COMPLETELY TRUE TO his word, Elliott told Liam and Gabi about her mother’s hiring of him, about the way he’d insinuated himself into Liam’s situation, sparing himself nothing, before any of them loaded one thing into the moving truck.
Her friends had looked to her for her reaction to the news, and she’d done what a wife does. She’d supported her husband.
Inside, she’d been quaking. If she hadn’t known Elliott was lying to her about her mother, how would she know how to discern any other time? Her father had said that a woman had a certain instinct about such things, but Marie hadn’t had a clue.
Not until Elliott had been about to tell her the truth. That day when he’d been opening the door to his old life.
Her mother’s hiring him, while it made her angry, didn’t really surprise her. She’d been living with, and being at the brunt of, Barbara’s paranoia for most of her life. Ultimately, while she didn’t like it, she understood it.
And hadn’t yet determined how she was going to handle that situation. Elliott was her husband. She wasn’t going to run to her mother with the fact that he’d betrayed a professional trust. At the same time, she didn’t feel comfortable keeping the truth from her mother. It was what her father had done. And she couldn’t be her father.
Not unless she wanted to end up alone and lonely...
Figuring she and Elliott were going to have to figure out together what to do—and determining that they had time before they had to cross that bridge, she tried, instead, to focus on him. Loving him. Seeing him with her heart.
And just to be safe, she put off her father’s visit for a bit.
* * *
THE WEEK WAS everything a second week of marriage should be. And yet it wasn’t. Elliott’s days were filled with a new anticipation, a greater capacity to enjoy everything, from the taste of his food to the blue skies above him. And he lay in bed every night, after his wife had fallen asleep, and wondered what he could do to hold them together.
His upcoming job with Sailor loomed over him as much as telling Marie the truth about their meeting had done.
If it wasn’t Sailor, it would be another job.
How could he help Marie trust him? How could he trust her to trust him? Because that was what it came down to.
She was right. As a husband, he didn’t just need to be loved, he needed to be trusted. He wasn’t going to be able to live with constant mistrust at the core of his relationship.
He couldn’t live his life concerned about telling his wife the truth for fear of her not believing him.
And he’d already fed that mistrust by marrying her under false pretenses.
She knew all about his job and what it entailed. Had known since the first night they met—in her coffee shop the night after Liam and Gabi had found Liam’s car vandalized in the park.
But she’d known Liam for a dozen or more years, had gone into business with him and had still freaked when Liam had had dinner with his editor.
Elliott sat in her shop Saturday morning, the night with Sailor looming to the point of being dangerous. He was still working for Liam and had to be alert, not worrying about what his wife would think if she knew what the evening’s assignment entailed.
She hadn’t trusted Liam to go to dinner with his editor and her husband of two weeks was going to be posing as Sailor Harcourt’s escort for the evening?
Time was closing in on him. Again. He had to tell her.
With dread in his gut, he waited until he saw her heading down the hall to her office and then followed her. He couldn’t live a lifetime like this.
But he’d promised to give her time.
And knew, in his heart of hearts, he couldn’t just walk away from her, either. Not while happiness still lurked in their midst.
“I’ve been thinking,” he said as she greeted him with a kiss in the middle of the hall between the back elevator and the shop. “I should learn how to run all your machines. How to do whatever needs to be done behind the counter.”
What the...? He hadn’t been thinking any such thing. Not right then, at any rate.
He’d never been behind the counter of her shop.
“Really?” Her grin made him glad he’d had the thought at some point. And that it had come to rescue him.
He’d tell her he was working that night. She knew he worked on call. He’d taken other spur of the moment jobs since she’d known him.
And that was all he had to tell her. Pretty much all he could tell her. No point in letting her know he was posing as someone’s escort.
Or even that he was protecting a young woman that night.
Sailor had assured him there’d be no press.
He’d been making too much out of nothing. Not doing his part in trusting her to keep her word to him to come to him if she started to doubt him.
“You’re my wife. I should know what to do if you ever need help,” he said, feeling somewhat better.
If he ignored the rock in his gut.
Her face serious beneath that ponytail that now only tempted him to take it down, Marie cocked her head and looked at him. “Okay,” she said. “You want to start now?”
Eva was busy speaking with a customer. Another was in line. The shop was half-full. “Can we have the first lesson be when you’re closed?” he asked. He wasn’t sure how nimble his big fingers were going to be pushing buttons, or how much room he’d take up bending over the small refrigerators...
“Of course. Tonight?”
He should have seen that one coming. Might have if the entire conversation hadn’t just come off the cuff.
Before he could answer, Eva called out an order and as Marie went back to work, Elliott went out to speak with the guard at the front of the shop. He’d just come on at eleven. They were working twelve-hour shifts. Meant the guy would be there almost until Elliott got home that night.
