2 Suzy #3
“Drinks?” Lincoln suggested as Trevor came back inside and whisked the bags away with Candice’s assistance.
But before Suzy and Sean could answer, Juliet Jacoby came flying at them from the direction of the stairs.
She flung her arms—and her hair and her long necklaces—around Suzy and gripped her so tightly it hurt.
Suzy smelled the funk of pot smoke all over her and tried not to cough.
“Oh my God, oh my God, you’re here!” Juliet cried.
When she pulled back, her long wavy blond tresses were all caught up in the buttons of Suzy’s blouse and had even caught in her dangling earring.
Laughing, they disentangled themselves, and then Suzy studied her friend as Juliet took Wintour out of her arms for a kiss.
It occurred to her that Juliet’s laugh was forced, and that she was practically vibrating with .
. . something. Excitement? Anxiety? Certainly not.
Juliet spent her life Zenned out on a concoction of meditation, marijuana, and hot yoga.
Suzy ran her hands down Juliet’s bare arms while Wintour licked her friend’s face like it was made of pepperoni. “Hey! Are you okay? Where’s Josh?”
“Oh, he’s meeting me here. He had a thing in the city.
” Juliet cradled Wintour in one arm, and her bony hand grasped Suzy’s, cold perspiration pressing into her skin.
Okay, something was definitely wrong. Was it the baby?
Juliet’s son, Beckham, was nine months old, and sometimes Suzy privately wondered if Juliet might turn out to be one of those moms who left him in the car on a hot afternoon or forgot to feed him for three days.
Focus was not her strong suit, and giving birth hadn’t seemed to waken some dormant maternal instinct.
If anything, Juliet acted more like a flighty teenager now than she had before she’d become a mom.
“Come with me. I want to show you something.”
As Juliet dragged her through the foyer and toward the stairs to the second floor, Suzy braced herself for what was to come.
She loved Juliet, but it was equally likely that she was about to be shown a video of a pig in a top hat as it was that she was going to be shown something that actually mattered.
“Where’s Beckham?” Suzy asked.
“Oh, Tini is with him upstairs. Hazel has a sort of nursery slash playroom on the third floor.” Juliet waved a hand.
Tini. Right. The new nanny. Suzy was relieved to know she was here.
One less thing to worry about. “It’s huge.
Vaulted ceiling, bunk beds, cribs, toys everywhere.
There’s even a little wet bar with a fridge for the formula and stuff.
They won’t have to leave there the entire weekend. ”
“Wait, where? Did she take out the theater?” Suzy asked, blindsided.
Juliet paused and blinked. “Oh. Yeah. I guess she did. Anyway, Josh paid Tini double to come out for the week. And then Lincoln kicked in triple to also watch Hazel’s kids.
Not that Hazel will let her. It seems like she’s always hovering over them.
” Juliet rolled her eyes like she couldn’t believe a woman would rather take care of her own children.
Wintour barked once, probably annoyed that no one had mentioned her in the last two minutes.
At the landing between the two short flights, Juliet placed Wintour on the floor and whirled on Suzy so abruptly, Suzy almost fell backward down the stairs.
As she gripped the wall to stop herself, she noticed that the colorful teak-framed artwork on the walls had been replaced by odd black-and-white photographs set in black mats.
Pictures of antique furniture positioned on sand dunes and at the edges of the water.
A long table, set with a white cloth that billowed in the breeze, half the stemware on it knocked over by the wind.
An empty rocking chair in the reeds. A child’s iron post bed, unmade, with a sad-looking doll propped against the pillow.
“What the fu—”
She didn’t finish her epithet because Juliet held up an envelope. A small square, light-blue envelope, with Juliet’s name written across it in a languid script. The dog yipped, her tail wagging against the floor as she looked up at them expectantly.
Everything inside Suzy dropped. Heart, stomach, bladder. Possibly even her spleen.
“You and Marley both have one,” Juliet whispered. They were just out of sight of the men downstairs and could hear their hearty voices and laughter clearly. “I checked.”
“Just us?”
Juliet nodded.
“But I don’t . . . How?” Suzy grabbed the envelope from her. It was still sealed. “You didn’t read it?”
“I didn’t want to open it until you guys got here. How did she do it?” Juliet asked.
“Lily?” Suzy said. “She couldn’t have. She’s still in rehab.”
Besides, why would she do it? Every summer, upon arrival at the Villa, the guests would find a handwritten note from their hostess, Lily, on their pillows, wishing them a lovely week and adding some personal joke or sentiment for the reader.
They were always so sweet and thoughtful.
Suzy had, in fact, saved all of hers in the memory box she kept in her closet.
This was the first time any of them had ever been here without Lily.
And Suzy was sure Lily was beyond pissed off that they had all accepted Lincoln’s invitation.
She knew she would be. So why would she go out of her way to send welcome notes?
To a house, to a party, that was no longer hers.
Suzy felt sick to her stomach.
“Could she have mailed them to Lincoln?” Juliet asked, blue eyes wide. She swiped a bit of her own hair out of her mouth absently.
“Like he’d do this for her. No. These can’t be from her,” Suzy said. “Is that even her handwriting?”
“I don’t know.” They stood next to one another and leaned in over the envelope as if it was an explosive device that might go off any moment. “It’s close. I think. Did she do her J’s that way?”
“Does she. Does she do her J’s that way. She’s not dead,” Suzy replied.
“Omigod, okay, I know, but . . . I don’t get it. If it’s not from her, then who is it from?” They locked eyes, and Suzy knew they were both thinking the same thing.
“Not Hazel,” Suzy said. “She can’t be that obtuse.”
Juliet raised her eyebrows, like, Can’t she?
“Are you gonna open it?” Suzy asked. Already she was picturing the envelope propped against the bolster pillow in the room she always shared with Sean. Were they really welcome notes? She was dying to know who had written them. “Let’s just—”
“Nope.” Juliet shook her head, snatching the envelope away as Suzy reached for it. The note disappeared into some hidden pocket in the voluminous skirt of her sundress. “We wait for Marley.”