The Playdate by Louise Millar Read Free Book Online Page B

land the Canadian contract, and talking it through with Don Berry last night had allowed him to blow off the pressure of it all?
    Suzy walked over to the kitchen area and put on some fresh coffee to sober them both up after the bottle of wine they’d had at lunch. The calendar caught her eye. She counted the days since the beginning of June. Ten, eleven . . . She was probably starting to ovulate right now.
    She opened the fridge, suddenly excited about planning the evening. Asparagus fought for space with strawberries at the top of the fridge. There were a couple of steaks on the middle shelf and two bottles of white wine. Good.
    All she had to do was get the kids to bed early, have a bath . . .
    Jez wandered into the kitchen, his head turned backward to listen to something Henry was shouting from upstairs. Suzy glanced at his face as she went to fill the coffeepot.
    Wait a second. What was that?
    She looked back.
    Jez’s head was fixed at an upward angle as he answered Henry’s question about something to do with planets. There. There it was. Where the dip of his cheek normally was, a new layer of flesh subtly flattened out the contour.
    Was he becoming heavier around the face? When did that happen?
    Her eyes scanned his body quickly for more evidence, and settled on his stomach. He had always been big, but there, too, there was a change. His shirt pushed a little ahead of his jacket.
    Suzy watched, amazed. How had she not noticed before? It wasn’t that surprising, perhaps. She couldn’t remember the last time she had seen her husband naked.
    As he turned and walked toward her she saw it more clearly. There. Under his chin. A slight curve. It made him look older; gave him a vulnerable look.
    The idea of an old Jez was comforting. He would need her then.
    “Hey, hon,” she said in her gentlest voice. “Come here—please.”
    Jez put down his phone and walked over to her, glancing at the boys.
    “What?” he murmured.
    She reached up and put her arms around his neck, pulling him lightly toward her, feeling no tension this time. Just the velvet heat of his neck connecting with hers. At the touch of his skin, a tremor ran through her at what might happen later. It made her involuntarily flex her body toward him.
    “What do you want to do tonight?” she whispered.
    “That was Don,” Jez murmured back in her ear. “His boss at the bank is throwing a party tonight out in Hertfordshire. He reckons I could make a few contacts. The guy’s invited us to stay over and play golf tomorrow.”
    She held him close, finally allowing herself to recognize the familiar hard tension in the muscles beneath his skin. It had never gone away; the wine had just softened his resolve to push her away again. Instead, he was standing patiently in her arms, waiting for her to let go. So he could leave again.
    Lunch hadn’t been for her. It had been for the boys.
    “OK, hon,” she said, lowering her eyes. “If you think that’s a good idea. Can you pour the coffee? I’m going to use the bathroom.”
    Her cheeks burning, she fought her way blindly up the stairs and into her room, shutting the door behind her.
    She sat down on the bed—the bed that she had slept in alone last night while Jez lay drunkenly on the sofa downstairs. No fetal position for her husband. She’d found him this morning on his back, snoring, his arms splayed out, like the king.
    Be strong, she told herself. Be strong. Do not give him an easy excuse to leave.
    Time was running out. First she had to make Nora happen. Nora would make everything all right. A daughter would soften him. A cute little girl would crack through that armor.
    And, in the meantime, she would just have to do everythingshe could to prepare for the worst. Jez’s father already looked at her like she was a bad smell. Just think what he could ask his old boys’ club friends to do to her in the divorce courts.
    No—she needed evidence, just in case Jez did leave, so she could protect her