“Pretty much. You’d think we’d be somewhat close, given that our husbands are always together. Sometimes I almost sense a bit of competitiveness there or envy, but then I just shake it off because there’s no reason for it. Cory’s right, I’m a little paranoid when it comes to Daisy. I just can’t figure her out.”
“I wouldn’t waste your energy trying. She’s not worth it. Come on, let’s make our way to the bar. I’ve heard raves about one of the chardonnays we were serving, Cakebread. Sounds like my kind of dessert!”
Mandy’s cellphone rang as they reached the bar. She told Barbara to order her a glass of whatever she was having. She saw her caller ID on her phone flash, and realized she’d had several missed calls, one of them a Nantucket number that she didn’t recognize. She’d turned the ringer off so she wouldn’t be disturbed. It was Jill calling, and that was odd, because she never called during the day.
“Hey, Jill, what’s up? Is everything all right?”
“It’s Grams. Nantucket Hospital just called to let me know she came into the ER from Dover Falls and is being sent to Boston, to Mass General. They suggested the family come as soon as possible.” Mandy had never heard her older sister sound so scared and realized the hospital must have tried to reach her too.
“Are you flying in tonight? I can grab a flight and meet you at Logan.” Then they could grab a cab together to Mass General.
“I’m on my way now, flight leaves in an hour. Can you call Emma?”
“I will. I’ll ask her to meet us at Mass General.”
Chapter 3
“Emma, I’ll always love you, but I’m in love with Tom.” The surreal words kept replaying over and over again in Emma’s mind as she sipped her Absolut and tonic and stared out the tiny airplane window. “… can’t help it… in love with Tom. Never meant to hurt you…” She knew that part of it was true. Peter didn’t have a mean bone in his body. They’d been married almost fifteen years and everyone including Emma thought they were a perfect couple.
Peter was a popular English teacher at Arizona State, where they’d both graduated and met as juniors. He was also a budding author, and they’d just recently celebrated the launch of his second book, a sequel to the first in a mystery series about an English professor who moonlights as an amateur detective. Emma’s photography career was going well, too. She’d recently had several national assignments that seemed to be generating some positive buzz and her first gallery show just a few weeks ago had exceeded everyone’s expectations by completely selling out.
Everything had seemed almost perfect in their lives, until a month ago when her husband told her he was in love with another man. He was in love with another man! How could she not have known? She’d asked herself that question a million times it seemed and in retrospect she supposed there were signs, she just didn’t see them for what they were.
She’d thought it was a good thing when Tom, Peter’s best friend from college, was transferred to Phoenix. She was happy that Peter had someone to go fishing with and to play racquetball with. Since he was more active and going to the gym more often, she didn’t think anything of it when he lost weight and started dressing better.
Because she knew how much Peter loved fishing, she still didn’t think anything of it when he and Tom started going away for a night or even the whole weekend. After all, it was a long drive to the mountains, and since Tom had a cabin there, it made perfect sense for them to stay over instead of making the long drive back, didn’t it? She felt foolish now, but the truth just never crossed her mind, not even once.
It was also true that their sex life had been virtually non-existent for the past few years. Now that she did think about it, they’d never really had the kind of crazy chemistry where you want to have sex all the time. They both had busy schedules and were exhausted at the end of the day and Emma realized that sex really hadn’t been a priority for either of them for a very long time.
She’d just gotten used to it because they had such a comfortable relationship, friendly and easy, and they really enjoyed spending time together. They liked the same restaurants, shared similar tastes in books and movies and overall were content relaxing together at home, watching TV and catching up on each other’s day. Sadly, she realized that they were best friends, not lovers.
Emma wondered if she would feel better or worse if it had been another woman instead of a man? She supposed it might be worse, but she wasn’t sure. She felt like a complete and total failure, like maybe she had somehow caused this, though intellectually she knew that was ridiculous. The thing was, she felt like she just didn’t know anything anymore. And she hadn’t told her sisters yet.