Page 120 of The Husband Hour
“Why?”
“Because I’m leaving town and I just want a few more minutes with you.”
Lord help her—she wanted that too.
She sat on the wicker bench, remembering the night he’d first appeared, when she’d been swinging on this same bench, never imagining what the summer had in store for her. And now here they were.
“So…now what?” she said.
“Lauren, I meant what I said the other night. Come visit me in New York.”
She looked at him, incredulous. “I’m not talking about us. I’m talking about the film.”
“What about it?”
“You can’t make this movie,” she said. She spoke the words before the thought had fully formed in her mind, but as soon as she said them, she knew they were true, and they were absolute.
“Lauren,” he said, touching her shoulder. “Come on. You know that’s not realistic.”
She jumped up. “You said you weren’t out to make Rory look bad.” And then it hit her: Why was she still protecting Rory? She was murderously angry with her sister. Why not at him?
“I’m not trying to make him look bad. He was a flawed person. We’re all flawed. But Rory Kincaid’s highs were higher than most people’s, and his lows might have been lower than most. That’s what makes him an interesting subject. It’s not about him being a terrible person.”
“What about the rest of us? I’m not just thinking about myself, though that’s part of it. God knows I don’t want this humiliation made public. But I’m thinking of…my nephew. He doesn’t know, and if you open this up…you have to leave Ethan out of the movie!”
He shook his head sadly. “Lauren, I can’t do that. It’s my job to tell the whole story—the truth about Rory’s decisions and their consequences.”
Furious, all she could say was “I never want to see you again.”
A car pulled up in front of the house. Her father?
She watched, dumbstruck, while he parked and calmly headed up the walkway. He spotted her, and she saw the surprise on his face when he noticed Matt.
“Dad, how did you know I was here?”
“Your mother is a good guesser,” he said. He turned to Matt and shook his hand. “Howard Adelman.”
“Matt Brio. Nice to meet you.”
Um, no. This is not happening.
“You need to leave,” she said to Matt. Maybe if her father weren’t there, he would have refused. Maybe he would have said something to give her hope that he still might choose her feelings over the film. But as it was, he just nodded. When he said, “Good-bye, Lauren,” she felt her entire body run cold.
And then he was gone, and her father said, “I’m here to take you home.” And she didn’t have the strength left to argue.
Chapter Fifty
Beth had to hand it to Howard: when he said he was going to do something, he did it.
“Do you want some French toast?” she asked Lauren by way of greeting.
Lauren mumbled something, brushed past Howard, and dragged her bag upstairs.
“Well, at least she’s here,” Howard said.
“What did you say to her?”
“Not a hell of a lot, to be honest. She doesn’t want to talk.”
