Shadow Creek by Joy Fielding Read Free Book Online Page A

tea sounds great. If you’re sure it’s no trouble.”
    “No trouble at all.” Val led the wary young woman into her recently refurnished living room, directing her toward the new purple velvet sofa in front of the leaded front window. “As youcan see, I’ve made some changes since your last visit.” Her tone was casual, even friendly. Val could see that Jennifer didn’t know whether to relax or run for the hills. Well, what do you know? she thought. Maybe watching Jennifer squirm was the real reason she’d invited the young woman into her home. This might actually be fun, she decided. “Be right back.”
    Brianne was waiting for her in the kitchen. “What are you doing?” she asked.
    “Getting our guest some iced tea.”
    “Are you crazy?”
    “Probably. Are you packed?”
    Brianne’s shoulders slumped even as her eyes rolled toward the ceiling. “What are you trying to do? Win points with Dad?”
    “Don’t be ridiculous.” Is that what I’m doing? Val wondered.
    “I’m not the one who’s being ridiculous,” Brianne said before stomping out of the room.
    “And get dressed,” Val called after her. Now where was I? she asked silently. “Ah, yes. Getting the lovely Jennifer some iced tea.”
    Jennifer was indeed lovely, Val was forced to admit. Not slutty at all. She was tall and slender, with large breasts, slim hips, and an enviably narrow waist. Her dark blond hair fell to her shoulders in a series of expensively layered waves around her heart-shaped face. Her eyes were big and blue, her cheekbones high and pronounced, her lips seductively full. And her legs went on forever.
    Right to the ceiling, Val thought, once more picturing those legs on either side of her husband’s head.
    “Shit,” she whispered, banishing the image while trying to avoid her own reflection in the dark glass of her microwave oven. I used to look like that. At least a little, she amended,as she removed two glasses from a nearby cupboard and filled them with iced tea. At five feet, seven inches, she was relatively tall, although probably two inches shorter than Jennifer, and she’d always been slim, although she had maybe ten pounds on the younger woman, who had the added advantage of being ten years her junior. They shared roughly the same hair color, although Val’s was darker and had more curl. Nor were her eyes as big or as blue. And her mouth failed to form the same naturally seductive pout when at rest. Val’s lips were thinner, more ordinary. “Shit,” she said again, slightly louder this time. She tucked her green-and-white-striped blouse into her white capris and kicked off her strictly utilitarian white flats, revealing unadorned toenails in need of a trim. No siren-red nail polish for her. She couldn’t even remember the last time she’d had a pedicure.
    That was about to change. Melissa had suggested the possibility of a spa day as a way of capping off their three-day birthday sojourn in the city. Val had initially balked at the idea of spending an entire day being massaged, pampered, and painted when she could be out running around Madison Avenue, traipsing from the MoMA to the Met, trying to squeeze in just one more gallery, one more interesting shop. She’d never been someone who enjoyed sitting still.
    “The only woman who can keep up with me,” Evan had said, sounding both pleased and proud.
    And yet he’d left her for a young woman who clearly had no problems with sitting still no matter where she was, be it in a sports car idling on the street or on the new purple velvet sofa of her fiancé’s soon-to-be former wife.
    Impressive in its own right, Val decided, returning to the living room with a glass of iced tea in each hand. “I forgot to ask whether you wanted sugar.”
    “No, thanks. I don’t take sugar.”
    “Sweet enough, are you?”
    Another wince from Jennifer that made Val smile. She handed Jennifer the glass of iced tea, then sat down in one of two beige linen tub chairs in front