I owned a lot of turquoise and silver Native American jewelry—mostly Zuni. And I loved coral too. I had been collecting pearls for years and owned yards of them in every size and hue—white, pink, champagne, and gray. I had my eye on a pair of South Sea deep-charcoal-colored pearl earrings with little diamonds around them. Adam knew it.
“Maybe for a significant birthday,” he had said.
I had brought some great outfits with me to the Isle of Palms, but none of them were clothes to leave my husband’s old girlfriend in a state of wonder.
While applying my makeup, I could hear Adam and the boys rummaging around downstairs. They’d want a cold drink. I heard the refrigerator door open and close several times. I was right. I hurried to the stairwell and called to them.
“Did you kids shower off outside?”
“Yes, ma’am!” they called back.
“I made sure they did, and they’re sort of dry,” Adam called to me.
“Boys! Don’t sit on the sofa in a wet swimsuit!” They’d ruin the night before it got started. “Get up here! We have company coming!”
I went back to my bathroom, but when the twins failed to appear, I quickly went to the stairwell and called to them once more. I intended to get them moving before they picked through the cocktail food and got sand everywhere, wreaking mayhem on my carefully orchestrated party scene, such as it could be staged in a bare-bones rental house.
“Max? Luke? Y’all come when I call you, you hear me?”
“Coming!”
The boys ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time. I had to back up against the wall so they wouldn’t plow into me. I looked at them and my heart melted a little. They were shirtless again, and the freckles that were scattered across their noses and cheeks were becoming more pronounced with each passing day. And they had peanut butter and grape jelly around their mouths. I thought then that the good Lord didn’t make little boys any more adorable than mine.
“You know, you are going to have supper,” I said.
“We were starving,” Luke said.
I just shook my head. Boys are simply eating machines.
“Okay, I want y’all to get out of your swimsuits right now, put on your pajamas, and brush your teeth. We have company coming in less than an hour. I’ll let you skip your baths tonight.”
“We swam off all the salt in the pool anyway,” Max said.
“That’s not the same thing as a warm bath with soap,” I said.
“Yay! No bath!” Luke said.
“Can we stay up late? Please? Please?” Max said.
“If you behave yourselves. Got it? Okay, I’ll fix your toothbrushes for you. Let’s get going!”
I put a squirt of toothpaste on their toothbrushes, hurried down the stairs to preheat the oven, and rushed back up the stairs, checking on the boys’ progress. For once, they were doing as I asked them to do.
“Good boys!” I said. “Brush every single tooth and rinse good, you hear me?”
I went back to the bathroom once again and finished applying my makeup as well as I could without a magnifying mirror. I stood back and looked at myself.
Not bad, I thought.
I was about to meet my husband’s former paramour. I wished then that I was entertaining this awful woman in my own home, surrounded by our belongings, instead of in this rental condo that came fully furnished with utilitarian, clunky things we wouldn’t have even considered owning. I felt if Eve could see all the photographs of me with Adam and our sons she’d back off—that is, if she had any intentions that were not honorable.
“I must be out of my mind to let this woman in here,” I said to the thin air.
Ten minutes later, promptly at six, the doorbell rang. Adam and the boys answered it as I looked across the long dining room–living room. There came Eve in the palest blue linen shirt and white pants with white sandals, gliding into our lives like a swan. Her blond hair was blown out straight and hung below her shoulders. She looked angelic. I hated her on sight. But behind her was the most handsome man I had ever seen in my entire life, if you liked his type. He was tanned and fit. Obviously athletic.
A Norse god! I thought.
I liked his type.
I was paralyzed, totally unable to put down the sheet tray of pigs in blankets to leave the kitchen and greet my guests. Maybe I wouldn’t hate the evening as much as I thought.
Move! I told myself. Close your mouth! Your jaw is hanging open!
Finally, I cleared my throat, tightened my abdominals, and moved out into the living room to say hello. And I managed to put the tray down on the coffee table.
