Read Online Tell Me No Secrets by Joy Fielding - Free Book Online Page A

coat.” He discarded the wine on the small antique table to the left of the front door and started awkwardly pulling at her sleeve.
    “It’s okay, Barry. I think I can manage on my own.”
    “Well, at least let me hang it up for you.”
    Jess decided against playing tug-of-war with Barry for her coat. “Is Maureen upstairs?”
    “She’s putting the twins to bed.” He hung her coat in the closet and led her toward the predominantly rose-and-white-colored living room, accented by strong blocks of black: a black concert grand piano that took up much of the front part of the room, although nobody played; a black marble fireplace, in which a fire already roared.
    “I’ll go upstairs and say hello. I bought them something.” Jess indicated the Marshall Field’s shopping bag in her hand.
    “They’ll be awake again in a few hours. You’ll give it to them then.”
    “Jess, is that you?” Maureen called from upstairs.
    “Coming right up,” Jess answered, her body gravitating toward the center hall.
    “Don’t you dare,” Maureen called back. “I’ve just got everybody settled. Stay and talk to Barry, I’ll be down in two minutes.”
    “She’ll be down in two minutes,” Barry parroted. “So, what do you say? Think you can spend two minutes talking to your brother-in-law?”
    Jess smiled and sat down in one of two white wing chairs across from Barry, who perched on the edge of the rose-colored sofa, as if ready to hang on her every word. Ready to pounce, more likely, Jess thought, wondering why she and Barry had never been able to connect. What was it about the man that rubbed her the wrong way? she wondered, conscious of his clear blue eyes recording her every gesture. He wasn’t ugly. He wasn’t stupid. He wasn’t overtly unpleasant.
    Why could she only think of him in the negative? Surely there was more to the man than what he wasn’t.
    She had tried to like him. When he’d married her sister some six years ago, Jess had assumed she would like anyone who made her sister happy. She’d been wrong.
    Maybe it was the sneaky way he tried to mask his receding hairline by combing his thinning hair from one side of his head to the other that bothered her. Or the fact that his nails were better manicured than her own, that he boasted of flossing his teeth after every meal. Maybe it was his habit of always wearing a shirt and tie, even under a casual cardigan sweater, like tonight.
    More likely it was the thinly veiled chauvinism of his remarks, she decided, his casually dismissive ways, the fact that he could never admit he was wrong. Or maybe it was the fact that he had taken a bright young graduate of the Harvard Business School and turned her into Total Woman, someone who was so busy decorating their house and producing babies that she had no time to think aboutresuming her once promising career. What would their mother have thought?
    “You look nice,” Barry told her. “That’s a lovely sweater. You should wear blue more often.”
    “It’s green.”
    “Green? No, it’s blue.”
    Were they really arguing about the color of her sweater? “Can we settle for turquoise?” she asked.
    Barry looked skeptical, shook his head. “It’s blue,” he pronounced, looking toward the fire. Barry always lit a perfect fire.
    Jess took a deep breath. “So, Barry, how’s business?”
    He tossed aside her inquiry with a wave of his hand. “You don’t really want to hear about my business.”
    “I don’t?”
    “Do you?”
    “Barry, I asked you a simple question. If it’s going to get too complicated, then …”
    “Business is great. Terrific. Couldn’t be better.”
    “Good.”
    “Not good.” He laughed. “Great. Terrific. Couldn’t be better.”
    “Couldn’t be better,” Jess repeated, looking toward the stairs. What was keeping her sister?
    “Actually,” Barry was saying, “I had quite a spectacular day today.”
    “And what made it so spectacular?” Jess asked.
    “I stole a very important