He wanted to make certain the man knew that Elliott would be out. That he was to make absolutely certain Marie was safe.
Pulling Marie aside only long enough to tell her he’d had a call and had to go to work for a few hours, he went up to visit with Liam and Gabrielle. Told them he had to go out for a few hours that night. A job guarding a long-standing visiting client. They were both planning to be in for the day—working from home. They offered to invite Marie up for dinner. And a movie. Told him to be safe out there.
It wasn’t “out there” he was worried about.
* * *
IT WASN’T SO bad being alone on her side of the table at Gabi and Liam’s that night. The pasta was good—great. Warm French bread, fresh salad and a small glass of wine were nice, too. Knowing that the seat next to her, while vacant, was also taken, was the best part of all.
“If you ladies don’t mind, I really need to get some more words done on the next installment of Dad’s piece,” Liam said as the three of them were finishing up. “I’ll get the dishes, though, if you want to head into the living room and relax.”
Marie wasn’t fooled. And didn’t think Gabi was, either. He was giving them time alone. Girl-talk time. Liam was Gabi’s husband now, but he knew them. And was their best friend. Still.
“So, tell me how you’re doing. Really doing.” Gabi didn’t even wait until they were seated on the couch before starting in. Picking up the remote, she clicked on the TV.
They’d already decided what movie they wanted to watch. Grease, starring Olivia Newton John and John Travolta. It was before their time. But they’d seen it with Barbara one summer and loved it. When they’d passed a Grease-themed slot machine in Vegas, they’d looked at each other, said simultaneously that they needed to see the movie again and laughed.
“I’m really doing great,” Marie said. And then added, “Mostly.” She nodded. “Yeah, mostly great.” If you didn’t count that she worried about getting worried. Was afraid she’d start to fear that her husband could be unfaithful to her. Look how she’d freaked out when Liam had dinner with his editor. The residuals of watching her father rip her mother’s heart out. Again and again. And being unable to do anything about it. A product of knowing that sometimes love wasn’t enough. She’d chosen them because they’d had first priorities other than her.
Elliott didn’t.
He was good at his job. But he loved her.
“Mostly?” Of course Gabi would pick up on that. “Do you regret getting married like you did?”
“Absolutely not.” Elliott had been right about that part. She was glad he’d waited to tell her about his duplicity in their original meeting because if he hadn’t, she might have done just as he’d said and bolted—robbing them of at least a chance of finding heaven together.
Except that his having done so had shown her she couldn’t tell when he was lying to her. “I am so in love with that man. I... No.” She shook her head. “Mom getting married in Vegas, Elliott needing to be there with Liam...it was meant to be.”
Gabi watched her. “So why, mostly?”
“Do you ever worry about Liam? When he’s out with his editor, for instance?”
“No.”
Chin jutted out, Marie nodded. “And there’s no reason to. But I do. You know?” The way Liam used to talk...about wanting other women when he was in an exclusive relationship. He’d been a kid then. And he’d never acted on the temptation. But it had been there. He’d talked to them about it.
“You don’t trust Liam? Our Liam?”
“Of course I trust him! I just...”
“Oh, sweetie.” Gabi moved scooted over. Gathered her close for one of the rare hugs she’d instigated over the years. “You worry, but you know why you do it. You realize it’s unfounded. So while it’s there, you don’t give in to it. It’s like someone who doesn’t see well without glasses. She knows that, and she deals with it by putting on glasses. You took the big step. You let yourself love and get married. We’ll keep the other in line. You aren’t alone, you know.”
Marie wallowed in Gabi’s caring for a minute more, thanking the universe for the life, the friendships and love she’d been given. Until Liam coughed. “You guys want some tea to go with that sugar?”
He was grinning at them.
Gabi threw a pillow at him.
And Marie grabbed the remote. Definitely time to start the movie...
Facing the screen, her hand on the play button, she froze. And peripherally realized that Liam had come farther into the room. Gabi was completely still.
“And tonight, gathering at the...” Marie stared, the news announcer’s voice fading out and back in, like a cell phone losing reception. “...and with all the domestic violence issues suffered by the NFL this past year, some of the NFL’s biggest stars are in attendance...”
She shook her head. Knew when Liam sat down on the arm of the couch beside her.
“It’s a no-press-allowed affair, but a local shelter, who helped plan the affair, passed along a couple of pictures...”
Still photos. That were plastered on the screen.
A woman standing at a podium, obviously one of the speakers. A gorgeous, rich, smiling woman. And her name on the caption. Along with the name of her escort for the evening.
Marie dropped the remote.