Natalie cocked her head, eyeing Annie critically. “What happened to your hair?”
“I got it cut. ”
“It looks great. We could be sisters. ” A look of mock horror crossed her face. “I hope this doesn’t mean you’re going to college with me. . . . ”
Annie feigned a hurt look. “I didn’t think you’d mind. I signed up to be your dorm mother. ”
Natalie rolled her eyes. “From anyone else’s mother it would be a joke. ” She looked at Blake. “You’re not letting her go, are you, Dad?”
Annie looked up at Blake, who was staring down at her. He moved in closer and laid a possessive hand on her shoulder. “I’m trying like hell to keep her at home,” he said evenly.
“Dad tells me you’re pregnant. ” A tiny bit of hurt flashed through Natalie’s blue eyes and then was gone. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me. ”
Annie gently touched her daughter’s cheek. “I just found out, honey. ”
Natalie grinned. “I ask for a sister for sixteen years, and you get pregnant just before I leave for college. Thanks a lot. ”
“This definitely falls into the ‘accident’ category. Believe me, I always wanted to fill this house with children—but not just before I cashed my first Social Security check. ”
“You’re not that old. I read about a sixty-year-old woman who had a kid. ”
“How comforting. You understand, of course, that the rules have changed now. You aren’t allowed to have a child until your sister or brother graduates from high school. And you will have to introduce me as your stepmother. ”
Natalie laughed. “I’ve been lying about you for years, Mom. Ever since you sobbed at my dance recital and had to be escorted from the building. ”
“That was an allergy attack. ”
“Yeah, right. ” She laughed. “Hey, guess what, Mom. Dad let me drive the Ferrari home. ”
“You’re kidding. ”
“It’s a good thing you weren’t there. You’d have made me wear a crash helmet and drive on the side of the road— preferably with my emergency blinkers flashing. ”
Annie laughed, and she couldn’t escape how right this all felt—the teasing, the joking, the familiarity. How natural.
They were a family. A family.
Blake bent closer to Annie. He whispered in a voice so soft that only she could hear, “People change, Annalise. ”
It scared her, that deceptively simple sentence that seemed to promise the sun and the moon and the stars.
That’s when she knew she was at risk. This man she’d loved for so long knew what to say, always, what to do. He could push her onto the edge again. If she wasn’t careful, she’d slide without a ripple into the gently flowing stream of her old life, pulled back under the current without a whimper of protest. Another housewife lost in the flow.
Chapter 25
The shattered pieces of their family fell back together with a surprising ease. Like a glass vase that had been broken and carefully mended, the tiny fissures could be seen only on close examination, when Blake and Annie were alone. They were soldiers, the two of them, warily circling each other, negotiating an awkward and unfelt peace.
But Annie had spent twenty years wearing a groove into her life, and she now slipped smoothly back into it. She awakened early, dressed in an expensive silk robe with a pretty bow tied at her expanding waist. She carefully accentuated her features with makeup, layering putty color beneath her eyes to erase the dark circles that came from restless nights.
On Mondays, she made out the weekly grocery lists and sent Natalie to the gourmet shop on the corner. On Tuesdays, she paid the household bills. On Wednesdays, she conferred with the housekeeper and gardener, and on Thursdays she sent Natalie on errands, using her daughter to collect all the various and sundry pieces of their lives. Once again, the house was a well-run unit.
She helped Blake choose his suits and ties, and reminded him when to pick up his dry cleaning. Every morning, she kissed him good-bye—a chaste, dry little kiss planted on his cheek—and every night she welcomed him home from work with a smile. He sat on her bed and talked stiltedly about his day.
In truth, she was glad to spend her days in bed, hidden away from the reality of the marriage. Most days, while Blake was at work, she and Natalie spent long hours talking and laughing and sharing memories.
Annie learned that Blake hadn’t called Natalie in London. She heard the hurt and disappointment in her daughter’s voice when she spoke, but there wasn’t a damn thing Annie could do to fix it. “I’m sorry” was all she could say. Again and again.
Increasingly, Annie noticed changes in Natalie, a maturity that hadn’t been there before. Every now and then, she zinged Annie with an unexpected observation. Like yesterday.