The New Ever After (The New Ever After Series) (12 page)

"Emily showed her your not-so-saggy boob
. And I'll help with them at dinner. I always do."

"Yeah, but you got all weird when she ran up
. I've never seen you like that."

"It was strange being faced with my past
. A past I don't ever really think about."

"Was she a big part of your past?"

"We dated a bit."

"Hmm...that explains it
. I don't want to go to your ex-girlfriend's house for dinner."

"I'm tired
. Let's go to sleep and talk about it in the morning. I love you and don't want to fight about it."

Peter stood up and kissed Heather on the lips and grabbed her hand to go in
. They locked up the doors and went to bed. Both passing out as soon as they hit the pillow.

Heather got up early with the twins the next morning
. They played in the small yard in the grass before everyone else came down. Peter walked out in his pajama bottoms without a shirt holding two cups of coffee. She enjoyed the view and his low rise pajama bottoms.

"Good morning, my love," said Peter
. George toddled over saying something resembling Dada. Peter set down his coffee and threw him up in the air. George giggled and smiled, and Heather held her breath. For someone who was prone to having bad luck, watching your child being thrown up in the air was nerve wracking.

"Good morning
. Thanks for the coffee. Did you sleep well?"

"I did
. The sea air always makes me sleep soundly. I don't realize how much I miss the ocean until I 'm back at it."

"I love the tranquility of it
. We have to fix that shutter though. I heard it all last night."

"I'll call Mike the rental guy and ask him to get someone out here this morning," said Peter.

"Thanks."

"Let's talk about dinner."

"I'm not going to go and feel as awkward as I did at the beach. You go and have a great dinner. Take the big kids, and I'll stay with the twins. But, I have to be honest and tell you that I will worry the whole time you are gone that you'll be hooking up with her just like Matt and Victoria."

"You do realize that's ridiculous
. Just because Matt did it doesn't mean I would. I won't go without you guys, and I want to go."

"No, I'm not going. Peter, you were mesmerized by her
. You could hardly speak."

"Heather, it was not like that
. She just took me by surprise."

"Well, I felt like I needed to disappear to leave you guys alone."

"That's absurd. You are my wife. I love you and adore you, and you have no reason to be this jealous."

"I'm not jealous
. I just don't want to compete with your past."

"You're not
competing with my past and you never will. But I compete with ghosts every single day."

Heather swallowed a big gulp of air
. He had never said anything like that before.

"That's not fair
, Peter. If it bothers you so much, why haven't you said anything?"

"It doesn't bother me. It's just something I accept."

"Sorry I make you have to accept stuff, but you know my life has done a 360 in the last three years. It is virtually unrecognizable, and I think for the most part I hold up pretty well."
A ghost? Did he really feel like he was competing with the guy whose ashes sit on the bookshelf?
thought Heather.

Peter knew this conversation wasn't going to end well. He needed to escape and find some peace
. They had never fought like this before, and he had never seen Heather act so unreasonably. And he was at a point where he was saying pretty ridiculous things on his own.

"I'm taking the boat out this morning
. I'll be back by lunch. We can talk then."

"Whatever." Peter never left Heather with all the kids to go do his own thing
. She could tell he was furious, but she wasn't going to back down. She knew herself well enough to know going to the dinner was a bad idea. Like so many other things, Heather didn't do jealousy well. She remembered being jealous of Hank's prom date. It was something that stuck out in her head so much that she had included it in her memoir.

Hank asked me to the prom as we passed each other on the steps between third and fourth period one day in school. I said no and rolled my eyes at him. We were having one of our "off" periods. Lauren had told me he was going to ask me to the prom. I had been avoiding him as much as possible, but I couldn't help passing him on the steps. I wanted to go to the prom with John and was determined to hold out until he asked me, which he did later that day.

The day of the prom Lauren came over and helped me do my hair and makeup
. I was always useless with that stuff. She told me Hank was going with Amy and I was shocked. She was the I've-got-it-all girl. She was smart, cute, athletic and popular. But not too popular. She could hang with all the cliques in school. As soon as Lauren told me that, my hackles went up. I don't think I had any inkling what hackles were, but as soon as I got that feeling in my stomach I knew that's what it must be called.

"Are you serious? She said yes to Hank?"

"That's rude! He is a pretty good catch even if you said no to him."

Of course, Lauren was right
. I was just determined to beat him down. My dad brought me my favorite Mexican pizza from Taco Bell to eat before the prom pictures. John came to pick me up and my parents followed the limo over to Karen's house for pictures. We took the pictures and got in the limo. I was all over John. I channeled all of my jealousy into hooking up. One of the other guys in the limo had his big brother get us a party ball of beer. I drank it too quickly and ended up puking out the limo window. The limo driver pulled over and John bought me a toothbrush. I was tipsy at the prom and acted like a jerk to Hank. I walked right up to him and started questioning him.

"How'd you get her to go prom with you?"

"I asked her, Heather. Have you been drinking?"

"No!"

"You stink and your eyes look crazy."

"Thanks
. Maybe I'll tell Amy what a slobbery kisser you are and how bad your breath is."

John
led me away from Hank at that point, but my spiteful words stayed with me all this time. I'll never forget how crushed Hank looked and I'm not sure how he found it in himself to forgive me.

That kind of scene was exactly what Heather wanted to avoid. She knew what she was capable of and had no intention of doing it again to Peter. She still felt so ashamed of herself. So, avoiding dinner was like saving Peter. He just had no idea she was thinking that way, not that he would necessarily understand anyway.

