Page 11 of The Wives of Hawthorne Lane
Georgina studies her daughter, who suddenly looks five years older with her taut stomach, the golden tan on her long legs, the highlights in her blond hair brought out by the summer sun. Christina has always been the easier of Georgina’s two children. The quiet, studious one, the agreeable one, the one she never had to worry about. She wonders now if that’s about to change.
She picks up her daughter’s sundress from the pool deck where she’d dropped it and hands it to her.
“Seriously, Mom?” Christina says in reply, spots of pink blooming on her cheeks. “It’s just a bathing suit.”
“Seriously.”
Christina groans. “I’m not a baby, you know. I’m almost sixteen.” But despite her protests, she pulls the dress back over her head.
“Thank you.” Satisfied, Georgina turns and carries her tray over to the bar cart.
“Hello, darling,” Colin says as he plants a kiss at her temple. “Mojito?”
“Please.”
He begins to mix the drinks while Georgina passes around the hors d’oeuvres.
“Thank you again for hosting today,” Hannah says. “Mark and I really appreciate it.”
Georgina notices the blue beaded earrings dangling from Hannah’s ears. They’re simple, inexpensive things, but Georgina finds that she quite likes the boldness of them. She thinks of her own pearl studs that she wears for most occasions and wonders if it’s time for a change. “It’s our pleasure,” she says. “Truly. It’s far past time we all got together.”
Mark nods his agreement as he takes a bite of a bacon-wrapped water chestnut. “I don’t know how you do it. All the food today has been unbelievable. I feel like I’m at a Michelin-starred restaurant!”
“How strong has my husband been making those drinks?” Georgina jests.
“Don’t be so modest,” Libby says as she sidles up to the group. “Georgina actually went to culinary school!”
“Did you really?” Curiosity sparkles in Hannah’s pretty young eyes. “That’s so interesting!”
“Oh”—Georgina swats the topic away with a flick of her wrist—“no, it was just a few classes. I never even graduated.” It feels like a lifetime ago when she made the decision to leave culinary school to follow Colin to New York. He’d just finished his law degree at Duke and was offered a job at a white-shoe firm in Manhattan. They both knew he couldn’t turn down the opportunity, but they were also newly engaged. A long-distance relationship simply wasn’t an option. She told herself that she had time, that she could always go back to school, finish her degree in New York. But before she knew it, she was pregnant with Sebastian, and her life had a new focus. She never quite got around to resuming her studies. And now that she’s forty, the idea of being a student again feels so silly. She doesn’t have the courage to sit in a class, knowing she’s the oldest person in the room but with no culinary experience to show for it except hosting neighborhood dinner parties.
“Well,” Seth says, licking his fingers, ice rattling in his near-empty glass, “those classes certainly paid off.”
“Thank you.”
“Colin,” Mark says, turning to him and clapping a hand on his back. “You better hang on to this one. You’re a lucky man!”
Georgina lifts the mojito from Colin’s hand, searching his face for a reaction. It’s as subtle as watching the tide change, the darkening around his irises. And as quickly as it came, it’s washed away.
“Lucky indeed,” he says, wrapping an arm around Georgina’s waist and pulling her to his side.
She’s certain he didn’t much like Mark’s compliment. Georgina is usually the one being told how lucky she is to have him. For his looks, his money, his status as a partner at one of the top law firms in New York. The luck, he’s come to believe, is all hers.
“Mark here was just telling me what an avid golfer he is,” Colin says, deftly changing the topic.
“Ugh,” Hannah groans playfully. “Don’t get him started again. It’s bad enough I lose him for hours every weekend while he plays.”
“You guys should really join me sometime,” Mark says, nodding toward Seth and Colin. “And you too, of course, Georgina. If you play.”
“Sure,” Seth replies absently, though Georgina gets the sense that he’s not paying much attention to the conversation anymore. He’s busy watching his wife, Audrey, across the yard as she pulls off her sundress, uncovering a rather revealing white bikini. Georgina has always admired Audrey, her self-possession, her grab-life-by-the-horns attitude, though perhaps not her choice in swimming attire. She certainly has the figure for it, but the extent of her exposed skin is shocking enough that even Sebastian stops scowling for a moment, tilting down his sunglasses to watch as she wades into the deserted pool. Georgina catches Christina’s eye across the yard; her daughter’s arms are folded over her chest, her eyebrows raised, as if to say,Unfair.
“Count me in as well,” Colin responds. “I’m sure Georgina wouldn’t mind getting me out of the house for a few extra hours.” She feels his grip tighten, ever so slightly, on her hip, and it snaps herattention back to the discussion. “After all, that’s when she spends all of my money!”
He laughs good-naturedly, and Georgina forces herself to join in even though she doesn’t feel much like laughing, even though his comment landed like a targeted blow.
But Colin isn’t finished. “On things like this.” He picks up the cheese plate Georgina had so carefully arranged earlier. “What do you even call this thing?”
“A platter,” she responds, her voice as small as she feels.
