Was this a code word for prostitution? Her stomach clenched at the thought. Jess didn’t think of herself as a prude, and she’d been involved in a few one-night stands of her own when she was younger, but she couldn’t imagine having sex for money. How could you summon desire on demand?
She grimaced. That wasn’t the most likely scenario. Maybe they were meditating or doing tai chi or whatever. She could take a walk through the garden to see if she noticed anything. Just to be on the safe side.
She checked that Ella was still sleeping, then tucked the baby monitor into the pocket of her sweats. It took only a moment to sneak down the stairs, slip into her shoes, and leave the house without being seen by her mom. She hastened through the garden, but instead of keeping to the main path, she detoured to the trees that grew on the backside of the garden house.
She stepped on a branch. It broke with a snap.
Jess froze. That had been as loud as a whip. Could they hear that in the house?
She walked on more carefully, keeping her eyes on the ground until she was close enough to look into the back windows.
The bedroom curtains were drawn. The bathroom had frosted glass that ensured privacy, so Lena hadn’t bothered with curtains or blinds. And why should she even suspect someone was peering inside her bathroom on private property?
Maybe this wasn’t Jess’s brightest moment. She hung her head and was about to retreat when the light in the bathroom came on.
Laughter and two female voices pierced the quiet. The blurred figure that entered the room was much too curvy to be Lena.
Spying on a stranger using the bathroom wasn’t okay.
The woman raised her arms and slipped off her shirt.
Why was she undressing? Against her better judgment, Jess’s gaze stayed glued on the woman’s movements as she pulled down her pants.
Acid burned in Jess’s stomach, making her sick. What did this mean? She closed her eyes to concentrate. Had her wildest speculation been accurate? Was Lena a prostitute? How dare she do this on her mom’s property! How could she trample all over her mom’s generosity?
There might be a different explanation, but Jess couldn’t think of one. They had neither greeted like girlfriends nor lovers when they’d met on the path. No, they had seemed like strangers.
She had to find out. It was only fair to know what was happening in her mom’s house. She tiptoed to the front. Maybe they were occupied enough by whatever they were doing that she could peek into the window or even listen in on their conversation.
When she reached the side of the porch, she crouched low and crept beneath the kitchen window. The light was off, and Jess risked raising her head to look inside. Nothing. Soft, flickering light shone from the other side of the main room.
Jess crept on, past the door, to the other window. The candlelight cast irregular shadows over the wooden porch. She couldn’t hear anything.
Could she risk another peek? She had to if she wanted to know what was happening. She raised herself in an awkward half squat she couldn’t hold for long and tried to look between the thick off-white candles on the inside windowsill. She caught a glimpse of the curvy woman in a white, fluffy dressing gown with her back to the window. More burning candles were scattered all over the room. Lena was nowhere in sight.
“Jess?”
Shit. Jess tried to turn around and stand up at the same time and promptly lost her balance.
She reached for the windowsill, but her clammy hands slipped.
With a booming thud, she fell on her ass. The wooden boards beneath her vibrated when she braced herself to regain balance.
When she looked up, it wasn’t just Lena staring at her.
Her mom towered over her, eyes wide and mouth open. Slowly, her expression hardened from disbelief to disgust. Something she had never, ever seen on her mom’s face before, at least not directed at her.
Oh fuck.
Jess’s face burned hot with embarrassment and anger at her own stupidity. How could she ever explain getting caught snooping in a window?
She swallowed the rising bile and held her mother’s gaze. If she had learned one lesson working with highly competitive colleagues, it was that offense is the best defense.
Lena opened and closed her mouth like a fish on the pier. Had Jess been spying through the window? What on earth had she been thinking?
“Jessica Eleanor Riley!” Maggie hissed next to her. By the tone of her voice, she was feeling as incredulous as Lena. “What are you doing?”
Slowly, Jess stood. She squared her shoulders and raised her chin as if she was about to enter a battle.
“Mom.” She locked her gaze with her mother’s, completely unapologetic. “You don’t know what she’s doing in there. I think she’s a prostitute. Here. In our garden house.”
The words hit Lena like a punch in the stomach. Had she just said…? Her vision blurred like a watercolor sketch in the rain. She reached out to the side of the house to steady herself.
“Jess, what makes you say such a horrible thing?” Maggie put her arm around Lena’s shoulder as if to show her daughter on whose side she stood.
The warmth and steadiness helped Lena to fight her dizziness and nausea, but she was still unable to say anything to defend herself.
Jess gestured to the house. “She is meeting the strangest people in the evenings for this so-called relaxation technique. The woman undressed. You told me yourself she has financial problems and would do anything to earn money. This all adds up. She is a
