Page 92 of The Replacement Wife

“School projects.” Harris shook his head. “Don’t ask.”

Josh laughed. “Okay, clearly now isn’t a good time.”

“For what?” Elisa could sense they wanted to say something. Josh had come back in from the talk with Harris seemingly fine, so infidelity likely wasn’t the topic.

“No.” Rachel took a step toward the front door and motioned for Josh to come with her. “We should wait until we can sit down and have dinner.”

Josh frowned at Rachel. “It doesn’t need to be formal.”

“They’re busy,” she said, continuing their private conversation out in the open.

Finally, Harris sighed at them. “What are you two talking about?”

Elisa couldn’t think over her headache, so she wanted them to spill whatever inside joke they kept passing between them. “Yeah, just say it.”

Rachel held up her left hand, showing off a sizable diamond.

Josh filled in the rest. “We’re engaged.”

Chapter Forty-Eight

“You said Rachel wasn’t serious about the relationship.” Harris’s comment came out more as an accusation than a question. He paced around the kitchen, holding his cell phone. He was supposed to be picking a place for takeout for dinner, but who could concentrate?

Josh and Rachel dropped their news then left while Nathan was still wound up. The adults agreed to meet in the morning, after they dropped Nathan off at a preplanned playdate down the street. Now he sat on the family room couch behind them, snuggled down and humming to whatever he was watching on his tablet.

Elisa had been stunned then speechless by the engagement news and now, less than an hour after hearing it, was just downright confused. “Yeah, I know.”

She sat at the breakfast bar and ran through her last conversation with Rachel over and over in her mind. She hadn’t imagined it. Rachel looked . . . scared. At the least, unsure. She’d made it sound like the relationship—though she didn’teven use that word—was chugging to a conclusion, not leading to the altar.

“Did she change her mind?”

Harris directed the question to the room and not her specifically, but she answered. “Don’t ask me. Clearly I can’t read Rachel very well.”

That part stopped Elisa cold. Rachel listened. She was supportive and said the right things. She also lied her ass off when it came to her feelings for Josh. Forget love, Rachel had made it sound like she barely liked him and certainly didn’t trust him. Now... engaged. Elisa had no idea what that meant about the veracity or genuineness of any other topic Rachel talked about.

“He bought a ring.” Harris stopped and stared out the window above the sink. “When did he buy a ring?”

She had gone with Josh to pick out the ring for Abby. Not a word from him about a jewelry errand this time around. That didn’t surprise her in light of the current state of their relationship, but it wasn’t like him to handle this sort of thing alone. Like Harris, Josh didn’t know a thing about jewelry.

Elisa stopped fiddling with the handle on her coffee mug. She hadn’t gotten a good look at the ring, but it had to be a new one... right? He wouldn’t be crass enough to give Abby’s old ring to Rachel. No, of course not because then he would have to admit that Abby didn’t take her ring with her when she left.

“The timing is... fast.”Suspicious. Alarming. Terrifying.Shecould come up with a lot of words that fit the moment but stuck withfast.

“He didn’t say anything.” Harris turned around to face her. “I mean, I knew he really liked her. When he talked about Rachel, he called her ‘the one,’ but engaged? That’s a big step.”

Not as big for Josh as for other people, but yes. “He didn’t hint to you?”

“What?” Harris seemed too lost in his own thoughts to carry on his side of the conversation. It took him a few seconds to catch up. “No. I would have picked up on that.”

Men. “Would you?”

“Come on. I’m not that clueless.”

Most days, but not all. Harris fell into his work. She forgave the tendency, but it either happened more now or she noticed it more. Either way, he could miss signs. Obvious signs of strain and trouble. “Maybe he was being more subtle.”

“He’s not a subtle guy.”

No, but Josh did hide things. Big things, like an extra wife. Between the lying and the hiding, Elisa no longer trusted Josh to act like he should, like anyone else would, in a situation.

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