His Other Wife by Deborah Bradford Read Free Book Online Page B

moment, Eric wished he hadn’t taken this exit into his old life. He wanted to keep driving in any direction — Indiana,
     New York, Canada, whichever direction the rental car would take him. He wanted the navigation system turned off.
    Pam’s fingers kneaded his neck. “You okay?”
    He didn’t answer that question. “I think we need to stop first. We don’t know how long the visit at the house is going to
     take us. I think we need to take care of the… gift.”
    “No,” Pam said. “It won’t work if we do it now. Let’s get the visit at the house over with. We’ll take care of the other on
     the way to the hotel.” And when she explained the logistics, he saw her point.
    “Okay,” he agreed. “House first.”
    “House first!” Lily sang.
    “Seth told me he’d shoot hoops with me when we got here,” Ben said.
    “Daddy?” Lily asked in little-girl innocence. “When I graduate from high school do I get a present like Seth’s?”
    “Why would you care about that?” Pam asked their daughter. “You’re only five.”
    Eric told her in all honesty, “You’ll get something else. Something especially for you. ” He didn’t say the rest of it: You’ll get a graduation gift that’s reasonable . But this was for Seth. Because, with Seth, he had so much to make up for.

Chapter 4
    T he doorbell rang three times in quick succession. All of Hilary’s good intentions flew out of her head; she was a bundle of
     nerves. She peered out the peephole as she scrubbed her palms on her slacks legs.
    The glass in the peephole made everything on the porch look compressed, as if she were peering down on them from a bigger
     world. How it pleased her that her ex-husband appeared somewhat small.
    Through the hole, Hilary watched Eric as he prepared to face her. He straightened his collar with short, sharp jerks. When
     he didn’t get it right, Pam reached over and fixed it for him. Eric beckoned eleven-year-old Ben away from the doorway, offered
     him a chummy high five followed by a shared bop of the knuckles. Pam crossed her arms over Lily’s collarbone and rocked this
     child, this one she and Eric shared, back and forth in front of her.
    Pam shot Eric a look of reassurance that any other woman could read: You’re going to be fine, honey. Just enjoy this as much as you can.
    Hilary opened the door so fast that she almost caught them. But no. Instead, she got them standing in the door frame as if
     they were posing for a portrait, Pam with her dark hair and symmetrical features, Eric with his fixed, dazzling smile, the
     children’s faces eager.
    “Hello, Hilary,” Eric said.
    The warmth in his voice actually surprised Hilary. She found herself doing the unthinkable, examining the physical changes
     in her ex-husband, the lines that ran from his nose to his mouth, the skin thickening around his eyes. He looked older. Good.
     Handsome, in fact.
    “Hello, Eric.”
    There were all sorts of things they could say to each other, but nothing came. They spoke in scripted sentences. He asked,
     “How have you been?”
    “Fine. And you?”
    “Fine.”
    As she searched for words and analyzed the changes in him, she could kick herself for the moment she found herself awash in
     the loneliness again. Not from missing Eric exactly, she’d gotten beyond that, but just from missing someone . Someone stepping through the door at the end of the day. Someone in the bed next to her, a warm body that left an indentation
     in the mattress, a fading warmth on the pillow, a body spooning against hers, someone who would tug the covers and she could
     tug back.
    All those feelings, which Hilary had managed to tame into submission, rose again while this man and his wife and their children
     stood on her front porch.
    The important thing is to watch out for Seth’s best interests.
    This has nothing to do with protecting myself.
    Pam’s two children — not ankle biters, thank you very much — peered past Hilary’s