Kelly felt wonderfully confident in her decision until a few hours later when Mabry cornered her in the living room. Kelly sat reading a book on the couch when Jack’s aunt walked in.
“It won’t last, you know,” Mabry started in with a sneer on her face. “It starts out like this with the sudden ‘business trips’ and it goes downhill from there.”
Kelly looked up from her book trying to dismiss Mabry’s concerns. “It’s just a trip to save a deal that’s in trouble. I don’t think it’s the beginning of the end of our marriage,” she said confidently.
Mabry’s eyebrows shot up. She’d planted a seed that she knew would fester and grow. “Hmm. I wonder why he was speaking to Caroline Harridan before he left? I thought he was through with her, but I guess not.”
The smile on Mabry’s lips as she spun on her heel and left the room was smug.
Kelly knew what the woman was trying to do but it was hard not to wonder if Mabry’s job was made easy by the fact Jack was really talking to Caroline? Or was it completely made up? Kelly watched Mabry go, feeling a blossoming insecure hesitation at her parting words.
She went upstairs and sat in the room she shared with Jack trying to shove aside the feelings. Jack hadn’t seemed to be interested in Caroline when they saw her at lunch the other day, but if he hadn’t talked to Caroline, how would Mabry know to pull that name out of thin air?
Which meant Jack must have talked to her. Could his blasé attitude toward Caroline at lunch have been an act?
Jack had sworn to her that he wouldn’t be with anyone else while they were married, and Kelly had believed him at the time. He seemed so genuine and sure. But it was well known that Jack Sutton could bluff better than anyone when he needed to. Maybe he was bringing his boardroom tactics home to their bed.
Kelly hated the sudden insecurity she felt. She had never been the jealous or suspicious type when dating someone, but as she thought about it, she realized that was because she always knew where she stood with her previous boyfriends.
She had been confident in the status of her relationships in the past, so there was no need to be catty and check up on them.
With Jack, the only thing she really knew was that their whole relationship was based on a pretend marriage. A lie. Where did that really leave her?
She sat on the bed and tried to think of a way to know for sure whether Jack was with Caroline without having to flat out ask him. If she did that, he would know she didn’t trust him. Worse, he might guess the secret she’d been trying to hide—that she was feeling a lot more for him than he was for her in this marriage of convenience.
She bit her lip between her teeth and picked up the phone, dialing the number of the hotel where Jack was staying. She tried to affect a secretarial tone.
When the front desk picked up, Kelly launched into her spiel. “This is Jack Sutton’s secretary. I need to reach his wife right away to confirm some details for a fundraising event that can’t wait. Can you tell me if she checked in there with him? She wasn’t planning on traveling with him, but I’m wondering if she may have tagged along at the last minute because I can’t reach her here.”
Kelly had learned that if you spoke confidently enough and acted as though you expected your questions to be answered, they often would be.
“No, ma’am. I checked Mr. Sutton in myself and he’s traveling alone. Let me double check with the bellhop to see if she came later. Hold one moment, please.”
Kelly waited on the line, holding her breath and chewing her lip as she waited to hear whether Jack had been joined by a woman. It was several minutes before the concierge came back on the line.
“No, ma’am. Mr. Sutton has not been joined by anyone, I’m afraid.”
Kelly breathed a silent sigh of relief as she continued to play her part. “All right, I’ll keep trying to track her down here. Thank you for your help,” she said and hung up the phone.
She was relieved that Jack didn’t seem to have Caroline with him, but that relief was short-lived when the guilt at having checked up on him kicked in. She shouldn’t have done that. The nagging regret in her stomach stayed with her into the evening.
That night Kelly went up to bed early and started a bubble bath to soak. There was nothing she loved more than soaking in water so hot it almost burned, and she filled the tub with bath salts that smelled of jasmine and roses.
Kelly stripped off her clothes and sank down into the heavenly mixture. She sighed as she felt her tension begin to melt.
She had no one to blame for it but herself. She was tense because she felt as if she betrayed Jack by checking up on him, and she was angry with herself for letting Mabry get to her. She knew better than to listen to that hateful old hag.
Kelly sighed as she thought about Mabry. She knew Jack didn’t want to confront Mabry because he and Chad had this overdeveloped sense of protection where she was concerned. In many ways knowing he was like that made her care for him all the more. It wasn’t your average man who would put his family above all else, especially when that family member was attacking him at every turn.
Kelly took a deep breath and submerged herself under the bubbles, floating while the bath salts and hot water worked their magic. Jack’s bathtub was like heaven on earth. It was large and deep enough that she could lay completely submerged without scrunching herself up, and it had excellent temperature control. Thinking that she would turn on the jets for a bit, Kelly came up out of the suds and swiped a hand down her face. Then she opened her eyes.
And screamed. Jack stood watching her come up out of the water.
“Jack! What are you doing here? You’re not due home until tomorrow night,” Kelly sputtered.