All the Wrong Places by Joy Fielding

Author:Joy Fielding
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2019-03-12T04:00:00+00:00

* * *

—

“So, then, Shiloh says, ‘Stop singing, Lance. You’re distracting me from my sleep!’ ” Brianne Palmer brought both hands to her chest in a gesture that combined both shock and delight. “Can you imagine? She’s only three! What three-year-old uses words like ‘distracting’?”

“Unbelievable,” Nicole Barry said, dropping her fork to what little remained of her chocolate lava cake dessert. “She’s so smart.” Nicole pushed herself away from the table, patting her eight-months-pregnant belly.

“Shiloh is definitely gifted,” Kaitlin Seymour agreed. “I’ve always said that. You could tell from the minute she was born—eyes wide open—that she was special.”

“Girls definitely develop faster than boys,” Brianne said. “I mean, Lance is a great kid, but he’s no Einstein.”

“Oh, but little boys are so cute,” Nicole said, her hand tracing wide circles on her stomach.

Kaitlin smiled at Heather across the long table for eight. “We should stop. All this talk about children is probably boring poor Heather to tears.”

“Yes,” Heather agreed, looking up from the tiny mirror secreted in the palm of her hand in time to see the other woman’s smile freeze on her face.

“Oh,” said Kaitlin.

“Did she just say we’re boring her?” Nicole asked Brianne.

“What?” said Heather, quickly returning the mirror to her purse. “I’m sorry. I must have misunderstood.”

“I was just saying that all this talk about children must be boring you to tears.”

“Oh,” Heather said. “Oh, no. Not at all. I’m sorry. I thought you said…It doesn’t matter,” she said, when she couldn’t think of anything. The truth was that she’d tuned the other women out somewhere between the salad and the entrees, numbed by the unrelenting onslaught of adorable anecdotes regarding their respective offspring. What was the matter with these women? Did they have nothing else to talk about?

She’d perked up momentarily when the name Tiffany was mentioned because she thought they were referring to the famed jewelry store, but it turned out they were talking about some girl whose body had turned up in a landfill recently, and mulling over the prospect of a serial killer in their midst.

“Please,” one of the women—she couldn’t remember which one—had interjected. “My mother says that if you’ve raised teenage daughters, serial killers are a walk in the park!”

They’d all laughed, and the conversation had quickly segued back to their children.

So boring.

Not that their husbands, who’d grouped around the other end of the table after ordering dessert, were any better, their conversation a mind-numbing combination of work, wine, and sports. She’d tried to feign interest in what they were saying, but they’d lost her somewhere between tort law and Tom Brady, although she’d perked up momentarily when the handsome quarterback’s name was mentioned.

In the end, she’d allowed her mind to drift, first imagining what the cute waiter pouring drinks at a nearby table would be like in bed, then on to her encounter with Chloe, which led to thoughts of Chloe’s husband, Matt, and what he had been like in bed—which, truth to tell, hadn’t been all that great. Not that they’d actually made it to the bed.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.