Page 13 of Seven Year Itch

Thursday started off normal, in fact, the last two days had been practically blissful with no mysterious phone calls or annoying beeping texts. Which was why when Ali had collected the dry cleaning from the hamper in the closet she'd been thrown for such a loop. Though she shouldn't have been. It'd been her own fault. She'd let her defenses down.

Lifting out articles of clothing and shoving them into a travel bag, she felt something crinkle in the pocket of one of Garrett's slacks. The pair he'd worn the day he didn't have his phone so couldn't take notes on his planner. The day he'd had dinner with Mr. Johnson.

Worried it might be something important, she reached her hand in, pulling out a folded piece of paper. She unfolded it. A name, date, time, and place were written in her husband's scrawl.

All the reassurances her husband had imparted went flying out the window as she stared at the note. The letters that spelled out the name of a fancy hotel started to blur, and she blinked back the tears that welled in her eyes. She tried to think of some reason her husband would need to meet a woman named Serena at such an expensive and classy establishment.

She couldn't think of any.

Plopping down on the edge of the bed, she looked down at the incriminating paper clutched tightly in her fingers. She needed to think things through. Make sure he was really doing something sordid before accusing him of anything. She'd jumped to the wrong conclusion a few times already and didn't want to do so again.

Or had she?

Falling to her side, she grabbed one of her husband's pillows and brought it to her chest, hugging it close and burying her face to smell his scent. But she didn't think anything could soothe the rolling queasiness in her stomach or lighten the heaviness of her heart. Her mind churned, thinking about what she should do, and could only come up with one solution to be absolutely sure he was innocent.

And it was way worse than trying to snoop through his phone or scoping out little old ladies.

She was going to spy on her husband.

Mind made up, she reached for her phone to call Mia.

≈≈≈≈

"Babe, have you seen my navy tie with the beige stripe?" Garrett asked, stepping out of the closet fully dressed in one of his nicest suits minus the jacket he held in his hand.

He looked nice. No, he looked better than nice, he looked fantastic. Looking as if he put forth extra effort, his hair was perfectly styled without a hair out of place. Freshly shaven, his strong jaw was more pronounced and the color of the shirt he'd selected brought out the blue of his eyes.

Her stomach dropped at the overall package because today was Friday. Meet at the hotel day.

"Um, I think it may be at the cleaners."

"Damn. I wanted to wear it today."

It was his favorite tie. Ali knew this because he wore it the most often.

"You have the navy one with the burgundy stripe. That one would go nicely," she said, hating to be helpful. Nothing like "gift wrapping" her husband for her replacement.

"I guess that one will do," he said, tossing his jacket on the bed and disappearing back into the closet.

Ali finished rushing through her morning routine then headed downstairs to get breakfast started, yelling at her son on her way past his room. "Noah, you'd better be up and getting dressed. Breakfast will be ready in ten minutes and your butt better be in the kitchen."

She heard a mumbled reply. She hated being so strict, but seriously, her son would sleep until noon if given a chance. She'd learned the hard way, tough love was needed to deal with Noah in the mornings.

She'd just popped a couple of frozen waffles into the toaster and was pouring herself a cup of coffee when two hands landed on her hips, startling her and causing her to spill coffee on the counter.

Garrett's butter-smooth voice filled her ear. "You okay? You seem a little frazzled this morning."

Tearing off a paper towel from the roll, she mopped up her spill. "I'm no more frazzled than any other morning before coffee."

He chuckled, kissing her neck just below her ear. He took a small sidestep reaching over her head to grab a travel mug from the cupboard. "I'll be late again tonight."

"What? Why?" She threw the paper towel onto the counter and folded her arms across her chest.

"It's our monthly board meeting. You know those things run late."

She quickly ran through her memory and couldn't remember a time they'd ever had a board meeting on a Friday night. It had to be more than just a coincidence he had that appointment and wasworking late.

"But the kids are going to your parents, and we'll have the house to ourselves," she persisted.

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