We were all struggling with our abs today, weren’t we? Except these two, I thought.
“These are our boys, Luke and Max,” Adam said.
“She doesn’t look like a stick,” Max said.
Adam covered Max’s mouth with his own hand and said, “Max is the family comedian.”
“That’s okay,” Eve said. “I’m still too skinny. Still can’t gain weight!”
Oh please, I thought, go kill yourself.
“Make yourself scarce,” Adam said to Max and Luke.
“Okay!” they said and took off for upstairs with Rufus. “Come on, boy!”
“And this is my wife, Eliza,” Adam said, smiling as widely as a largemouth bass.
“Hey! How’re y’all doing?” I said, trying to relax.
“Let’s get you a glass of something?” Adam said and moved toward the bar I had set up on the dining table. Eve was right at Adam’s side. “What’ll it be? White wine? Scotch? Vodka? A beer?”
I looked at Eve’s husband, who finally made eye contact with me, and when he did I was sure I was naked. Or at least half dressed.
“Hi, I’m Carl,” he said. He took my hand into his and held it as he appraised me with his sparkling green eyes.
He had the thickest eyelashes I had ever seen on a man, blond fringe awnings, actually. And he was still holding my hand.
“I’m Eliza,” I said and was suddenly overcome with hot flashes and giggles.
He grinned at me and said, “Eve said she saw you this afternoon, but she didn’t tell me you were gorgeous.”
“Okay. That’s it! I’m gonna die right now!” I said, feeling like I had just fallen into one of those dreams where the impossible was happening, like flying. And I thought my laughing would never stop. I didn’t even care if he thought I was completely crazy.
“Are you all right?” he said.
“Um, yeah, really, I’m sorry. I should’ve known. That’s all.”
“What? You should’ve known what?” He was smiling and politely waiting to be let in on the joke, whatever it was.
I was not about to say what I was thinking.
“Listen, Carl. I’m sorry, but no one has ever called me gorgeous.”
“Really?”
“Yep. Really. It’s okay. I was just surprised.”
“Well, you are.”
“Well, thanks. You’re not exactly Uncle Fester yourself.”
He shook his head in agreement. After all, he knew what he looked like. “Uncle Fester. Remember that guy?”
“Yes. Um, okay, how about an adult beverage? A California agricultural product?”
“And you’re funny too. Well, I’m sure glad we met. It’s going to make this vacation so much easier to take!”
chapter 3
eliza’s new friends
The notion that Carl and Eve were just stopping by for a glass of wine and that then they would be on their way was not what Fate had in mind. Once we all started talking, it was clear they were there for the duration of the evening.
We sent the boys off to their rooms again and again, telling them they could watch television for an hour. Between pigs in blankets, PB&J sandwiches, and snitching the adults’ hors d’oeuvres, their seemingly bottomless stomachs were finally full. There was no need to fire up the grill for burgers.
“At eight thirty I’m coming up to turn out the lights!?
?? I said. “Give your dad a kiss.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
They gave us a peck on our cheeks and ran up the stairs, thrilled at the idea of watching an hour of unsupervised television.
“Are your boys always so well behaved?” Eve said.
I said, “No. They most certainly are not. But overall, when they’re not sassy, they’re really great.”
“My Daphne is a sneaky little hellion,” Eve said.
“That’s because you give her everything she wants,” Carl said.
“Oh, you! I do not!” Eve said and gave him a little pinch on the arm.
“She spoils her rotten,” Carl said.
“Where is your daughter?” I asked. “I was looking forward to meeting her.”
“She’s at our condo with our au pair. My sweet mother, who usually travels with us to watch her, sprained her ankle on a cobblestone street. She’s at home on crutches,” Eve said. “Hey! Here’s an idea. We can throw the kids in the pool together tomorrow, if you’d like.”
“Wonderful!” I said, finally but only slightly warming up to Eve. “I’m sure the boys would love a new friend. And I hope your mom’s okay.”
