Two Nights to Forever by Rebecca Crowley

Author:Rebecca Crowley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Romance
ISBN: 9781956387544
Publisher: Tule Publishing Group, LLC
Published: 2021-12-14T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

“Anywhere here’s fine. Thanks a lot.” Saul waited while the rideshare driver stopped at the curb on one of Orchard Hill’s better streets, then got out and looked up at the hundred-year-old house his friends had recently bought.

After moving from a high-pressure law firm to a more laidback job as in-house counsel, Josh was eager to spend time renovating, but his wife—a sought-after ob-gyn—advocated hard for a property that required minimal work. In the end they’d settled on a house with updated infrastructure—it had a new roof, upgraded electrics, and a few structural repairs—that still needed a lot of cosmetic improvement.

A good marital compromise. The kind he’d like to make someday.

He took an unsteady step backward as if he’d been struck. Where had that rogue idea come from? He’d never fantasized about matrimony, especially once he was old enough to understand the way his parents’ marriage, while committed and indisputably happy, hinged on imbalance—an imbalance he had no desire nor capacity to replicate.

His father loved being the provider, the indulgent husband, and the larger-than-life businessman. He encouraged his wife and children never to worry, and they didn’t. He bore all the family’s burdens and shouldered limitless professional responsibility. Saul would never live up to that—hell, he hadn’t even managed to keep the family business in the family’s hands. And with the leadership assessments almost certainly about to expose Noam’s incompetence in cruel black and white, he’d have the added achievement of turfing the final Keller out of Keller and Sons.

“Stellar performance,” he muttered to himself.

Saul glanced back at the house. Josh and his wife, Hanh—then still his fiancée—had been at his dad’s funeral. A whole group of his high-school friends attended, some traveling from as far as Chicago and Nashville. He remembered peering through his grief, registering their presence with amazement. He’d never been popular in school—on the contrary, he’d spent years being bullied for everything from his good grades to his haircut—but over time he’d built a stalwart, like-minded, loyal crew.

Then he’d left for college and all but abandoned them.

A car slowed as it approached the house and he straightened, exhaling to dispel the past. Tonight wasn’t about his parents’ marriage, or his father’s choices, or his personal failures. He’d brought Eve here, and she—and everyone else—deserved his full attention.

The car door opened and Eve stepped out, a breathing embodiment of his adolescent fantasies in a figure-hugging blue dress, a big bouquet of flowers in the crook of her arm.

“You’re beautiful,” he found himself saying too late to stop or even temper the words into something less breathy and awestruck.

“Thanks,” Eve replied brightly. “You look…actually casual. I’m impressed.”

“These are practically pajamas.” He glanced down at his polo shirt and tan trousers with a distasteful sneer. “But if I wore anything better, I’d never hear the end of it from this crowd.”

“I think you look very nice. Now, remind me of the guest lineup tonight. Our hosts are Josh and…”

“His wife, Hanh,” Saul supplied. “I know Josh from high school; Hanh moved here for residency.

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