Summer's Need Read Free Page B

become the
kind of woman who would unconsciously sabotage a fellow employee over some
imagined threat?
    Sounds like something my father would do. As soon as
she had that thought she berated herself for even saying such a thing, even if
she only said it inside her head. Her father had sacrificed everything so she
and her mother could live a life of luxury. Whenever she complained about his
absence her mother told her she should be grateful and should thank God in her
prayers every night for having a father who took such good care of her. He
didn’t drink to excess, didn’t abuse them and he made sure that she could go to
all the best boarding schools and that her mother never had to worry about
anything more than her prescription for Valium running out.
    A new email popped up on her screen and at the sight of
Ember’s name she groaned. Right now she’d had all the personal revelations she
could deal with and really wasn’t interested in whatever her therapist had
concocted for her. Still, she wouldn’t leave an email sitting unopened any more
than she would leave the house without wearing clothes so she clicked the link
and tried to focus on the message.
     
    Dearest Summer,
     
    Your take-home quiz is to do whatever your husband says.
Before you go into a full-scale panic, I’m only talking about for this
particular exercise, not your entire life.
    Give yourself the gift of letting go and enjoying his
love. Try to see the world through his eyes.
     
    Ember
     
    She stared at the screen, barely noticing Pickles when he
rubbed himself against her forearms. Her mind was strangely still, and she read
and reread the email at least a dozen times before Pickles got tired of her
failure to worship him and blocked the screen with his bulk. With a tired sigh
she picked him up and cuddled him to her chest, rubbing beneath his chin as she
stood and went to the dark window looking over the backyard.
    What had started out as a pristine and expertly landscaped
garden had slowly become a playground any child would love to have.
Bright-yellow toy trucks gleamed in the faint moonlight and the boys’ jungle
gym, built to look like a pirate ship, loomed over her husband’s herb garden
and work shed.
    When they’d first moved into their new home five years ago
they’d been overwhelmed by its size and wondered how they would ever fill up
the four thousand feet of living space and the gigantic two-acre yard. Now
every inch of the house and property bore the stamp of their lives and while it
was no longer showroom perfect, she liked how it felt like a home, their home. At first it had been hard for her to leave for any amount of time for
work and she’d spent her first night away shedding a few tears over missing
putting her children to bed and cuddling with Dave. Over the years it had
gotten easier and right now she didn’t know if that was a good or a bad thing.
    The last line of Ember’s message kept floating through her
thoughts and seemed to echo her earlier email from her boss. She’d always been
good on mentally landscaping the vast network of computer systems, but that
same intuition didn’t seem to extend to her personal life. Dave had always been
the charming one, the guy who made a room light up when he entered. He kept the
conversations going when her social awkwardness left her stumbling over small
talk and always seemed to know the right things to say to complete strangers.
    She was so very lucky to have him as her husband.
    Humming low in her throat, she placed Pickles back on the
desk and briefly considered changing into something more revealing than her
current comfy buttercup-yellow jammies. Maybe that racy red number she’d picked
up in Madrid, or the black bit of lace she hadn’t worn in years. But she walked
past the double doors of her bedroom, knowing if she stopped to change, she’d
also stop to shower, do her hair and redo her makeup. By the time she finished
Dave would be asleep and she’d be asleep