Page 56 of Better Off Wed
“Mm,” Etta replied, eyes sharp. “No husband today?”
“He’s at work, I’m afraid,” Lenore pouted, then turned in mine and Gideon’s direction.
Well. She turned in Gideon’s direction and entirely ignored me. “Gid,” she said, fluttering her lashes.
The jealousy that I’d successfully tamped down after our horrible wedding night suddenly came back with a vengeance. It rose up inside me like a dragon huffing smoke, infecting every corner of my heart.
It was petty and ridiculous and shameful, but I couldn’t help it. She was beautiful, and she knew him. Suddenly, I was sure they’d slept together. Was she the ex Mrs. Gretzinger had alluded to? Or some other conquest of his?
She walked over to where we stood.
“Lenore,” Gideon greeted, unable to keep the emotion from his voice. “You’re back.”
“I’m back,” she confirmed, smiling, and when Lenore tilted her head, he leaned down and pressed his lips to her cheek. She batted her lashes at him, her hand remaining on his arm. Gideon straightened, shoulders tense. Because of her? Because she’d come back to town after who knew how long? Or because I was beside him, watching their exchange?
I hated being jealous.Hatedit. But Henry had scraped away at my self-esteem so much that all I’d had left to cling to was poisonous jealousy. He’d paraded women in front of me just like this, and I hadn’t had the strength to leave him. Pathetic, grasping woman that I was, I endured the humiliation just because I couldn’t bear the thought of being alone.
And now I was doing it again.
Why hadn’t I left the day after the wedding? I’d let one measly matcha latte change my mind? What waswrongwith me? Why hadn’t I left in the weeks since? Surely a quaint small town and friendly brothers-in-law weren’t worththis. Carolinewas nice, but I could surely find one other human on this planet to be my friend.
“Lenore, this is Sadie,” Gideon said, finally remembering that I existed. He angled his body to include me in the interaction, and the other woman blinked as if she hadn’t even noticed my presence. He hadn’t said, “this is my wife, Sadie,” I noticed. Just my name.
“Oh,” Lenore said, tittering. “The new wife.” Her smile was perfectly pleasant, but her eyes shot daggers. “How is married life? It’s so nice to meet the woman who replaced me.” She laughed, flicking her hair.
Ah. So I was right. Not only had they slept together in the past, but they’d dated.
My chest was so tight I couldn’t speak, so I just smiled. I was sure I looked like a fool.
Gideon cleared his throat. “Lenore moved away a few years ago,” he said.
“I did,” she agreed. “But it’sso niceto be back in town.” She beamed at him, and Gideon frowned. His gaze had shifted across the room, to where his brother Knox loomed. Knox nodded, and Gideon looked at me. “I’ll be right back.”
“Uh-huh,” I answered, nodding like a brainless bobblehead. I watched him cut across the room, took a deep breath, and turned to see Lenore studying me.
Her smile had disappeared, and her eyes had narrowed. Even like this, she was beautiful. Gideon had downgraded when he married me. And he didn’t even know the worst of it, all the ways I was dysfunctional.
I inhaled sharply and straightened my spine. I wouldnotlet those poisonous thoughts take control of me.
“When I heard about Etta’s marriages, I wondered who would be matched with Gid,” Lenore said, tilting her head, the movement birdlike, her eyes beady and flat. “How fascinating.”
“You dated, I gather?”
“We were engaged.” She smiled, and her eyes remained dead and cold. “He broke it off after the fire. He told you about the fire?”
I shook my head. “Not yet.”
“Oh! That’s…interesting. Well, I’m sure he’ll open up to you at some point.” Condescension dripped from her tone with such thickness that it felt like she physically patted my head. She went on. “When he was recovering in the hospital, he told me he wouldn’t subject me to marriage to him. It hadn’t been what I signed up for, he said.” She sighed, adjusting a strand of hair against her cheek. “I couldn’t talk him out of it. Couldn’t make him change his mind.”
He’d loved her so much that he’d let her go. The constriction in my chest worsened.
“I see,” I said, bile rising in my throat. Did he still have feelings for her? Wasshewho he’d been with on our wedding night? “Excuse me.”
I knew—and she knew—she’d gotten to me, but I couldn’t find it in myself to care. I pushed through the crowd, stumbled around until I found a bathroom, and locked myself inside.
It only took a second for me to lose the fight with my tears. I cursed myself for being so weak, but I couldn’t help the tears from falling. Three weeks, I’d been married to the man, and all he’d done was play hot and cold. But had there been any hot? Or was he just the wonderful, reliable person that Wendy had described, and I’d misread everything?Maybe he’d never wanted me. Maybe everything was in my head.
Stop, I told myself. With a few deep breaths, I mastered my roiling thoughts, my fingers gripping the edge of the sink. I trembled as I reached into my clutch for my makeup and did my best to clean up the damage.