“My mother-in-law’s a good egg,” Carl said. “She always babysits for us when we need her.”
“Where do you live?” Adam said.
“Raleigh,” Eve said. “Anyway, Carl’s right. My mother is a bona fide saint.”
Adam lifted an eyebrow, and I knew he disagreed for some reason. He said, “Well, we always say it’s too bad kids don’t come with a manual on how to raise them.”
“Listen, earlier today our little devils nearly drowned a couple of dogs with their water guns. Nice, right?” I said.
“I feel better,” Eve said.
As the evening rolled along a camaraderie was forming. Before we finished the first bottle of wine, which after all is only five glasses, everyone was feeling more comfortable with each other, except me. Something about Eve irked me. But I remained congenial. A second bottle of wine was opened.
“So, y’all live out on 17?” Eve said.
“Yes. We do,” I said with an unintentional bit of emphasis on the we.
“What do you do out there? I mean, it’s like—”
“A wasteland? Yeah, it’s half an hour to anywhere. But Adam always wanted a river house, and he found this property that was an old farm on the Stono River. Then he built our home and a dock, which is really terrific for him and the boys.” I didn’t say it was my dream home, nor did I brag about how Adam had insisted on my having my dream kitchen. Or that we hand-selected each stone for the fireplace together or that the mantelpiece was hand-hewed and carved by my father’s father. Our house was the perfect expression of our love for each other in so many ways.
“But what about for you? Do you even like living in the country? I’d lose my mind!”
Then it’s a good thing Adam didn’t marry you, I thought.
“It’s not the worst thing. I handle all the accounting for his business, so I get to work from home. And then I can see about the boys too. Would you like one of these?”
Eve had unearthed a secret I harbored and worked hard to hide. But I wasn’t quite ready to abandon caution and bare my soul to her. It was true. Sometimes when I was there alone at night with just the boys, I’d hear a noise and it would frighten me to death. I definitely had moments of feeling vulnerable. In fact, I really didn’t like being alone. It was so dark at night that if I went outside I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. Adam proposed having a gun in the house, but I was terrified of them. To my mind too many terrible accidents had happened with guns.
I offered Eve one of the sausage-in-puff-pastry nibbles and her eyes grew large as she took a bite.
“This is delicious!” Eve held her cupped hand under her chin to ensure that flakes of puff pastry wouldn’t fall to the floor. “Honey? Try one of these!”
I turned and offered the platter to Adam and Carl. Each man promptly took one, dipped it in the mustard, and popped it into his mouth. Then they moaned in unison.
“Ma’am?” Carl said. “Please stand right here until that platter is empty.” Then he picked up another one and ate it, grinning like a teenage boy. “Outstanding.”
Not to be outdone, Adam had two. And then I broke out the marinated shrimp, which brought about more wide eyes and moans of simple pleasure.
“Eliza? Please tell me how to make this! The shrimp are so fresh and light. I love them!” Eve said.
“I’d be happy to give you the recipe, although it’s just something I made up,” I said. “I think it’s the cilantro and lime zest that make it sing.”
“Eliza is the best cook in the world,” Adam said and gave me a kiss on the cheek.
“Wow,” Eve said. “I can hardly boil water. Now, tell me more about living outside of the city. Isn’t it lonely?”
Eve had done it again. Of course, it was lonely. And it was damned inconvenient. It took thirty minutes to get to the worst grocery store and almost an hour to get to the better ones. And with traffic? It was a huge pain to get anywhere. But I wasn’t going to let the conversation go there.
So, ever the trouper, I began telling them about the good things about living in the country.
“It has some drawbacks, but it has lots of benefits too. The very first thing you notice is the clean air,” I said. “And I love watching the water. But I think what I enjoy most is the quality of life it gives our boys and my garden.”
“Really?” Carl said. “Somehow I can’t see you getting dirty.”
“You should see her garden,” Adam said. “Vegetables on steroids. No lie.”
