No matter how hard he tried, no matter what he did to try and distract himself, Justin couldn't get Lucy and the kiss out of his mind. It was obvious that he and Lucy weren't going to be able to keep things between them strictly professional. His common sense was telling him he should start looking for another job, but at the same time he couldn't just abandon Lucy like Mrs. Burgess had.
Realizing he was daydreaming again, Justin turned to the task at hand, straightening up his desk. As he flipped through the stack of envelopes, deciding which to keep and which to throw away, he came across a Christmas card from Audrey.
Inside she had written him a long note about how well things were going for her and Chad. They were renting a small house in the city. She was working at another real estate agency and Chad had found a job with another company. It sounded like everything was going well for the both of them. He was glad that she was happy at least.
She ended the note by inviting him to spend the holidays with them. As she put it, she hated the idea of him spending Christmas all alone. He hated it too, but unfortunately he was much too busy with the holiday events at the country club to go out of town right now. And he knew it was impossible for Audrey and Chad to come back to Bay Pointe to spend time with him.
Just because he couldn't be with family, didn't mean he had to be all alone. He picked up the phone and dialed Vanessa's number. They might not be a perfect match for each other, but they could both use a friend to spend time with.
"Or maybe not," he thought as he hung up the phone. There was no answer.
"Something smells good," Vanessa remarked as she walked into the kitchen. "Are those omelettes?"
"Yes. Have a seat, they're almost ready."
"Is there anything I can do to help? I feel like I should be making breakfast for you and Ed after all you've done for me."
"You don't have to do anything for us." As Alma set the breakfast things out on the table, she glanced at her watch. "But if you really want something to do, you can help with the dishes. I don't think I'll have time to do them before I leave for work."
"Don't worry about that," Edward said with a wink as he walked into the kitchen. "You're our guest and I believe it's my turn to clean up the kitchen. I'll take care of it."
"I really don't mind," Vanessa insisted as they sat down at the table. "I have to thank you both again for letting me stay here last night. I did not want to stay at that apartment all night by myself and I didn't know who else to call."
"I'm glad you didn't stay there," Alma said. "It's too dangerous. Whoever broke in might have come back."
"That's what I'm afraid of," Vanessa replied. "I suppose I'll have to see what the police have to say before I decide when to go back home. If it's not safe for me to stay there yet, I'll have to stop by to get some of my things at least."
"We want you to know that you are welcome to stay here as long as you need," Edward said.
"Oh no, I don't want to intrude on the two of you. You're still newlyweds after all. I can go to a hotel or maybe I'll see if Cassie and Serena have any extra room at the house."
"You aren't intruding," Alma insisted. "It's really not a problem."
"Thank you," Vanessa gave in. "I appreciate it and I'm so grateful to have you both in my family."
They turned their attention to their breakfast and ate in silence for a moment before Vanessa added, "I do have one condition to staying here, you'll have to let me help out. I'll take my turn at cooking and cleaning the kitchen."
Lucy was sitting in the living room reading a magazine when she heard the front door open. As she rose from her seat to see who was there, Craig walked into the room.
"Hey, babe. Surprised to see me?" he greeted her cheerfully. He leaned in to kiss her, but Lucy pulled away and slapped him across the face. "What was that for?" he exclaimed in shock. "Don't tell me you're still mad about that argument we had over the phone."
The way Craig walked in without a care in the world, as if everything was fine, made Lucy angry enough, but for him to pretend that nothing had happened, only made her more furious. "No, I'm not. That's not what I'm mad about, Craig, and you know it."
"Look, I'm sorry I didn't try to patch things up before now. But when I called you right back after our argument and you didn't answer, I thought maybe we both needed a few days to cool off."
"Cooling off, is that what you call it?" Lucy scoffed.
"Yeah . . .what are you talking about?"
"I actually started to feel bad about our argument later that night and I called back to apologize, but you didn't answer the phone, some woman did."
"A woman? Craig repeated. For a moment he looked confused. "Oh, that must have been Delilah."
"I don't care who she was. I can't believe you would do this to us. I can't believe you would have another woman in your hotel room-"
"Woah, babe. Hold on a second. Delilah is my manager. She was only at the hotel to talk about my touring schedule. There wasn't any funny business going on at all." He paused a second, trying to read Lucy's expression. He couldn't tell if she believed him or if she still had doubts.
"Did you really think I would be with another woman? Baby, you know you're the only one for me. You know our marriage means more to me than that, don't you? I would never even think of cheating on you, just like you would never think about cheating on me. Right?"
Lucy looked away feeling thoroughly embarrassed that she had jumped to conclusions. "Right."
"Good," Craig replied. "Now where's that little boy of ours? I can't wait to see how much he's grown."
"He's upstairs in the nursery," Lucy replied.
"Coming up?"
"I'll be there in a minute." She sat down on the couch as Craig went upstairs. She knew it would be easy enough for him to be lying to her about what happened, but somehow she didn't think that was the case. She believed him. He had been true to her while she was the one who was unfaithful to their marriage. She had never felt more guilty.
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