Heartwishes (Edilean 5)

“You have a lover outside your husband?” Gemma shot back.

All the women laughed.

“She was the same way with me when we first met,” Joce whispered as they went out the door. “She’ll quit after a while.”

“Actually, I’m beginning to like it,” Gemma said.

Colin was waiting for her outside the door, and as soon as they were alone, he said, “If you’d just tell me what I’ve done, maybe we could fix the problem.”

Gemma didn’t want to look in his eyes for fear that he’d see everything. “I told you that I don’t want to do anything to jeopardize my job. I think it’s better if you and I stay apart.”

“Because of Jean,” he said. “If you want to know the truth about her and me, why didn’t you ask me?”

“Would you have answered me?” she asked.

He hesitated, as though considering his answer. “Yes. I believe I would have.” For a moment, he stared at her, seeming not to know what else to say.

Gemma walked away to join the group sitting in the shade and took a chair near Mike. They stayed outside for an hour, sitting on big chairs and talking amicably. Gemma didn’t drink for fear that she’d get too relaxed and blab about what happened between her and Colin. The babies were on a blanket and everyone took turns playing with them.

Gemma was quiet as she listened to them talk about people they’d known for years, had even grown up with. She liked what they were talking about. Luke wanted Mike to help him with a plot idea for a book. Sara was talking to Joce about one of the old buildings around them, while Tess and Rams—as he was called—talked with Colin about the man Tris had mentioned, Mr. Lang.

They know each other so well, Gemma thought. The group knew each other so thoroughly that they easily slid from one topic to another. This is it, she thought. This is what I’d like to have, to belong to. I’d like to be part of this easy camaraderie where I know people and we care about each other.

To Gemma, the only downside to the day was Colin. Whenever he spoke, she looked away.

“Gemma,” Sara said, “we’re leaving you out.”

“No, it’s nice. I spend so much time alone that it’s great to hear other people talk.”

Mike got up. “Gemma, could I see you inside for a moment?”

Gemma wanted to run around the house to the road and keep going. Was her ignoring of Colin going to get her a “talking to”? She followed Mike into the house and shut the door behind her. “Look, I’m sorry about Colin, but—”

“You thought I invited you in here about him?” Mike asked as he opened the lid of an old wooden trunk. “Colin can handle his own problems. Besides, I’m sure he deserves whatever you dish out to him.” He pulled out a pair of boxing gloves. “I thought you might like to do something familiar.”

“I would,” she said, but glanced down at her jeans and flowered shirt. It would be difficult to move in them.

“I thought about that, so

we got you a welcome gift.” Mike handed her a paper bag. “Sara guessed at your size.”

Inside the bag was a new workout outfit of shorts and T-shirt, even a sports bra, and in the bottom was a pair of soft shoes, the kind worn in a boxing ring.

“I can’t accept these,” Gemma began. “It’s too much.”

“It’s nothing. I hear you think you can take me.”

Gemma grinned. “Luke has a big mouth.”

“Go on, get dressed.”

She hurried to a powder room off the kitchen and put on the skimpy gym clothes. She wasn’t used to working out dressed in so little, but she reminded herself that today she wasn’t around a bunch of boys with rampant hormones and little impulse control.

When she was ready, she went through the house in search of Mike and saw him outside. He had on a pair of hand pads, and Luke was taking some half-hearted, bare-knuckle punches at them.

She started toward the door when she saw a flash of something in the sunlight. It was a bracelet and it was on Jean’s arm. It looked like she had arrived, and she’d taken a chair close to Colin. If possible, Jean was better-looking than Gemma remembered. Not as beautiful as Tess, but then Jean was older. That thought startled her. She’d not realized it before, but Jean was older than Colin by at least six or seven years. If she’d had anything done to her face, it might be more.

Jean was laughing about something Rams was saying, and she reached out to pat Colin on the thigh. “Bet she wishes he were Tris,” Gemma mumbled, then felt a surge of guilt run through her. Jean was the innocent party in all this. Gemma opened the door and went outside.