Stephanie Doyle - Suspect Lover

Caroline sized up the brunette elegantly dressed in white slacks and a black silk sleeveless top. Money. She wore it well. It was in the cut of her clothes, in the silver designer watch that dangled from her wrist, and the two-carat stud earrings that sparkled in her lobes. She watched as the woman slid her hands up Dominic’s cotton-covered chest in an effort to balance herself while she leaned in to kiss him.

Instantly Caroline didn’t like her.

Then she shook her head. Wow, she thought. Jealous this quickly. They’d only been married two days.

The brunette turned back and offered a dazzling-and Caroline tried to believe sincere-smile. “You must be Caroline. I can’t tell you how excited I am to meet you. I’m sorry. This must be a shock for you. But I couldn’t resist. When Steven told me Dominic was getting married, I couldn’t believe it. I had to do something, so I just threw this little party together at the last minute. This way you can meet all of Dominic’s associates and friends. Although with Dominic, that’s usually one and the same.”

“And you are?”

“I’m Anne. Surely, he mentioned me. I know he’s tight-lipped, but come on, Dominic.” Anne turned to Dominic with a chastising pout. “Really, besides Denny and Steven, I’m practically your best friend. And you didn’t mention me to your wife?”

Dominic stood awkwardly in the foyer. He glanced toward Caroline, but didn’t quite meet her eyes. Before she could wonder about that, Anne linked her arm and pulled her forward. “Come along. I’ll introduce you to everyone. And then you can tell me all about how Dominic swept you off your feet.”

Caroline followed the woman’s lead, recognizing that despite the fact that she wasn’t in the mood for a party after their tumultuous trip, she did want to meet the people in Dominic’s life.

Servers worked the party dressed in formal black-and-white attire offering trays of food and flutes of champagne. The house had been decorated with masses of white flowers-roses, daises, even tulips. Elegant and not over the top. A quartet played on the lower level of the house. Sixty or so guests seemed well fed and entertained. All things considered, it was a very nice party.

Anne pulled Caroline toward a small group gathered by the window. One of the men was tall, lean and handsome with a deep tan and a pretty face. To his right was an older gentleman that Anne introduced first.

“This is my father, Russell Long. Daddy, this is Dominic’s wife.” Anne disengaged herself from Caroline’s arm and headed off to mingle.

“It’s a pleasure, my dear.” The older man had the build of someone much younger than his full head of white hair suggested. Hair highlighted by a healthy complexion earned from either the sun or a booth. It was hard to tell. His eyes were fixed on hers and Caroline had the strangest sensation of being evaluated.

“Nice to meet you,” she mumbled.

“Steven Ford,” the younger man with the California looks announced. “Husband of Dominic’s best friend and son-in-law to Russell here. Sorry to spring this on you, but once Anne has an idea in her head she’s hard to stop.”

“No, that’s fine. I’m happy to meet all of you.”

“It must have been a whirlwind trip.”

“Yes, it was.”

That and the most emotionally wrenching experience of her life. The two weeks leading up to the ceremony had been chaos. Dominic had flown with her back to Virginia to help her pack up her clothes and her most precious possessions. Her life. She’d been uncertain, emotional and tense. If it hadn’t been for his bulldozer approach to each task, she might have changed her mind a thousand different times.

Instead he laid drop sheets on her furniture and promised her that once she was settled they could arrange another trip back to pick out the pieces she wanted shipped to California. He hadn’t suggested she sell the house. An idea which she would have rejected as she’d inherited it from her aunt. It was the only connection to her family she had left.

But wasn’t that the goal? She needed to break the connection to her past and embrace her future.

With Dominic. Her husband.

In the midst of all that, she’d learned she wasn’t pregnant. Not that she wanted it or expected it to happen so quickly, but inexplicably she felt disappointed.

“And so this is everyone he works with?”

“Most of us, yeah,” Steven answered. “There’s a bunch of programmers. Plus some account reps, salespeople and support staff. And Denny, of course. Denny, come over here and try to be sociable.”

Caroline spotted the man Steven was waving over. He wasn’t hard to miss. Separated from the rest of the room, he stood alone with a beer dangling between his fingers. His gaze lingered on something or someone behind Caroline, but before she could turn her head to see what it was, he moved and was walking toward them.

Different from the rest of the men who wore slacks and sport coats, he was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt that had seen better days. His sandy brown hair was unkempt and overlong, as was his five o’clock shadow. As he moved closer, she could see that his eyes were almost bright red. Caroline hoped with fatigue and not drugs. There was no polite way to say it. The man was a mess.

“Hey,” he nodded. “I’m Denny.”

She held out her hand. “Nice to meet you.”

“Yeah.”

She wanted to say that Dominic had told her so much about him, but the truth was she only knew that he was a programmer. An excellent one.

“So you’ve got to tell me how all this happened.” Steven nudged her. “Dominic literally walks into my office on Friday, says he won’t be working this weekend because he’s off to Vegas to get hitched and leaves. Please tell me you guys haven’t been dating for years and I’ve been that oblivious.”

Caroline smiled and found herself instantly liking this man. He had an easy way about him that was in direct contrast to his wife’s intensity. “No, we haven’t been dating long.” She wondered what else to say, wondered how much Dominic wanted to reveal or conceal about their relationship. It wasn’t that she was embarrassed about using the agency, but the speed in which it all came about might raise a few eyebrows.

“I met her in Washington.”

Dominic came up behind Caroline and handed her a glass of wine. She took it gratefully.

“Yes,” she added. “A mutual friend set us up. And there was a connection at first sight.”

“Oh, isn’t that romantic!” Anne who had been circling, joined the group and beamed at the two of them. “And this was when?”

“Two months ago,” Caroline answered her, counting the time from when he first contacted her rather than when they actually met.

“And Dominic never said a word,” Anne repeated still evidently shocked by the news.

“He’s entitled to a private life,” Russell told his daughter.

“Yes, but surely you would tell your partners about your marriage,” Anne said directly to Dominic. “In some ways it affects all of us.”

“How so?” Caroline asked.

“Come on, Anne, nobody wants to talk about that stuff now,” Steven said casually taking hold of her elbow and giving it a slight squeeze.

Anne huffed and then turned to Denny. Instantly she sighed and rolled her eyes. “You couldn’t have at least shaved for the occasion? Really, Denny, sometimes you can be almost disgusting in your appearance.”

“Sorry.” He tipped the beer to his lips in a sort of toast. “Congratulations anyway.”

“Thank you. But tell me more about you,” Caroline urged him. “Dominic said you were working nonstop on some important new program for them.”

There was silence and Caroline got the impression that tense glances were being traded.