“Thankyou.” Only it doesn’t come out sounding appreciative. It sounds like what she’s really saying is‘that’s the least you can do.’Already, she’s gathering her things and grabbing a jumbo-sized key chain that probably weighs more than her head.
“Sure,” I say. “Enjoy your night.”
She looks over her shoulder as Paige bursts into song from her way-too-loud karaoke mic upstairs. The song isSince You’ve Been Gone,and seven-year-old Paige sounds every bit as pissed off as Kelly Clarkson herself.
“You too,” Molly says and rushes out.
CHAPTER5
October
Kirsten
I glide myNeatly Nudelipstick over my bottom lip, trace up and along my cupid’s bow, then rub my lips together as I step back to eye the results in the mirror.
“Please tell me I won’t still be doing this for my own husband one day,” my sister Maggie says from the edge of the tub. “It’s hard enough to find a good one in the first place.”
I roll my eyes. “I’m not doing anythingthatspecial.”
She gives me that I-call-BS look through the mirror. “Oh,please.You’re dressed in pleated slacks, high heels, and Gucci earrings that look heavy enough to rip your earlobes. And with the hair and the smoky eyes and the nude lips…are you trying to be a Kardashian? Because that’s what it looks like.” She waves a hand toward me. “This is not how you typically dress. Do you think he doesn’t like you the way you are?”
I pace my exhaled breath through pursed lips as an image of Trish sears my brain. “You’re a lot younger than me, okay, Mags? You have no idea what it’s like to be married to a man for over fifteen years. He stops looking at you. Stops thinking of you. Stops talking to you like you’re someone he’s interested in. You’re just…partnersin parenting.”
Maggie’s shoulders slump. “That’s depressing.”
“It’s partly my fault too.” I sigh and lock eyes with her in the mirror once more. As she holds my gaze, emotion grips hold of me. I look away as my eyes well with tears. I don’t want her to see how I’m hurting. Heck, I didn’t realize I was hurting this bad until I tried to reverse the downward direction my and Greg’s marriage took somewhere along the way.
Maggie hurries over to me and rests a hand on my back.
“He’s just been gone so often,” I say, “and when heishome, I keep thinking things will be different. That I’m going to make them different somehow.”
“It can’t be all one-sided, Kiers,” Maggie says.
I nod and sniff. “I know, but I’m alibrarian. I rarely do more than pull my hair into a ponytail and wear jeans and a T-shirt each day. Maybe if he sees me wearing something out of the ordinary like this, he’ll…”
“He’ll what?”
Be more attracted to me because I’ll look like Trish, and she’s the type of woman every man secretly dreams of.I shrug. “Start making efforts of his own.”
“If you say so.” She wraps her arms around me and kisses my cheek. “You look incredible. Greg’s lucky to have you. He marriedup, you know?” She strides out of the bathroom but hollers over her shoulder.“And I meanwayup.”
I laugh. My friends said the same thing when we first got married. Greg was so serious-minded, which put him on the nerdy side in the social scene. “Bye, sis! Oh, have fun on your date tonight. What did you say he is? A plumber or something?”
“An electrician,” Maggie answers. “But he sent me the cheesiest pun about our date, so I’m already second-guessing it.”
I lean my head over the railing. “What was the pun?”
“He said he hoped his height wouldn’tshockme and that I should count on plenty ofelectricitybetween us.” She rolls her eyes, and I can’t help but laugh.
“Okay, so thosearepretty lame. What did you text back?”
Maggie sneers. “See you in alattehours.”
“Ha, ha,” I say with a wave. “Love you! Let me know how it goes.”
“Will do,” Maggie says. “Love you too.”
I hear Jack come in from the patio.
