Free Lake Effect by Johannah Bryson

help me out here, Shelby.”
    â€œI’m sorry,” she said and he could hear the anger leaving her voice. “I’m sure I’m jumping to conclusions here but I … ” her words were cut off by the voice behind him.
    â€œWyeth, here you are, darling.” Abby. He hadn’t seen her enter the lobby. “Dinner is about to start and you don’t want to be late. Surely your business call can wait.” Abby latched onto his arm as he heard a cold and icy voice come through the phone.
    â€œYes,
darling
,
I’d hate for you to be late for dinner.” The phone in his hand was suddenly very quiet. The screen confirmed it: “connection ended.”
    â€¢ • •
    Shelby tried to steady her shaking hand. What kind of a man was he? To call her and to say all those sweet things while he was out with another woman. And not just any woman — that was the same voice she’d heard coo down the steps of the manor house. She pulled the plug of the phone from the wall to stop the ringing.
I wonder if any of those women in the pictures belong to that silky voice.
She wasn’t going to look. She’d had enough for one night. She’d had enough for a lifetime, now that she had a better picture of what kind of a man he was.
    She headed up the steps to her room and then stopped. Going to the closet under the steps, she took out one of the two boxes she’d returned with from Bennett’s Corners. She made her way to her bedroom and placed the box on the bed. She wasn’t quite sure why she’d kept them when everything else had been donated. Carefully and almost with reverence, she took out the white dress shirts. There were twelve of them in all. She laughed, picturing Jack getting ready to go out on cold calls for the business. He had plenty of dress shirts but he’d only wear white for business.
“It’s my power color, babe. Besides, chicks dig a man in a crisp white shirt.”
He was always saying things like that, teasing her. He’d never been with another woman but her. He used to tell people that he’d just been lucky enough to find the best first.
    Over these past few weeks she’d allowed herself to think that falling in love a second time might actually be possible. She thought of Wyeth holding her in the doorway, kissing her in the backyard of the manor house. She’d thought of nothing but him since the day Norman pushed him in that damn pool. His kisses had ignited her in a way Jack’s never had. They were sexy and deep … experienced, too experienced. The pictures from the newspaper clippings swirled in her head.
I’ll bet she has black hair, like the evil queens of all the stories and movies.
    â€œI am not a desperate woman,” Shelby spoke aloud to Norman who’d made himself quite comfortable on her bed. He let out a deep low growl as if he agreed. “I simply fell for his charms, apparently like so many others before me.” Norman cocked his head as if to question the statement.
    Shelby thought again of the silky voice on the phone. Carefully, she placed eleven of the shirts on hangers in her closet. Slipping out of her pajamas, she took the last shirt and put it on. It was huge and hung down to her knees and it felt so good. She tossed the box to a corner of her room and crawled onto the big iron bed. It was warm but a cool breeze off the lake was helping. She drifted off into a deep sleep as thoughts of Jack and Wyeth warred in her subconscious.
    â€¢ • •
    Wyeth had never hit a woman in his life. Now he clenched his fists close to his sides to keep from doing just that. Abby had wrapped herself around him like a boa constrictor. He could feel her sucking the life right out of him. Pushing down the bile rising in his throat, he managed to pry her off.
    â€œWyeth.” He turned to see Janele as she entered the foyer, a stunned look on her face. “Hello,