Trouble Down The Road. Bettye Griffin

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ his first wife were divorcing at the time.” That wasn’t exactly the truth, either. Brad was very much married when Suzanne was hired for the reception desk.

      Suzanne still remembered the jealousy she’d felt toward Lisa Betancourt from the moment she saw her framed photograph on Brad’s desk. Lisa was pretty, had reclaimed her figure after giving birth, plus she worked as a pharmacist. Suzanne always had the same thought whenever Lisa stopped by the office to see Brad: Who is this woman to have so much, while I have next to nothing? Lisa would flounce in and ask for Brad in a pleasant but impersonal manner that nonetheless made Suzanne feel like, well, the help. Never mind if she was an employee. Lisa had a way about her that made Suzanne feel about three feet tall.

      Sometimes Lisa would bring their cute toddler daughter, Paige, with her on visits to Brad at the office. Suzanne hated them both. Not only did Lisa have poise and intelligence, but she had style as well. She knew how to pair a tailored blouse and expensive-looking leather flats with jeans in a way that looked downright elegant, and how to add little accessory touches like tying a silk scarf around the strap of her shoulder bag. As for little Paige, she was just too adorable, even then with a strong resemblance to her mother. Suzanne learned from staff gossip that Lisa came from a family in Georgia who had been major players in the civil rights movement of the sixties. Important people had come to their home.

      Suzanne, on the other hand, had grown up in Palatka, Florida, the eldest child of teenage parents who married four months before her birth. The marriage almost immediately went on the rocks, but a reconciliation years later resulted in two sons and a brief period of nuclear family life before the marriage busted up for good. Suzanne had only seen her father, Derrick Hall Sr., a few times since. Suzanne’s mother, Arlene, later had an affair with a younger man that resulted in an unplanned pregnancy. Arlene’s lover was long gone by the time she gave birth, and she gave new her baby daughter the same last name as her other children, Hall.

      Theirs had been a hardscrabble childhood, with telephone and electricity often being turned off. They never really went hungry, but they often ate unorthodox meals, like melted cheese sandwiches for breakfast or pancakes for dinner. Their house—not much more than a shack, actually—which Arlene took over after her parents passed away, was always in need of repairs. The roof leaked, the faucets had to be turned gingerly or else they would fall off, and the water heater worked intermittently.

      While Lisa had gone to college and then pharmacy school, Suzanne had gotten a job after high school to help her mother pay the bills. It didn’t seem like a big deal. Suzanne’s intelligence wasn’t geared toward books and learning; she was more savvy than smart.

      So there she was, looking on enviously as little Paige ran to her father’s arms, as Brad laughingly scooped her up and draped an arm around Lisa. Then the attractive family would stroll back into his office, like they didn’t have a care in the world.

      Even Brad himself had little to say to her back in those early days. Suzanne doubted he even knew her name. But then something happened. Lisa’s visits became less frequent and then stopped altogether, and the office scuttlebutt was that the Betancourt marriage had crumbled.

      Suzanne engaged in watchful waiting, and the moment Brad removed Lisa’s photograph from his desk she tentatively knocked on his office door and asked if he could answer a few questions about medicine for a school paper her little sister was doing. That had been a fabrication, of course, but he had taken the time to answer her questions, which led to him asking about her family, which led to him asking about her.…Suzanne did her best to be sparkling and enchanting. She recognized that Brad was lonely and uncertain from the breakup of his marriage, and she wanted to be the one who brought laughs and fun back into his life. It seemed only natural for Brad to ask her to join him for dinner, and from that point on neither of them ever looked back.

      The only sticky point in their marriage was when, as they prepared to move into their dream house in Jacksonville, they learned that the house under construction next door was being built by none other than Lisa and her second husband, Darrell Canfield. Sometimes Suzanne still couldn’t believe that such a crazy thing had happened. Brad decided he wanted to live closer to Jacksonville rather than the remote area where they formerly resided on the outskirts of St. Augustine, well south of the city. He purchased a newly constructed home on a riverfront cul-de-sac from a colleague whose marriage had broken up. He and Suzanne didn’t learn that the house under construction next door belonged to Lisa and Darrell until after they closed, when the entire Canfield family pulled up to inspect the progress of the construction. The already existing tension between Suzanne and Lisa had only gotten worse once they became neighbors. In the five years since, they’d managed to make the best of it. Suzanne treated Lisa politely to make Brad happy, and she suspected that Lisa tolerated her at Darrell’s insistence.

      “Well, that was a lucky break,” Micheline said now. “I’m sure you were only too glad to offer comfort and a shoulder to cry on to the boss during his time of trouble. And look what ended up happening,” she concluded brightly.

      It was all Suzanne could do not to pick up the deviled eggs from the tray Micheline had removed from the refrigerator and hurl them at her. Micheline had her figured like a carefully executed chess move. Instinct told Suzanne that Micheline knew all about how she’d schemed to land Brad and was making fun of her.

      Suzanne managed to control her temper and get to her point. “Well, it all happened a long time ago. We’ve been married sixteen years,” she said, her voice steady with pride.

      “Sixteen years! My, my. How old are your children, Suzanne?”

      “Our son is fifteen and our daughter is thirteen.”

      “Wow. They’re almost grown up. When you said you were a stay-at-home mom, I imagined your kids were much younger. It’s been what, eight or ten years since they started school?”

      Once more Suzanne’s hackles were raised. Micheline was getting bolder. She’d practically come out and called her a lazybones for staying home while her children were teenagers. Suzanne straightened her spine, her shoulders back and chest out. If it’s war she wants, it’s war she’ll get. “It’s true they’re older,” she said pleasantly, “but there’s still plenty to do. My son plays basketball, and my daughter and I go to most of his games in the afternoons. And I like to be there to watch my daughter run track. Besides, with me being home and then knowing I’ll be home after they get out of school, there’s no hanky-panky with friends of the opposite sex. Teenagers can get into all kinds of trouble when they’re not supervised.” She smiled and smugly said, “But of course, you have to be a mother to understand that.”

      “Yes, I suppose so.” Micheline clapped her palms against her hips after setting down more dishes from the refrigerator.

      “That’s everything. Can you help me carry these to the table, Suzanne?”

      “Sure. That’s why I’m here.” She sounded as cheerful as she felt.

      She’d just put her hostess in her place.

      Chapter 2

      “Nice couple, huh?” Brad remarked as he climbed behind the wheel of the Cadillac SRX he’d downsized to after turning in his massive, gas-guzzling Escalade.

      “Charming.” Suzanne had to fight to keep the sarcasm she felt out of her voice. All the bad vibes she had initially detected from Micheline Trent came back during their encounter in the kitchen, and this time they were there to stay. No one in attendance was as happy as Suzanne when the game ended and they could leave. As uncomfortable as she felt around Brad’s first wife, Lisa Canfield, Suzanne would have preferred to have spent the evening with her and Darrell than СКАЧАТЬ