Necessary Lies by Diane Chamberlain Read Free Book Online Page B

did this morning.” Carol nudged him with her elbow.
    “Skin diving!” Bruce said. “I think it was the most thrilling thing I’ve ever done.”
    “We snorkeled,” I said. I’d loved how one minute you were in the regular old world, but as soon as you lowered your head, you were transported to an extraordinary new universe.
    “Well, this is like that, only a hundred times better,” Carol said. “You feel like you’re a fish yourself.”
    “Isn’t it a bit claustrophobic?” Robert asked.
    “You get over that pretty quickly,” Bruce said. “We took a lesson in a pool first. You want the name of the fella who taught us?”
    “Yes,” I said. “I’d love to try it.”
    Next to me, I sensed that Robert was less than enthusiastic, but Bruce pulled a notebook from his shirt pocket and wrote down the name of the instructor. He handed the sheet of paper to Robert. “You didn’t mention what kind of business you’re in,” he said.
    “I’m a physician,” Robert said, and I saw their eyes pop open. I knew how Northerners thought. They didn’t expect a Southern boy to have the brains to become a doctor.
    “A pediatrician,” I added. I wanted to say more. I wanted to tell them about the time I watched him stitch together a gash on a little girl’s leg while telling her “knock-knock” jokes to keep her mind off what was happening. I wanted to talk about his compassion, how he spent one Saturday each month working for free at a clinic for poor people. But he wouldn’t want me bragging about him that way.
    “Well, my, my,” Carol said.
    Bruce leaned forward, elbows on his knees, so he could speak directly to Robert. “Our son has a cut on the side of his ankle that won’t heal,” he said. “Our pediatrician’s tried a few things, but nothing seems to make a difference.”
    We spent the rest of our sunset cruise with Robert offering free medical advice, his handsome face tan and sincere, while Bruce and Carol hung on his every word. I nearly burst with pride that I could now call him my husband.
    *   *   *
    After the cruise, Robert and I had dinner on the poolside patio near our bungalow. We sat close together on one side of the table sharing an enormous pupu platter.
    “I’d really like to try it,” I said. “Skin diving.” I nibbled a shrimp from the bamboo skewer in my hand.
    Robert shuddered. “Seriously?”
    “It’d be so beautiful.”
    “Not worth the risk of drowning or rupturing a lung.”
    I laughed and held a sliver of pineapple to his lips. “You’re being overly dramatic,” I said, as he took the pineapple from me and chewed it slowly.
    He leaned over to kiss me, then wound a lock of my hair around his finger. “Every once in a while, I worry I’m too old for you,” he said.
    “Oh, that’s silly.” The nine years between us didn’t bother me at all. I didn’t see why it should bother him.
    He let my hair spring free and smiled at me. “If you really want to skin-dive, we can skin-dive, sweetheart,” he said. “I don’t ever want to hold you back from something you really want to do.”
    “Like my job,” I said, and instantly regretted it. I would start work the Monday after our return from Hawaii, and Robert wasn’t happy about it.
    He raised his hand to stop anything else I might say. “We’ve settled it about your job,” he said. “You can try it for a while. I told you that, so you don’t need to bring it up over and over again.”
    “I’ll make our meals on Sundays and we can heat them up in the oven each night.” We’d have a maid, of course, but cooking wasn’t supposed to be one of her tasks. “I’ll be sure to get home in time to do that.” All his Raleigh friends had wives waiting for them at home in the evening, showered and coiffed, with dinner on the table.
    “It doesn’t have anything to do with the meals.” He picked up something small and fried from his plate and studied it as if trying to figure out what it was. “ You know