Sand Castles by Antoinette Stockenberg

Author:Antoinette Stockenberg [Stockenberg, Antoinette]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Contemporary
ISBN: 9780312998929
Google: yM7zoOKz1I8C
Amazon: 0312998929
Barnesnoble: 0312998929
Goodreads: 2018350
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2002-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

Her first sensation was of his leg lying over hers, pinning her with sticky warmth. Wendy opened one eye. The sun was high, pouring through the big bay window. But it was June; the morning had barely begun.

She listened to Jim's rhythmic, satisfied snore. He'd been wildly pleased that they had made love not only on the previous afternoon, but again in the middle of the night besides. He'd wanted proof that she believed him, and she had offered it. She could still hear his muffled groan of release in her ear and his breathless—and unsettling—murmur afterward:

I've missed this so much. You haven't been very interested ... not since the addition began. I know, I know: we were surrounded. But still. I've missed this. I've missed you.

His gentle reproach had wounded her when he said it, and she had fallen asleep feeling misunderstood. But in the back of her mind, where unformed thoughts eddy and whirl, a new and uneasy realization was beginning to take shape that her husband was right: her drift away from desire had begun around the time that the crew had shown up.

But not just any of the crew.

Troubled by the thought and urged on by another one, Wendy slid her leg out from beneath Jim's and eased her upper body out from under his embrace. She remained silent at his half-asleep query about the time and was relieved when he rolled over, away from the sun, and burrowed into his pillow.

Without stopping to make herself coffee, she crept down the hall into the birch-paneled study and turned on the computer that Jim had set up there. With nervous glances over her shoulder, she clicked her way into the pages of an online phone directory and in less than minute found information that left her feeling both exhilarated and somber: a Zina T. Hayward was listed in Hopeville, Massachusetts, a stone's throw from Worcester.

The question for Wendy was, did the name really belong to the fair-haired woman who had crashed the birthday party, or had she stolen it from some unsuspecting nurse or teacher or little old lady in Hopeville?

Wendy was determined to find out She showered and dressed and ate, and by the time that Jim, sleepy-eyed and smiling, ambled over to the coffeemaker, she was ready to move.

"You're up bright and early," he said, kissing the top of her hair before sliding the sports section out of the Pro Jo that lay in front of her on the granite island. "Where you off to?"

She answered lightly, "Where else? Home Depot. And then from there to that big kitchen and bath place off 95. You did say that you'd be home all day, didn't you? Because it's easier if I don't take Ty."

"Shopping? He'd never forgive me if you did. Sure, I'll be around. Until three or so, anyway."

She had no idea where he planned to go, and she didn't ask. "Can you rustle up breakfast for the two of you?"

"Yup," he said, folding his arms over the lower half of the sports section as he scanned the headlines.

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