“I feel like I can talk to you,” Rachel admitted. “You’ve been around the world, and you’ve met so many people. You’ve been outside our little town bubble. You know that people aren’t perfect, and life doesn’t always play out as you imagine or hope. I love Josh, but boy, is he not perfect.”
“No one is perfect,” Cat replied. “Not one person.”
“If I told any of my other friends, they’d ask why I hadn’t kicked Josh’s ass or thrown him out of the house. You realize that life is more complicated than that. I still love him, you know. More than he deserves right now, but I’m not going to blow up my marriage to a man I’ve been with since I was thirteen just because he made a bad decision or two. I think we can fix this.”
To Cat, infidelity was a bit more than a bad decision. It was adeliberatedecision. She was sure that Josh hadn’t fallen penis first into another woman by accident. He’d decided to risk his marriage to do it. He wasn’t a stupid person. He had to be aware of the consequences.
Was that the attraction? The risk? After years of being happily coupled, had Josh decided to do something wild and out of character?
He wouldn’t be the first or the last.
“Relationships are complicated,” Cat agreed, wanting to stay strictly neutral in this discussion. She was in no position to give any advice or judgment. Hopefully, all Rachel needed was a sounding board. “They take a lot of work.”
Such platitudes. It’s all Cat had to give her friend at a moment like this.
“I think it’s Lindsay, our dog groomer,” Rachel continued. “Our pups have never smelled or looked better.”
“That doesn’t mean it’s an affair,” Cat replied. “It could be something completely different.”
“You should see him around her,” Rachel said with a shake of her head. “He acts like a giddy teenager with a crush. I don’t remember the last time he acted that way around me. I would never try to hurt him, Cat, but he’s hurt me. It’s so painful, I can barely get through most days without breaking down in tears.”
“Have you tried marriage counseling?”
Shit, she hadn’t wanted to get into the advice business here. She knew nothing about being in a committed relationship.
“We’ve been in marriage counseling a few towns over. I didn’t want anyone here to know that we were having trouble. It hasn’t really done much, although I haven’t brought up that I think he’s having an affair. You know how Josh is. He’ll just charm his way out of that. He can make anyone believe anything, especially me. He’ll talk me out of it, and I’ll fold like a cheap tent.”
Josh was a charming devil. He’d talked his way out of dozens of detentions back in high school.
“A part of me was thinking about asking for a divorce if he didn’t end his relationship,” Rachel revealed when Cat didn’t say anything. “But if I do that now, they’ll think I was the one who tried to kill him.”
“They can’t think that,” Cat replied firmly. “You were inside when he was shot at.”
“Okay, then they’ll think that I hired someone to shoot at him. It’s all the same. It’s always the spouse who’s the main suspect. That’s who the cops go after. I’ll go to prison, and Josh will marry Lindsay and get free dog grooming for life.”
“Finn would never railroad an innocent person into prison. That’s not his style.”
“I don’t want to take that chance.”
Rachel’s phone buzzed, and she pulled it from her pocket to check the screen. Her face paled, and she began frantically digging in her purse, tossing tissues and mints on the kitchen counter.
“I need my keys,” Rachel yelled. “Fuck it all. They should be right here.”
“I can help you,” Cat offered, trying to calm down her clearly frantic friend. “Are you okay?”
“No, I am not okay. You’re going to have to go with me. I don’t have time to take you back to your house.” Rachel finally held up the sought keyring, jingling it in front of Cat’s face. “We have to go now. Let’s go, and I’ll lock up behind us.”
Cat was afraid to ask where they were going based on Rachel’s tense behavior. The woman had practically sprinted to her SUV, fumbling with the ignition to get it started. She floored it as they backed out of the driveway, and then slammed on the brakes so hard that Cat had to grab the seat with one hand and the dashboard with the other.
“Um, Rachel? Where are we going?”
“The hospital,” Rachel said with a sob, her shoulders beginning to shake with the force of her tears. “Someone tried to kill Josh again. He was biking, and they tried to run him down.”
Cat reached over and placed her hand on Rachel’s, which was clutching the steering wheel.
“I’ll drive. You are too upset to be behind the wheel. I’ll have us there in no time.”
Rachel opened her mouth to protest, but then an expression of relief passed over her features, her entire body slumping in the driver’s seat.
