Page 70 of The Suit

It was only a matter of time though; he’d figure it out if I didn’t.

She took a deep breath then propped her chin on her tight fist. “I like you, Beulah, even though I’ve only known you for…” she checked her watch, “eighty-three minutes, but I like you, and I’m an excellent judge of character. However, you need to tell him, and then I think you should probably find a new job. Your firm sounds awful.”

I managed to crack a smile. The firm, my job – the least of my worries. I was in a lose-lose situation; fucked no matter the path I chose to go down. And now I decided that perhaps I didn’t hate him, I didn’t want him to hate me either, even though I already knew what that felt like.

“Yeah,” I wiped my damp face, “I’m sorry that I’ve burdened you with this, it’s not fair of me.”

She got up and hugged me tight, setting me off on another stream of tears.

“Don’t worry about it; I have one of those faces that people seem to download to. I could have made a fortune as a therapist.” She chuckled and sat back, giving me a once over that reminded me of a steely tempered school matron, and I shrank under the scrutiny of her dark brown eyes. “You’re not a bad person, Beulah. You’re in an untenable position, but you’re not a bad person. You know how I know?”

I sniffed loudly. “How?”

“Because I saw the way you were looking at Rafe this morning, that shit isn’t faked. Not to mention that Rafe looks at you the way Murray looks at me. And also because your face is all puffy from crying so hard.”

I offered her another weak smile. “Thank you for being so kind, I don’t deserve it, especially as I shouldn’t be here.”

“You’re here because Rafe wants you here, which is good enough for me and the boys.” She glanced down at the baby monitor as a shrill cry sounded out. “Bell is waking up, come inside with me to get her. You need to wash your face before the boys return.”

I followed her in, standing, not having the slightest bit of enthusiasm in seeing the current state of my face, but she was correct. If Rafe had seen that I’d been crying, that would only open me up to further interrogation. She held me back before we made our way back to the house.

“Whatever is going on with Rafe is your business, and I’ll keep your secret this weekend, but you need to tell him, and I trust that you will. Because if you don’t, I will. Or Murray will when I tell Murray, and I don’t think you’ll want that.”

I didn’t argue with her, because she was right. I had a fuck-load of my life to figure out, and it would start with the truth. Just as soon as I plucked up the courage, because I wanted one more day to live in this new world I’d found where it turned out the man I once thought I hated was actually the man who’d given me a reminder of what it was like to have people who cared for you; a reminder of things I’d tried my hardest to forget.

“I will, I promise.”

“Good, because I want to be your friend and it’s gonna be hard to do if your feud with Rafe starts up again.”

With that she ran into the house, leaving me standing by myself holding a near empty bottle of champagne.

* * *

By the time I’d managed to get my eyes back to their regularly scheduled size, the boys had returned from their run and I found them out by the pool. Penn was asleep on one of the massive poolside beds, while Murray and Rafe were playing tennis over a net running across the center, Barclay swimming underneath in whichever direction the ball went. Kit was refereeing from another bed, under an umbrella, where she was applying sunscreen to Bell.

“Hey, there she is,” called Rafe as he spotted me. “How was your nap?”

“My what?”

“Rafe was looking for you when they got back, and I told him you’d gone to lie down for a bit. We pushed brunch.” Kit’s eyebrows raised pointedly, along with her tone, urging me to understand what she’d done for me, and I was forever indebted.

“It was short but needed,” I replied, but Rafe was already back to playing tennis, my nap all but forgotten. I smiled gratefully at Kit, sitting down on the bed next to her. “I can look after Bell if you want to swim.”

“Really?”

“Yes of course, and you’ll only be over there.” I nodded to where Murray was, barely twenty feet away.

“Okay, thank you.” She passed me a little rubber giraffe as she stood up. “Here, she likes this.”

I shifted over to where she’d been sitting with Bell lying between her legs, smiling up and gurgling at nothing. She really was a beautiful little girl, and even though Kit wasn’t her biological mother, she looked just like her, except for her green eyes which had definitely come from Murray.

I glanced up just in time to see Rafe haul himself out of the pool, shaking the water from his hair which had turned from dark brown to almost black, making his eyes seem bluer than ever. His muscles seemed to have grown in the hours since I’d last seen him; even his abs rippled as he moved. How could one person have so many muscles? I tried not to stare at them, but failed drastically.

“Holmes.” He kissed Bell’s head then leaned over me, his soft warm lips planting directly onto mine. “You need to go put on one of the bikinis I left out for you, and get in the water with me. Or not, your choice. But you’re getting in the pool with me at some point today.”

He stood back and winked, his toothy grin smug and challenging, but I wasn’t about to argue. In the time it took me to get my face back to pre-puffy levels, I’d made the decision to embrace the moment with him, in the knowledge it was highly likely I’d have no more once I’d told him what I’d done.

I was about to reply that I would run back and get it once I was done watching Bell, when an almighty cry rent the air, followed by a cannonball which created a mushroom cloud of pool water soaking everyone in the vicinity - which included a no longer sleeping Penn, who’d shot upright.

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