Peter came back outside and kissed the twins
. He told Heather he would be back in a couple of hours and would call the rental agent about the shutter. He didn't kiss her good bye or leave in a huff, but the fact that there wasn’t a kiss let her know how he really felt. He got on the bike and pedaled to the harbor.

Henry and Gracie stumbled out of the house
.

“Mom, I heard Peter talki
ng about a ghost. Does he think there’s one too?”

“No
. He was just talking about something else. There aren’t any ghosts living in this house,” said Heather.
Contrary to what Peter might think
, she thought.

Teenaged Hayes was still asleep
. Heather was trying to figure out what they could do all morning without Peter's help. Hanging with all five of them on her own in a new town would be a challenge. She knew she wasn't up for the beach, maybe later. She decided to feed everyone breakfast and then take a driving adventure around town to see what they could find. Heather brought the twins in with Gracie's help and started to make breakfast. Fried eggs over easy for the big kids and chopped up strawberries and scrambled eggs for the twins. the twins.

Heather decided she would shower later. Leaving the twins with the big kids so she could shower required too much planning. She asked Gracie to watch them and ran upstairs to throw on some clothes. Henry was charged with waking Hayes up, a favorite chore of his.

After they were all fed and dressed, Heather herded everyone into the car
. She loaded up the stroller in case they wanted to walk around some place and they were on their way.

"Mom, where's Peter?" asked Hayes.

"He went out on the sailboat for a few hours."

"Without us?" asked Henry.

"He needed to do some work on it, so it was easier for us not to be on it with him,” she lied.

Heather drove by the harbor and saw that Blue was out of the slip
. Peter's bike was locked up in the parking lot. She could see a couple of sailboats on the horizon and wondered if one of them was Peter.

"Let's see what this town looks like," said Heather.

They drove down the main street and saw all the quaint little shops. Heather wanted to have an opportunity to check them all out but knew today wasn't the perfect opportunity. She needed an extra set of adult hands in order to do that. At the end of the street, right along the water, there was a park. The park had set of baby swings facing the water - just the speed Heather could go for right now. She needed to connect with the serenity in the water. She needed her kids to be occupied and not ask her any questions for awhile.

Her mind was racing with guilt
. Peter had read her memoir, so he knew how she had acted when she had been jealous of Hank's date. But there was likely very little chance that he would have guessed that was her reason for acting so nutty now. He would never realize that she wanted to spare him of any act of jealousy she may or may not commit later.

And really
, thought Heather,
I might be justifying it all in my head anyway.

Heather heard her phone beep and grabbed it quickly hoping it was Peter
. But, it was Lauren.

10:13 Lauren: How's Maine? Sorry about my tough talk but you needed it.

The twins were tucked away in the swings, so Heather had a free moment to talk.

10:14 Heather: Call if you have a min.

The phone rang the next second.

"Hey
. How are you?" asked Lauren.

"Ok."

"I can tell by the tone of your voice that you aren't all that ok."

"I pissed Peter off."

"Peter's mad at you? Didn't think that was possible."

"Well, it is." Heather recounted the story to Lauren.

"Sounds like he has some history with her, but don't worry about it. He’s stuck with you for better or worse now"

"I got that sense
. He just acted so strange."

"But it sounds like you acted like a spoiled brat. Sounds like you acted just like you did with Hank and his prom date."

Leave it to Lauren not to forget something like that.

"I know but I was trying to save him from jealous Heather."

"By giving him spoiled brat Heather? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard."

Lauren was right
. Heather needed a serious kick in the pants.

"Ok
. I'm hanging up and texting him. Call me later."

"K."

"And can I call you later and you help me pick what I should read for my reading tomorrow?"

Without Jenny helping her, Heather didn't trust herself to pick the right thing to read
. Janie had been helping a bit, but she wasn't ready to call her yet. Heather's publicist had thought a reading in Maine was a great idea while they were there. She didn't really want to think about it but knew she needed to. That could wait till later when Peter was home.

10:32 Heather: I'm sorry. I acted like a spoiled brat. Talk when you get home?

After what felt like an eternity but was really only two minutes, he replied.

10:34 Peter: ok

That was it. Heather guessed it was better than nothing. She rationalized his brief response by figuring he was busy with all those ropes on the boat.

Peter was annoyed. He was annoyed with Heather for not wanting to go to Kelly's house for dinner. He was annoyed that she was acting like a jealous wife. He was annoyed with himself that he was so shaken by Kelly's visit. It had been about a decade since he had seen her. His parents kept him up to date on any Kelly news. He knew she had two kids but was surprised to hear she was divorced. She looked the same. She hadn't changed a bit. She was the same girl he had sex with for the first time after the cross-country meet his junior year in high school. He didn't have any leftover sexual feelings for her now, but Kelly had been his first. And the power of seeing his first had caught him by surprise. Unfortunately, Heather had felt it too. She had known right away. When she didn’t want to even hang out with her and compared him to Matt, it pissed him off.

He
hadn’t been able to answer any more than an “ok” when he had gotten her text because the wind was really blowing and it had been awhile since he had been on the boat sailing the open sea like this. Virgin Gorda was calm compared to the water off the coast of Maine. He had hugged the coast and stayed in the bay yesterday with Heather and the kids. But today he went straight out into the open ocean. Sailing did not feel like riding a bicycle. He felt out of practice and was having a hard time finding the right pace. It was like he was trying to relearn riding a bicycle during a triathlon. The wind was gusting and not giving Peter a chance to catch his breath.

Peter was sure Heather had analyzed his "ok" over and over again. When he got back
, they would talk about it, and he could explain. But right now the boat was demanding his attention. And, frankly, her stress level over the last few months was giving him a run for his money.