“That sounds wonderful. Can’t wait!”
Carter, who doesn’t seem to know where to look or what to say, fills my glass from the kitchen tap. He must be wondering what I’m doing here and worrying about his lovely wife finding out he’s been cheating on her. Why must men be so predictable and disappointing, even the good ones? I hear a baby crying somewhere and the sound makes me shiver. I look around, as though the child might be here in the kitchen, but then I see Jane checking what looks like a baby monitor. I guess they make them high tech these days, there is a video feed and everything.
“Excuse me for a moment, Steren doesn’t normally fuss once she’s been put down. I’m just going to double-check everything is okay, back in a minute,” Jane says before leaving the kitchen and scurrying up the stairs. The room is thick with silence as soon as she is gone. It isn’t just uncomfortable, it’s excruciating.
“Please don’t tell her,” Carter whispers as soon as she is out of earshot.
“Which part would you rather I didn’t tell your wife? That you had sex with your new boss, or that you lost your job today?”
“I thought I was just suspended?” I shake my head in disbelief. “I’ll do anything you want if you don’t tell her. Anything. I’ll… walk your dog, clean your scooter, I’ll buy you lunch every day, I’ll do all the station paperwork for a year. Two years. How does that sound?”
“It sounds like you should go fuck yourself.”
He looks like he might cry.
“I’mbeggingyou,” he whispers.
“Well, I’d rather you didn’t. There’s no need to start shittingkittens, I’m not here to tell your wife anything. But I will say you’re an idiot for cheating on her. People would kill for what you have here. A real family.”
“What happened was a mistake, it didn’t mean anything—”
“Must you lower the bar every time you open your mouth?”
“I mean her, not you. She was a mistake,” he says.
“Has a lifetime of sea air rotted your brain or something?”
“I got married in a hurry. I wasn’t in love. We were drunk, we had sex—”
“And you thought your personality was sufficient birth control?”
I have no interest in his sob story. Carter’s sister already filled me in on how a drunken nightminusthe sense he was born withplusa one-night standplusa pregnancyequaleda shotgun wedding.
“I was trying to do the right thing,” he says, looking very sorry for himself.
“For who?” I ask.
“My little girl. She’s the best thing that ever happened to me and I’d do anything for her. So just tell me what I need to do to make this right.”
There is something very likable about a man who cares more about his children than he does about himself.
“I met your daughter when I met your wife earlier. Steren is beautiful,” I tell him and his face transforms with pride.
“Thank you.”
“She has a very pretty name. Is it Cornish?”
He nods. “It means star, and she means the world to me. Tell me how to fix this. I can’t lose my job, we need the money—”
“Calm down. You’re not really suspended. I just said that to satisfy Harrison. He was so angry because of you I thought he might have a heart attack. One dead body on my first day is unfortunate, two would just be careless.”
“So I’mnotsuspended?”
“Not yet. Tell me what happened when you interviewed Harrison’s daughter. Was it a waste of time like I predicted?”
“Actually no.” He reaches inside his pocket then puts a silver key chain on the kitchen table. It sayslove you to the moon and backand seems deeply inappropriate given his wife is upstairs. I frown, he flips it over, and now I read the name:Eden. He stares at me with a ta-da expression on his face.
“Am I missing something?” I ask.
