Shadows in the Dark

Chapter 8

Rose was caught up in all the drama. In addition to Will Drake and the divorcee, there was a rift between the Hughes and the Pendleton's. She would put money on Jeremy Pendleton being unfaithful before Will Drake. She imagined he had his pick of the woman reporters from those cable news stations that were hired for their beauty not their brains, although it didn't prove he was kissing Ruby in the dark. She couldn't forget it was his porch where the kissing took place.

Meanwhile, Mason needed to talk to Melissa, but she kept ignoring him. On Saturday night, she turned down Ruby's invitation for drinks. She told Ruby Jeremy had to stay in Washington, so she would call him and read a book.

Ruby wasn't much of a reader, but she did read Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus and used it to find fault with Mason every chance she had. To her the book justified her behavior, but not his. She was a woman who needed attention and she exhausted him. Thankfully, he had a break in the summer when he stayed in Maine with the kids.

It used to be Ruby in Maine all summer, but their role reversal happened by accident. Ruby insisted on having some work done a few years after her fourth and final baby. Mason worked in banking but also had family money, so he could afford to spoil his wife. She enhanced her breasts and tucked her tummy. More recently she had work on her face which resulted in her inability to smile fully and a set of lips that he no longer recognized.

Ruby was recruited to audition for the shopping channel in the waiting room at the plastic surgeon's office. The producer was having his eyes done. Mason wasn't keen on vain people and preferred Ruby's natural beauty over the image she made herself into. After Ruby had found her place in front of the camera, Mason quit his boring, tedious bank job.

Unfortunately, there was more to their role reversal than just who left the house in the morning and brought home the paycheck. Over time, Mason felt Ruby looked at him differently and valued him less. He had even suggested he should go back to work, but Ruby disagreed. She liked the power of having a man home waiting for her and wait for her he did, late into the night. She would go out with her work friends and essentially abandon their family. He never trusted her and had become too worn down and numb to even care who she was with.

When he kissed Melissa, he didn't feel guilty. What he felt was a need which had long since evaporated in his marriage. Sure he and Ruby went out together and looked like the perfect couple, but it was easy to be what the world expected in public. At home, he had to force Ruby to be involved in the decision making around their children's lives. She hardly missed her children in the summer when they took up residence at their beach house without her. The kids didn't run to greet her when she flew up for a visit each weekend.

Only Lucinda, his oldest, who he called Lucy looked up to her mother. She worried Mason, because at fifteen she valued her appearance and the attention she received from boys more than he preferred. He tried to convince Ruby to talk to her, but she just responded, "Don't worry... I'll put her on the pill."

"She's too young! I don't want some kid's sweaty palms all over my daughter."

"Don't be naïve. She's too beautiful to stay a virgin long. She's like me."

Mason knew Ruby wasn't a virgin when he started dating her. She was nineteen and he was twenty-three. He was attracted to her beauty and he was almost certain she had been attracted to his trust fund allowance.

His family's place was a beach house not a cottage. It was located on Shore Road by the marina. His house wasn't as old as the Evans House, but it was just as big. His four children all had their own room, including a large first floor master suite. It was originally built by his grandfather after the war, although the house had been updated and added onto over the decades. His grandfather had owned a factory which was converted to make parts for bombers in the war effort. While boys fought Hitler on foreign soil, the Hughes became wealthier by the day. Mason was certain if he didn't have his family money, Ruby would have replaced him with one of her exciting television friends.

His problem was his memory of the kiss on the porch was exciting and the woman responsible was going out of her way to ignore him. He had stopped trying to figure out the Pendleton's marriage. Although the couples had fun together, he secretly thought Jeremy never appreciated his wife as he should. In Mason's mind, Melissa deserved better.

When he heard rumors going around about secret meetings and affairs, he worried they had been discovered. He really needed to talk to Melissa, so after Lucy came home and Ruby's Ambien kicked in, he left. He walked down the empty street and into the backyard of the Pendleton's house on Plover Way. He lightly rapped on the backdoor even though he knew no one locked their doors and he could have walked right it. When he saw a light turn on he knew she'd heard him.

"What are you doing here?" She whispered through her clenched teeth.

"I wanted to... I needed to talk to you." His reply sounded like a plea.

"There's nothing to talk about."

"If that was true, you wouldn't be avoiding me."

Melissa didn't want to fall victim to his southern drawl. "Go home to your wife!"

"She took a pill and is out cold. Have you heard the rumors?"

"Yeah, everyone is obsessed with the poor woman. She's just sad and lonely."

Melissa saw something in her eyes — ]a loneliness and sadness that mirrored her own.

"I was afraid someone saw us," he whispered.

He was standing close enough she could feel his exhale of air on her neck. She raised her hand to push him away, but he grabbed her wrist and pulled her even closer.

"If the bet was between you and Ruby, you would have won." His lips brushed her neck and she felt goosebumps run down her spine. "I haven't felt a kiss like that in a very long time."

She needed to pull back, as her body reacted inappropriately. Her nipples hardened from his close proximity. She found her voice and half heartedly pleaded. "It's not right..."

"Tell me, do you think Jeremy has been faithful?"

She looked shocked, by his accusation, but then she sighed and her words surprised Mason.

She answered solemnly, "I know he's not..."

Mason nodded. "I don't trust Ruby and don't really care. She hardly even resembles the girl I married."

"She's still your wife!" Melissa protested.

"The only thing she loves is the camera and the attention... more than even our children."

"She loves them." Melissa's voice trailed off, as she tried to remember Ruby jumping up to meet her children's needs, but it was always Mason. Mason was one of a kind and she'd been thinking about him more than she should have since their kiss.

Having stepped away from him, when the conversation turned to their spouse's infidelity, Mason looked sad.

"She loves them, but she loves herself more. I reckon I come in fourth behind my money."

It was no secret Mason had old family money. Melissa didn't have a response. Ruby never confided in her about her marriage to Mason. Their friendship wasn't as close as it appeared to the casual observer.

Mason approached her again. Looking down, he softly said, "I should go."

Before she could react, his mouth was on hers and she gave in to it. She had been starved for attention and was feeling greedy. She was a woman with needs that weren't being met.

It was Mason who groaned and pulled away. Just before he slipped out her backdoor, he whispered, "Someday I'm going to do more than just kiss you."

She stood in her dark kitchen with her fingers on her lips and stared at the door feeling a pulse of longing and fear flow simultaneously through her body.

Mason walked back through the quiet streets. He entered the house from the patio where he had sat with a beer earlier. When he climbed in bed with his wife, he reached over and put his arm around her. In her sleep she turned away from him. He was as lonely sharing a bed, as he'd been all week while she was in Atlanta.