Page 44 of Accidentally Wed to My Enemy

“Gray, wet, and smelly.” He kissed me on the nose. “Tell me about Tennessee.”

I sipped more of my fruit punch. My throat had closed up. Was this what Sam had meant, and Safire Rose? The subject of Eric’s childhood was clearly off-limits, but would it always be, or only today? Was there some pain there he didn’t want tainting our date?

I told him about Tennessee and my grandparents’ farm, but when I tried to ask about his grandparents he changed the subject again. A cold feeling settled deep in my gut, and grew every time he deflected my questions. His past seemed a locked box, and I had to ask myself why. Could it be because it didn’t matter? Because all there was for us was right now, the present? We’d agreed to divorce once filming was done. Was that still the plan for him? Had our clean slate changed nothing? We hadn’t talked about the future, but I’d assumed there might be one. That this might be the start of something, not some brief interlude.

“Stay with me,” said Eric, when our drinks were gone. He took my glass from me and pulled me down beside him. “Let’s sleep in till dinner and do it all again.”

I wanted to, more than anything else, but that cold worm of dread was squirming in my belly. I knew I should ask him. Rip off the Band-Aid.Is this all you see for us, right here and now?But if he said yes, my heart might just shatter. If this was to be nothing but a sweet, passing dream, I wanted to bask in it as long as I could.

Eric pulled me close and I lay in his arms, trying to work up the courage to ask. Maybe he’d tell me he did see a future, and I could sleep secure in my bliss. But maybe he wouldn’t, and how that would sting! I wasn’t sure I could work with him with my dream all in tatters.

I was still rallying my nerve when I drifted off, into a world of uneasy dreams.

CHAPTER 17

ERIC

Ilay for a long time pretending to sleep, until I was sure Lacey was dreaming. Then I got up and paced awhile, then stretched back out beside her. Sleep took its time coming, and when it came it was fitful. It felt like I blinked and the sun was setting, and Lacey was somewhere, shuffling around. I could smell food. Had she ordered dinner?

I got up and went through to the front room to watch her. She must have been up a while and gone back to her suite, because she had showered and dressed in fresh clothes.

“You’re up,” she said. “I ordered us dinner. I didn’t know what you’d want, so I got the whole menu.”

My brows twitched up. “Is that really the whole menu?”

“Well, all the appetizers. Take what you want.”

I filled a plate from the table, though I wasn’t hungry. Lacey wanted more from us, and I’d thought I might too. I’d thought I might want it all with her, the house and the kids. But then this morning happened, and—

“You’re not eating.”

I plucked a stuffed mushroom and bit it in half. Oil ran down my chin and I wiped it away. “Still waking up,” I said.

“Yeah, did you sleep okay? You were tossing and turning.”

I ate the rest of the mushroom to keep from having to answer. Lacey had slipped into a powder-pink sundress. The color made me think of wild roses. She looked delicate, fragile in the last of the daylight, like she might fade away with the sunset.

“Eric? You sleep okay?”

“Sorry. I was chewing.” I set my plate down and grabbed a drink from the fridge. “Yeah, I slept great with you beside me.”

“I might move here,” she said, gazing out at the ocean.

“Really?”

“Of course not, but leaving will hurt. The air smells so good here, and the ocean’s so blue. Even shooting those war scenes, crawling through mud, I only have to peek through the cameras and it’s like getting a preview of heaven.”

Lacey had her back turned, so she didn’t see me stiffen. She didn’t see the stuffed mushroom drop from my hand. It was the idea of a preview of heaven — of that being something to get excited about. It chilled me down to my marrow, the thought of her going. The thought of her leaving me and not coming back. Of Lacey, like Mom—

She’s in heaven now, sweetie.

Only, she hadn’t been. She’d been right there in a box, her face painted all funny, like she’d never have done it. I’d looked between her and Dad in his box beside hers, and I’d started screaming,Come back. Come back.

“At least I won’t have to agonize over where to go on vacation. Where in the world could be better than here?” Lacey got up and went to the window. “I’m going to bring Mom here, maybe for Christmas.”

A bolt shot through my heart, an icicle chill. I’d tried to pull back this morning. To keep her at arm’s length. But when I thought about losing her, what I felt was… panic. She was going to abandon me. One day, she would. I’d wake up and her pillow would be cold and empty. Her side of the bed would be perfect, untouched. I’d grab my phone and scroll for her contact, and it wouldn’t be there, and neither would she.

“I swear, even the weeds are beautiful here.” Lacey opened the door to the balcony and sighed, low and happy. “I saw the gardener out back pulling up these little purple ones, and they were so pretty I had to ask why. He was all, ‘what, the weeds?’, and I couldn’t believe it, how something that gorgeous could be a weed.”

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