“It’s because of the compost,” I said, thinking, these birds have no idea how to make compost or why anyone would.
“Ew! Compost? Nasty. What do you grow?” Eve asked.
Maybe this sounds a tad superior, but now I really didn’t like Eve so much.
“Oh, you know, the usual stuff. A row of beefsteaks and other kinds of tomatoes, a row of Silver Queen and bicolor corn, collards and romaine have a row. Then sometimes I put in asparagus and cantaloupe, cucumbers, bell peppers, and then jalapeños and herbs. And I grow zinnias too. There’s just something about them I love, with their sticky stems and weird medicinal smell. This year the boys planted sunflowers. They’ll probably be taller than them by the time they go back to school!”
Eve was rapt but obviously having trouble envisioning the joy of gardening.
“How big is it?” Eve asked. “It sounds like a small farm and an awful lot of work!”
“Not that large, really. And it’s especially fun for the boys. They help me pull weeds. In the fall, we grow pumpkins.”
“What do you wear when you tend your garden?” Carl said.
I looked at Carl to see if he was serious. I almost said, black lace panties. Propriety aside, I could be outrageous with the best of them. But I didn’t know them well enough to be bawdy.
“Well, sunscreen, for sure, and a big hat.”
I laughed over my naughty thought and Carl seemed to have heard it in the ether. I caught his eye and he wiggled his eyebrows at me. Eve saw him wiggling his eyebrows at me, got the joke, and gave him another pinch.
Sometimes even poker players could have their lewd thoughts discovered, I thought. The poor man’s inner arms must be black and blue all the time.
Adam, unaware of any sort of flirtation going on in the room, kept going on about the things I grew and the animals we kept. “You should see the chickens and the goats!”
“Good heavens!” Eve said, honestly shocked over the idea of voluntary ownership of goats and chickens. “Why on earth would anyone—”
“Want goats and chickens? Eggs and weed killers. We have peacocks too,” I said. “A peahen and a peacock just appeared one day and took up residence. Now we have six!”
“Good grief!” Eve said and laughed. She looked at me like I had teleported straight from the set of Little House on the Prair
ie.
“Watch where you’re walking!” Carl said.
“Exactly!” Adam said.
It should be noted that, while Adam was as gregarious and hospitable as I had ever seen him be, he was stealing a multitude of glances at Eve, thinking he was unnoticed.
I said, “Well, when I was a little girl my grandparents had a farm in upstate New York. Columbia County. I spent my summers there and loved it. And I guess in some perverse way I still think it’s fun. The kids sure do.”
“Yes. It was really fun the time the boys let the goats in the house and they ate the sofa cushions,” Adam said. “You can’t believe how much stuffing is in a sofa.”
“I turned my back for one minute,” I said.
Everyone laughed.
“Where did you grow up?” Carl asked.
“Winchester, Massachusetts. A suburb of Boston.”
“I went to school in Boston,” Carl said. “How did you two meet?”
Adam looked at the ceiling. I could read his mind. Were they about to get a lecture on the history of Harvard and how Carl was the smartest guy who ever went there?
“Business school. Adam and I went to Carolina. He borrowed my statistics notes and the rest is history.”
“I still hate statistics,” Adam said.
“Love it,” Eve said.
Eve was smiling and complimentary and seemed to be no threat at all, I thought. I mean, now that they had seen each other again, would Eve do something insane like leave Carl for Adam? Probably not. There was something a bit snooty about her, as there was about Carl. No. Adam and Eve would not have been a great match.
“So! We’ve got a couple of MBAs, down by the riverside, living the organic dream,” Carl said. “Not too bad. Not too bad at all.”
“How about y’all?” Adam said. “How did you find each other in this cold cruel world?”
Eve drained her glass of wine and refilled it herself.
“Friends set us up,” Eve said. “I was visiting an old roommate in Raleigh and we went to a party. There was Carl standing by the bar. We were introduced and the first thing he said to me was Don’t you think we’d make beautiful children?”