Read Online She's Not There by Joy Fielding - Free Book Online Page A

wasn’t going to change. It was up to Caroline to change the way she reacted to her. She had to be more generous, less judgmental. “Thank you.”
    “I have to say I’m surprised. I thought Hunter would be bored to tears by now.”
    This time Caroline did laugh, although the sound was muted and caught in her throat.
You can’t make this stuff up,
she thought. “I’m sorry—are you saying I’m boring?”
    “Don’t put words in my mouth. Hunter just strikes me as the type of man who gets bored easily. Stop being so sensitive.”
    “I should go, Mother. Everybody’s wait—” The line went dead in Caroline’s hands before she could finish the sentence. She shook her head and hung up, then immediately picked up the phone again and pressed the number for the front desk, telling them to hold all calls until further notice. She doubted there would be any more calls, but she couldn’t take that chance. Her mother usually insisted on having the last word.
    She did one final check on the girls before leaving the suite. Neither had been disturbed by her mother’s call. “Just boring old me,” she said as she closed the door behind her and stepped into the hall. A waiter in a white jacket was walking toward her, wheeling a dinner cart. He stopped a few doors away from her and knocked. “Room service,” he called out as Caroline passed by.
    “Everything all right?” Hunter asked when she returned to the restaurant.
    “Everything’s fine.” Caroline noticed that there were now two empty seats at the table. “Where’s my brother?”
    “He gave in to peer pressure soon after you left and went to see if he could persuade Becky to come back,” Peggy said.
    Good luck with that,
Caroline thought, as a trio of handsome young musicians approached their table. “What’s this?” she asked, as two of the men knelt at her feet and raised their guitars in the air.
    “Happy anniversary,” Hunter said.
    “Isn’t this just the most romantic thing ever!” Rain exclaimed.
    “You’re not bored with me, are you?” Caroline whispered to Hunter as the musicians began their soft serenade.
    “Bored with you? Where on earth would you get that idea?”
    Caroline shook all remaining thoughts of her mother out of her head. She caressed her husband’s cheek. “I love you,” she said.
    “Ah,” said Rain, “so sweet.”
    —
    Half an hour later, the singers had finished their songs, and dessert—flaming crêpes suzette—had been ordered. “I should go check on the kids before it arrives,” Hunter said.
    Caroline smiled, grateful she hadn’t had to remind him.
    “And I need a sweater,” Rain said, resting a manicured hand on her impressive cleavage. “The girls are getting chilly.”
    Caroline watched her husband and Rain go their separate ways at the restaurant’s entrance, Rain to one wing, Hunter to the other.
    “Well, that was a lovely little surprise,” Peggy said.
    “It was,” Caroline agreed.
    “Hunter certainly knows his way around a grand gesture.”
    “He certainly knows how to make the rest of us look bad,” Fletcher groused good-naturedly. “Not that there are many of us left.”
    “Yes, it’s starting to feel a bit like musical chairs around here,” Jerrod concurred.
    “Think your brother and Becky will ever come back?” Peggy asked.
    Caroline shook her head. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve already checked out. Frankly, I don’t know why they wanted to come at all.”
    “Maybe they hoped a romantic holiday might be good for their marriage.”
    Caroline couldn’t argue with that. Hadn’t she been hoping the same thing for hers?
    Two waiters approached.
    “Would it be too much trouble to hold off on dessert until the others get back?” Caroline asked them. “They should only be a few minutes.”
    In reality, it was more like fifteen.
    “Sorry I was gone so long,” Hunter said as he reclaimed his seat. “I waited forever for an elevator, then finally gave up and took the