“She should certainly come with an instruction to only take in small doses,” says Paige, half laughing.
Rachel chuckles. “I’ll give you that, but once the wedding’s out of the way, we’ll probably not see that much of her. It’s poor Will we should feel sorry for.”
“Why have we got to feel sorry for him?” asks Jack, returning to the terrace with two glasses of red wine. He hands one to Rachel, and Noah gives another to Paige.
“Ssh,” says Rachel, pulling Jack toward a sunken seating area. It’s only as she collapses into the cushions that she realizes that a firepit is simmering in front of her.
“Don’t you find it tiresome?” asks Paige, sitting down.
“What?” asks Jack.
“Her!” says Paige, nodding her head in the direction they’d last seen Ali.
Jack takes a large slug of wine.
“She’s just so full-on,” says Paige. “Even before she’s had a drink.”
“You’re full-on, even before you’ve had a drink,” says Jack, laughing.
“I get why she rubs some people up the wrong way,” says Rachel, eager to dispel the growing sense that a ruckus is brewing. It often does when Jack and Paige get together, because they’re both so hot-headed and keen to prove themselves right that they could argue over the price of a pint of milk. “But I think she’s a laugh. The world would certainly be a duller place if she wasn’t in it, that’s for sure.”
“You were moaning about her earlier,” says Paige.
“I wasn’t,” says Rachel. “I was just talking about how she seems to wind some people up.”
“Namely, Jack,” states Paige.
Rachel widens her eyes, wishing she hadn’t said anything.
“Whoa,” says Jack, holding his hands up in the air. “Don’t bring me into this.”
“But you have got a problem with her?” presses Paige.
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to,” says Paige. “It’s written all over your face.”
“And since when were you able to read my expressions?”
Here we go, thinks Rachel, as she brings her feet up under her and swirls her red wine around in its glass. Once they get started, Jack and Paige are like a sparring brother and sister who seem to enjoy getting a rise out of each other. It’s good-humored for the most part, the pair of them playing a ping-pong game of banter—each of them desperate to win the volley—but it’s been known to get a little out of hand. Rachel suspects it’s because they both work in high-pressure jobs and are used to—perhaps even thrive on—being constantly challenged by someone else’s opinion.
Defending herself, or someone else, is what Paige does for a living—“the Rottweiler with a handbag” is how she’s known within the legal profession. If you were ever in trouble, she’s who you’d want onside to get you out of it. But while her ability to argue her way out of a paper bag may well be of use to someone accused of murder, when the same tactics were used to wage a war on your husband, it could be a little overkill.
Rachel rolls her eyes at Noah and he smiles knowingly back, no doubt wondering, like her, how the four of them could ever be best friends. If a stranger looked at them, they would probably assume that it was her and Noah who were a couple; the pair of them sharing an easy, laid-back attitude that Jack and Paige couldn’t even imagine possessing. They were happy just bobbing along, seeing the good in everyone and everything, while Jack and Paige cast a cynical eye over the minutiae of life.
Yet somehow, collectively, it worked. Perhaps because they all got something from each other’s spouses that they didn’t get from their own.
“So, what’s your problem with her?” Paige asks, like a dog with a bone.
Jack looks into his glass, as if he’s deliberating whether to say what he’s about to say.
“I…” he starts, before looking around. “I … just don’t trust her.”
“Why not?” asks Paige.
“P…” says Noah, warning her not to push it.
“I’ve got my reasons” is all that Jack says.
Rachel leans forward, her brow furrowed. “Is there something you’re not telling us?”
Jack sighs heavily.
“There’s clearly something playing on your mind,” says Paige, doubling the pressure.
He looks resignedly between Paige and Rachel. “I think she’s cheated on him.” His words are almost inaudible.
“What?” exclaims Rachel, followed by a deafening silence from Paige. She daren’t look to see the “I told you so” expression on her face.
“How do you … how do you know?” asks Rachel, as her heart breaks into a thousand pieces for poor Will, who’s like a brother to her.
“Rick at work,” said Jack. “He told me he’d been sleeping with her for a couple of months.”
“But does he know…?” starts Rachel. “That she’s with Will and he’s your brother?”
Jack shakes his head. “When they started going out, I told Ali I didn’t want anyone at work to know there was a connection. I wanted to keep everything professional.”
“So, this Rick guy didn’t know he was revealing anything untoward?” asks Paige.
“No,” says Jack. “It was just one of those situations in the pub after work and he said to a few of us that he had been ‘banging the hot girl who used to work in A&R,’ for want of a better expression.”
“Well, when did this happen?” asks Rachel. “Was it recently or before her and Will got together?”
Jack shrugs his shoulders as if he’s physically trying to unburden himself of the knowledge he’s been carrying for all this time. “He told me in the summer,” he says. “I don’t know if it’s still going on, as he left shortly after.”
Rachel can hardly think straight as her mind desperately tries to unravel the news and put it back together in a form that she’s happy with.
“Does Will know?” she says, when it doesn’t work.
“I don’t think so,” says Jack. “And I don’t want him to either.”
“You can’t let him marry her,” says Paige, her voice high-pitched.
“Listen,” says Jack, sounding suddenly authoritative. “I’ve had this going around on a loop in my head for months, wondering what I should do.”
Now, it’s all beginning to fall into place, thinks Rachel. He’s been so wound up lately. “But don’t you think he deserves to be told?” she offers meekly.
He turns to face her. “You said yourself, that you’d never seen him so happy.”
She nods miserably.
“He’s a grown man who can hopefully see Ali for what she is,” says Jack. “And if he’s happy with that, then who am I to stand between them? It doesn’t mean I have to like her, but I can put the face on to get through this weekend and I’d ask that you all do the same.”
He looks at Paige with raised eyebrows, knowing that she’s the most likely to struggle with such a request.
“I’ve never liked her,” she hisses.
“I shouldn’t have told you,” says Jack, raking a hand through his hair.
“I wish you hadn’t,” says Rachel, wondering how on earth she’s going to stand by and let her trusting brother-in-law marry a woman who has been unfaithful to him.
“But you have to promise to keep it to yourselves and not let it ruin the weekend.”
“It just goes to show that you never know what goes on behind closed doors,” says Noah.
The four of them fall ominously silent when Ali and Will appear at the top of a flight of stairs leading onto a darkened corner of the patio. Rachel immediately feels herself going hot at the thought of them having heard what they’ve been saying. She searches their expressions for any telltale signs. There are none.
“Oh my God, you guys,” shrieks Ali, as irrepressible as ever. “You need to see our room.” She claps her hands together like an excited child on Christmas morning.
“Another drink, anyone?” asks Paige, not even trying to disguise her indifference.
“I’ll help you,” says Jack, getting up. “What are we having?”
“Just a glass of water for me, please,” says Ali. “I’m still recovering from the flight.” She pulls an apologetic face.
“Will?” asks Jack.
“A glass of red, please, mate.”