"Hustmyre, Charles - The Love Boat" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hustmyre Charles)

"What?"

"It'll be fun," he said. "Ten days alone. We'll order room service, stay in bed the whole time if we want."

Lucy folded her arms across her ample bosom. "I didn't come on this boat to spend the whole time in the damn cabin."

"I thought you wanted to spend time alone. The cruise was your idea, remember."

"Yeah the cruise was my idea. Sitting in a cabin for ten days isn't a cruise. We coulda stayed home, rented a motel room for that. I want to see some sights, have fun."

"You want Karen to find out about us?" he asked. "She's your friend."

Her face hardened. "Yeah, but she's your wife. I'm not the one who swore to be faithful to her."

Ouch! "What're you trying to say? You saying this is all one sided; I'm the only one doing anything wrong?"

Lucy's face softened a little. "No, that's not what I'm saying." Uncrossing her arms then sitting on the edge of the bed. "What makes you so sure this guy'll tell her?"

Dan ran his fingers through his hair. "'Bout two years ago, there was a guy down the street, three or four houses down, William sees him out one night with some girl. I think they were at a restaurant. Now this guy's married and the girl's not his wife. Anyway, next day William comes over to my house spends an hour telling me about it. Speculating about who she was, how long they've been seeing each other, where they do it. I'm telling you Will's a big mouth. He gossips worse than a woman."

Lucy looked mad. "So because your ex-neighbor is on the boat, I've got to stay locked up in the cabin for the next ten days?"

"It's not going to be that bad, honey. We can go out. You like to exercise, you can go to the gym, maybe do a little shopping, get some sun. I'll go out some, get a drink, go to the casino. We just can't go out together."

She looked at him, head tilted slightly to the side. A questioning look. "Great. We get out of town, go on a cruise to be together, now we can't be seen together. This is just like back home." She pounded her small fist on the bed. "I'm tired of sneaking around. You got it all figured out. You get to go out drinking and gambling by yourself and you want me here at night. You wanna have your cake and eat it too. Well that's not gonna happen."

Dan didn't know what to say, so he didn't say anything, afraid whatever he said would sound stupid.

"Don't you have anything to say?" she shouted at him.

He realized he should have said something. "Honey, you knew when we started this--"

"I knew what?" She cut him off. "That I was always going to be the other woman. You know she called me last week and told me about your trip."

No, he didn't know that. "What'd she say?"

She stared at him for a few seconds before answering. Then shifted her weight, leaning over to one side, sticking her arm down to brace herself. "She said you were going out of town for two weeks, someplace in the jungle with no phones. She was worried about you. Asked if I'd like to get together this coming weekend. Go out to dinner and a movie."

Dan felt a small knot of fear forming in his stomach. Something about the calm, matter-of-fact way she was telling him. Almost like she was dragging it out on purpose to make him nervous. "What did you tell her?"

"I said I was going out of town myself to visit my sister."

"Did she say anything? You think she suspects?"

Again a slight pause, then she said, "I don't think so, no."

The knot was starting to grow. "You don't think so?"

"When are you going to tell her?" she asked. "Six months of sneaking around is about all I can take."