The Husband's Secret(49)
“Mum,” said Tess.
“She’s my niece! I have rights!” Aunt Mary tried to wrench the wooden window frame up.
“She has rights,” snorted Tess’s mother. “What a load of—”
“But why can’t she come in?” Liam’s brow knitted.
Tess and her mother looked at each other. They’d been so careful about what they said in front of Liam.
“Of course she can come in.” Tess put her book to one side.
“Darling,” said Mary when Tess opened the door. “And Liam! You’ve grown again! How does that keep happening?”
“Hi, Uncle Phil.” Tess went to brush cheeks with her uncle, but to her surprise he suddenly pulled her to him in an awkward hug. He smelled of Old Spice and cigarettes. He said quietly into her ear, “I am deeply ashamed of my daughter.”
Then he straightened and said, “I’ll keep Liam company while you girls talk.”
With Liam and Uncle Phil safely stashed in front of the television, Mary, Lucy and Tess sat at the kitchen table drinking tea.
“I made it very clear that you weren’t to show up here,” said Tess’s mother, who wasn’t so cranky with her sister that she would forgo her extremely good chocolate brownies.
Mary rolled her eyes, settled her elbows on the table and pressed Tess’s hand between her warm, plump little palms. “Sweetheart, I’m just so sorry this has happened to you.”
“This isn’t something that just happened to her,” exploded Lucy.
“The point is that I don’t think Felicity really did have a choice,” said Mary.
“Oh! I didn’t realize! Poor Felicity! Someone put a gun to her head, did they?” Lucy put a pretend gun to her own head. Tess wondered when her mother had last had her blood pressure checked.
Mary resolutely ignored her sister and directed her conversation at Tess. “Sweetheart, you know Felicity would never have chosen for this to happen. This is torture for her. Torture.”
“Is this a joke?” Lucy took a savage bite of brownie. “Do you seriously expect Tess to feel sorry for Felicity?”
“I just hope you can find it in your heart to forgive her.” Mary was doing a wonderful job of pretending that Lucy wasn’t there.
“Okay, that’s enough,” said Lucy. “I don’t want to hear another word come out of your mouth.”
“Lucy, sometimes love just strikes!” Mary finally acknowledged her sister. “It just happens! Out of the blue!”
Tess stared into her teacup and swirled it around. Was this actually out of the blue? Or had it always been there, right in front of her eyes? Felicity and Will had gotten on famously from the moment they met. “Your cousin is a riot,” Will had said to Tess after the three of them went out to dinner for the first time. Tess took it as a compliment, because Felicity was part of her. Her sparkling company was something Tess had to offer. And the fact that Will properly appreciated Felicity (not all her previous boyfriends had; some had actively disliked her) was a huge mark in his favor.
Felicity had taken an instant liking to Will too. “You can marry this one,” she’d said to Tess the next day. “He’s the one. I have spoken.”
Did Felicity already have a crush on Will back then? Was this inevitable? Foreseeable?
Tess remembered the euphoria she’d felt that day after she’d introduced Will and Felicity. It felt like she’d reached a glorious destination, a mountaintop. “He’s perfect, isn’t he?” she’d said to Felicity. “He gets us. He’s the first one who really gets us.”