As You Wish (The Summerhouse 3)

“Not at first. I was so angry that she’d been hired that I had it out with Kathy. Every time my assistant would get good, my wife would step in and help her move to another job. It used to make me crazy! I knew Kathy was jealous, but I swore to her there was no reason to be. At one point, I wanted to ban her from the office, but since her dad owned the place, I couldn’t very well do that. And besides, Kathy was my sounding board for every idea I had. When it comes to business, she and I are partners.

“Anyway, I was so angry that at first all Rita and I did was argue. The only thing she shared with her brother was his eyes. She wasn’t a follower like him. Rita was bossy and ambitious and kept telling me I was stupid and wrong.”

Olivia laughed. “True love if I ever heard it.”

“Yeah.” Ray’s voice sounded faraway. “It was. It is. Rita and I share it all. With Kathy, I had to learn everything. Nothing was natural. Meals, clothes, teeth brushing. Everything we did was different from each other and we had to figure out how to mesh. But Rita and I are alike. It’s all easy. I know what she wants for dinner, for her birthday. I know how to please her. Does that make sense? I love Kathy, but I don’t think I’ve ever done anything that genuinely pleased her.”

Olivia spoke up. “You said—and I quote—‘Kathy and I don’t...’ You didn’t finish that sentence, but I assume that meant sex.” She waited for his curt nod. “What about you and Rita?”

Ray hesitated.

“Go on,” Elise urged. “Tell us the truth. No secrets and no judgments.”

“It’s not something I’m proud of, but yeah, there was a lot of sex.”

Elise looked at him with wide eyes. “Walls? Tables?”

Ray’s eyes sparkled. “We used the big oak desk in my office so much that it got wobbly. Is that what you want?”

“Perhaps,” she said cautiously. “It would be—Oh hell. Yes! It’s exactly what I want. Kent treats me so delicately that I want to scream. I’m willing to bet he doesn’t do that to Carmen.”

Olivia was beginning to sober up and she looked at Ray. “Did you ever think that that passion is what Kathy would like to have?”

Ray gave her an intense stare. “Everyone talks about the unfairness between the sexes, but in this area the women win. A woman can fake it, but if a man has no desire, he can’t perform. I truly love my wife, but I have as much sexual desire for her as I did for Carl.”

“Poor woman,” Olivia whispered. “I’ve been her.”

“So have I!” Elise said.

“Look, I can tell you guys are on her side, and you’re right. Kathy is wonderful and she deserves only the best. Her father bullies her mercilessly, and she cowers in front of him. If I left her, she’d be at his mercy. It’s hard for me to think of doing that. The problem is that for the first time in my life, I’m in love with someone. Deeply in love, and I went to Dr. Hightower to help me figure out what to do. Should I leave Kathy and watch her come apart?” He looked at them as though begging them to throw him a life preserver.

But neither Olivia nor Elise knew what to say. Elise stood up. “I don’t know about anyone else, but I need to go to bed. This day has been all that I can handle.”

Hesitating, Olivia looked at Ray. If she stayed up, she knew they’d talk more and she couldn’t deal with that. The dreaded question of “What do you think I should do?” was going to be impossible to answer. Part of her identified with Ray being married to someone he couldn’t love as anything other than a friend. But part of her also went with Kathy. His wife was in a passionless marriage. Is that why she’d dedicated her life to her husband? To try to make him want her as much as he did the hometown Rita?

If that was so, when Kathy found out she’d failed, there was going to be a lot of anger released. If she was anything like her formidable father, that could be very bad.

Olivia stood up beside Elise. “Me too. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Cowards,” she heard Ray say under his breath.

Olivia gave a little smile, but she didn’t turn back.

* * *

Ray sat alone for a while, sipping his whiskey, then he reached into his pocket for his phone and turned it on. There were eight emails from Kathy. He knew from experience that that many meant something bad. It was either an accident or death—or more likely, Bert Cormac was throwing one of his legendary fits and he was sure that only Ray could fix whatever the problem was.

He skipped the earlier emails and looked at Kathy’s latest one.

I SHOULD BE THERE BY SEVEN A.M. I HAVE EVERYTHING YOU’LL NEED WITH ME, INCLUDING YOUR PLANE TICKET AND PASSPORT. BE PACKED AND READY TO LEAVE. CAL TALKED DAD OUT OF GOING WITH YOU. YOU OWE HIM AN AUSSIE HAT.

“Damn!” Ray muttered. Australia meant the Hanberg account. It was a really big one, and if Cal had talked Bert out of handling it himself, Ray owed the man more than a hat. The older Bert Cormac got, the harder he was to deal with. For the last few years, his bad temper came to the surface within seconds. If he went to Australia, the account was as good as lost.

I’LL BE READY, Ray emailed back.

When he went to his bedroom, he thought about packing his bag, but he didn’t. He knew Kathy would do it for him. As he headed to the shower, he thought how Rita would never pack a suitcase for him. She’d say, “So now I look like your maid? You want me to put on a little uniform? Something short and cute? Hold your breath.”

Just the thought of her smart mouth made him miss her. When he got out of the shower, he called her, and they had a lively bout of phone sex.