Read Covet for Free Online

kids and are probably knocking back a few drinks of their own.
    I beg off even though it’s only nine o’clock. The babysitter has brought the kids home and they’re upstairs taking showers. I’d have no one to watch them, and I’m tired and looking forward to relaxing with a DVD after I get them in bed.
    Julia stands and sways slightly as she pours the last of the chardonnay into her glass. She makes her way through my kitchen, sipping the wine, and heads toward the front door. “I’ll bring your glass back tomorrow, Claire,” she says over her shoulder. But she won’t. I always have to retrieve them.
    Elisa pecks me on the cheek and gathers her things. “Thanks, Claire. I’ll see you later. Bye, Bridget.” She hurries out and I know it’s because she wants to follow Julia and make sure she gets home okay.
    Bridget yawns. This morning’s caffeine boost has been eclipsed by the sedating effects of a few beers and the cumulative fatigue brought about by a day’s worth of parenting.
    “See you tomorrow at seven?” I ask as I walk her out.
    She leans over and gives me a quick hug. “Sure. Thanks for hosting.”
    “You’re welcome.”
    It takes me fifteen minutes to clean up the kitchen and the deck after I tuck the kids into bed. Before I head upstairs to slip between my own sheets, I check my e-mail.
    To: Claire Canton
From: Chris Canton
    Subject: Kids
    I got your message. Tell the kids I’m sorry I missed them—I was on a conference call, but it was nice to hear their voices on the recording. Busy day tomorrow. I’ll try to check in when I get back to the hotel. Closed the deal in Albuquerque. Hope I can do the same in Santa Fe.



7
    claire
    When we returned home from Hawaii last year, the first month of Chris’s unemployment was almost behind us. Our lives didn’t seem that different, because even though he was home all the time, he never stopped working. Idleness was a foreign concept to Chris, and he spent his days fixing things around the house and offering to drive the kids to their playdates and after-school practices. He worked tirelessly in the yard, planting trees and building a large retaining wall, which he landscaped with shrubs and rosebushes.
    He was confident that the headhunters who fawned all over him would soon call to tell him they’d located the next lucrative position, complete with a sign-on bonus and six weeks of vacation time. This mind-set didn’t come from a place of entitlement, and Chris certainly didn’t take the recession lightly, but there were sectors of the economy that were still performing well and he thought it was only a matter of time before the headhunters found a company that needed a proven sales leader, pairing them like the matching cards in a giant game of employment concentration. Patience isn’t one of Chris’s stronger virtues, but he waited, and though he got a bit quieter, pensive, and slightly brooding, I don’t think anyone noticed but me.
    School let out and in the months that followed, Chris volunteered to coach Josh’s summer baseball league and shuttle Jordan back and forth to her swimming lessons while I spent the days appeasing my clients. For the first time ever I had the freedom to take on additional work and more challenging projects. I didn’t have to drop everything in time to meet the school bus or run someone to practice or facilitate a playdate.
    Frequent monitoring of our bank account showed more money going out than we’d planned for. The premiums for our health insurance were so high it barely seemed legal, Chris’s car needed four new tires, and our dentist referred us to an orthodontist who informed us of the costly treatment Jordan would need to correct a problem that was invisible to the untrained eye. “We can postpone it,” I suggested.
    Chris wouldn’t even consider it. “No,” he said. “If she needs it, we’ll do it now.”
    He came home one day and found me mopping the kitchen floor. “Why don’t you let