
That was all it took. Within minutes she was holding court with the director of the arts charity, the head of children’s programs at the museum, and a couple of benefactors who wanted her opinion about programs, arts education, learning styles, and anything else that had to do with kids. She was no longer “just a teacher.”
Something that had come up was a pilot program they wanted to test in her district, but every student would need access to a tablet. The schools were a mixed bag of students, from upper middle class to the homeless. Meg loved each and every one of them, and on some days he thought she loved the neediest ones the most.
To pilot the program in all the elementary schools, they would need about two thousand iPads.