Her smile is wide and also fake. “No problem.” She looks at my friends flanking me and tries to peer around them. “Is Lincoln not here?”
Swallowing hard, I open the door all the way and invite her in. “He’s actually away right now and Turner is asleep, so we need to keep our voices down.”
“Oh, of course. I’m sorry,” she whispers. “I saw the moving truck and wanted to come over and meet the woman who managed to tame the beast.”
Awkward. Is this what all suburbs are like? Lincoln told me they were in his business and annoying, but this is next level.
“Here I am,” I exclaim, holding my arms out. I’m wearing a tracksuit without makeup and my hair is in a topknot. I am exceptionally casual and ratty looking. “Maeve Ahern. Nice to meet you,” I say, extending my hand. She shakes it, and I close the door with my free hand. “These are my friends Ramona and Aspen. Aspen also works with me.” Riley gives Aspen the cookies because she’s looking at them like a bird of prey. “Come in and have a drink if you’d like. We’re just having a girl’s night.” The clock in the kitchen reads nine p.m. and I realize how odd it is to have a neighbor stop by so late. “Were you out and about tonight?”
Riley notices my curious gaze. “Well, I drove by earlier and saw the cars in the drive, and then I baked and so I wanted to bring some cookies over. I’m divorced, so bored and lonely is my M.O. on the weekends when my ex has the kids, unfortunately.”
Now I feel guilty and sorry for the poor thing.
“Sometimes Lincoln and I would hang out on the weekends when he was around.”
Oof. There goes my friend sympathy out the window.
“I thought maybe he was having friends over tonight.”
Aspen makes a rude noise around a mouth full of cookie as Riley shrugs out of her jacket and hangs it on the back of a barstool. “Oh,” I exclaim. “So, you guys dated?” I need her to be clear as glass about this now that I know she’s a neighbor. “Or what?” I add on nonchalantly.
Riley is trying to get a read on me, and I’m throwing my best poker face. “Something like that, but he never wanted anything serious and our lives were a little too complicated. Kids and exes and stuff.”
“How long have you been divorced?” The roundabout way of asking this woman when she was with Lincoln. I offer her a glass of wine and she accepts. Ramona is listening like a hawk and gets a wine glass out for me, while acting like a casual bystander not in my business.
“Oh, it’s been almost four years now. He lives in the neighborhood with his new wife. The kids shift back and forth during the week and we trade off weekends.”
Ouch. A little sympathy floats back.
“Lincoln is a great man. A devoted dad. Just hung up on his ex.”
I can’t even escape Rena when I try.
“Was always hung up on her. That whole celibate thing for her.” Riley’s eyes flare wide. “Not that it means anything now. It seems he’s moved right on with you.”
An acrid taste fills my mouth as I hold my breath and watch her take a sip of her wine, and then another. She said it so casually she must not think anything of it. “What do you mean celibate for her?” I ask, keeping the shake from my tone. Aspen and Ramona make themselves scarce, wandering into the living room under the guise of changing the song playing low in the surround sound. I’m not sure why her response matters as we’ve had sex, a lot of sex, in fact. Because it’s Rena, my blood sister, and the man I love, the intrigue will never die.
“He must have told you, right?” Riley asks, running a hand through her bleached blonde hair.
“Humor me. He’s told me a lot of things about his ex. I’m wondering what he told you.” I’m aware he could have lied to her to make his weird celibate pact seem less odd, but what if he lied to me, too?
“He promised her he wouldn’t move on. That he’d always wait for her and that he wouldn’t have sex with another woman. He told me he dated a few times but that he was completely celibate. He was holding out hope his ex would come back around.” She tosses her hair. “That woman must be completely insane. How could she leave her son and that man?” Riley seems to realize how she’s speaking is inappropriate because she apologizes, waving her hands. “Like I said, it doesn’t seem to matter because you have a big shiny diamond on your hand and you’re sleeping in bed with him.”
She’s right, and a stronger woman would hold tight to her last sentence as inappropriate as it may be, but I can’t stop thinking about all the dumb promises he made Rena. It seems he never kept a single one. At least not that I know of. Either because of her addiction or because it was something he shouldn’t have promised to begin with. “Well, she’s not in her right mind,” I admit. “That’s really the only way someone would leave them.” As I listen to Riley gossip about another divorced man in their neighborhood, I’m comforted by the fact Lincoln probably told her that because he didn’t want to sleep with her, not because he was hung up on Rena.
I entertain her stories for a little while. Chonk stumbles down the hallway into the kitchen which makes Riley jump. “Oh my gosh, he’s way bigger up close!”
“He’s friendly,” I say on autopilot. Everyone remarks on his size, and that’s what I follow up with. “Just a big ol’ hungry puppy.” I have a treat jar on the counter and I pull out a small bone and give it to him. He eats the damn thing whole. “You tired, buddy? Need to go outside?” He wags his tail and meanders toward the slider. I open it up so he can head out.
My phone chimes from the pocket of my sweatshirt. It’s a text from Lincoln.Is Riley still over there? I saw her go in on the cameras, but not leave. Is everything okay?
Depends on what you mean by okay. Is she still here drinking wine, telling me how you wouldn’t have sex with her, then that’s an affirmative. If you mean am I okay, hearing her tell me you didn’t have sex with her because you made a promise to Rena, then that’s negative.
Gray bubbles pop up as he types back, but then disappear. My phone rings a second later. I excuse myself and answer in our bedroom. “You’re going to tell me how she’s talking crazy, let me guess.” I’m laughing, but it’s forced.
“Maeve, God, I miss you. No, I’m not going to tell you she’s talking crazy, I’m going to tell you she is crazy which is why I told her what I did. There’s a group of about four women in the neighborhood who were pursuing me at the same time just for fun. It got a little weird, so I told them the same story. You might hear that again, being that you live there now. I should have told you before. I’m sorry. She’s just lonely, mildly sketchy, and I’ll be frank, horny.”
“Oh, that’s just wrong!” I reply, covering my mouth. I say lower, “Lincoln, you really did blow the promise boat on Rena, didn’t you? Even if you made up the story to appease hungry divorcees, it could have been true. Right?”