Free The Replacement Wife by Eileen Goudge

on his way to the all-boy party at Chelsea Piers. When Edward showed up several hours later, after the six boys had worn themselves out in the batting cages and were digging in to the pizza she’d had delivered, her heart sank when she saw he was empty-handed.
    “You forgot.” She stared at him in disbelief.
    He paused, giving her a blank look, then grimaced. “The cake. Damn.” His expression turned contrite as he continued toward her. “I’m sorry, Cam. There was so much going on at work . . .”
    Like I don’t have a lot going on, too? But she didn’t voice her frustration; she only sighed.
    “I’ll run back and get it,” he said.
    “Never mind,” she told him, her voice weary. “By the time you made it back, it’d be too late.” The bakery was all the way up on West Seventy-Ninth Street, easily a forty-minute round trip.
    Edward flashed a guilty look at their son, who at the moment was too busy chowing down with his friends to notice either his father’s presence or the absence of the cake. The boys all had red clown mouths and cheese dripping from their chins. Then Zach spotted his dad and came charging over.
    “Hey, Dad! Guess what? I hit more balls than anyone!”
    Edward grinned and ruffled Zach’s hair. “Way to go, slugger. Sorry I wasn’t here to see it.” He grabbed a wad of napkins and handed it to Zach, who gave his stained mouth a cursory swipe.
    “I only struck out twice. ” Zach beamed at his dad.
    “Looks like we have a future MVP on our hands.” Edward turned to smile at Camille, who didn’t smile back. She wasn’t in a forgiving mood at the moment. “I would’ve gotten here sooner if I could have,” he told Zack, bending down so they were eye level. “You know that, don’t you?”
    “Yeah, I know.” Zach’s tone was matter of fact. He shouldn’t be so used to it, Camille thought.
    “But, listen,” Edward went on, “I have a surprise for you.”
    Zach’s eyes widened. “Bigger than the bike?” His main present was the razor bike he’d been begging for since he was six.
    “No, but it’s one I think you’ll like,” Edward answered with a wink. “Instead of boring old cake, how would you feel about us all going to Serendipity for frozen hot chocolate sundaes?”
    “Awwwwwesome.” Zach jumped up and down in his excitement. “Can we go now?”
    “Sure, as soon as you finish your pizza.”
    “Great,” Camille muttered to her husband after Zach had run off to give the good news to his friends. “Now all we have to do is figure out a way to fit six kids and two adults into one cab.”
    “So we’ll take two cabs,” Edward said with a shrug. Problem solved.
    If only it were as simple as that. Now she had to phone the other moms and inform them of the change in plans, then pray it wouldn’t be too long a wait once they got there. The popular eatery was always packed this time of day; it could be an hour or more before they got a table. Which meant six rowdy boys jammed into the waiting area, or worse, racing up and down the sidewalk in front.
    Why did mothers always get stuck with the boring details while fathers got to play the hero? she thought with frustration. It wasn’t intentional, she knew; they meant well. Still. The upshot was, while Zach would remember this day as one filled with fun and surprises, her memory of the last birthday of his she was likely to celebrate would be of her husband neglecting to do the one thing she’d asked of him and then compounding it by making even more work for her. She sighed again. Maybe it wasn’t so unintentional. Maybe, deep down, he wanted to punish her.
    “You’re angry with me, aren’t you?” She confronted him while the boys were in the restroom washing up.
    Edward looked at her, a play of emotions flitting over his handsome face like wind-chased clouds across a winter sky. “Angry? Why would I be angry at you ? I’m the one who screwed up.”
    “You know perfectly well what I mean,” she said through