Barbara Delinsky - A Woman Betrayed

Barbara Delinsky - The Woman Next Door

The Woman Next Door

by

Barbara Delinsky

The Woman Next Door

The Vineyard

Lake News

Coast Road

Three Wishes

A Woman's Place

Shades of Grace

Together Alone

For My Daughters

Suddenly

More Than Friends

The Passions of Chelsea Kane

A Woman Betrayed

Barbara delinsky

A NOVEL

POCKET BOOKS

New YOrK London Toronto Sydney Singapore

The sale of this book without its cover is unauthorized. If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that it was reported to the publisher as "unsold and destroyed." Neither the author nor the publisher has received payment for the sale of this

"stripped book."

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

POCKET BOOKS, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

Copyright 2001 by Barbara Delinsky

Originally published in hardcover in 2001 by Simon and Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Simon

& Schuster, Inc." 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

Page 1

Barbara Delinsky - The Woman Next Door

ISBN: 0-7434-1125-0

First Pocket Books printing July 2002

10 9876543

POCKET and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

For information regarding special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-800-456-6798 or business@simonandschuster.com

Printed in the U.S.A.

Acknowledgments

Some of my books require extensive research. The Woman Next Door did not. Years of watching people, of observing their interactions, and of talking with friends about their lives' quandaries prepared me well for this book. That said, I am not a professional counselor. If school psychologists existed when I was a student, they were a well-kept secret. I was therefore particularly fortunate, during the writing of The Woman Next Door, to have the help of Ann Cheston. A school psychologist at the Fay School in Southborough, Massachusetts, she helped me wade through the quagmire of day-to-day dealings with teenagers in a small school setting. I thank her for her time and expertise. My thanks also to Bonnie Ulin for talking me through the basics of landscape design.

What about infertility? you ask, and rightly so. I learned about this subject for The Woman Next Door by reading books and working the Web, which means that I have dozens of nameless, faceless women (and men) to thank for teaching me the basics. For those of you currently dealing with fertility issues, please know

viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

that the scenario encompassed in The Woman Next Door is but one of many--and that my heart and hopes are with you!

As always, my family was wonderful. I thank my son Andrew, who listened through hour after hour of plot twists and turns, and then, using his own experience as a teacher, offered the most insightful advice. I thank my son Eric for feedback on bluegrass music, and my son Jeremy for feedback on corporate names and business dealings. I thank Eric's wife, Jodi, and Jeremy's wife, Sherrie, for sharing their thoughts with me as part of my target audience. And my husband, Steve?

Poor guy. During dinner after dinner each night after work, he suffered through the growing pains of this book. For that, he deserves a literary medal of honor!

I thank my friend and fellow writer Sandra Brown, who gave me invaluable writing advice. I thank my agent, Amy Berkower, and my editors, Chuck Adams and Michael Korda. Mostly I thank you, my readers, for your undying support. You have never let me down; I promise to do my best to return the favor.

THe WOMAN

NEXT DOOR

Given their druthers, Amanda and Graham would have eloped. At thirty and thirty-six, respectively, all they wanted was to be married. But Amanda's father insisted that his only child have a big wedding, her Page 2

Barbara Delinsky - The Woman Next Door

mother delighted in spending his money, and Graham's family loved a party.

So they had a lavish June wedding at the Cape Cod country club to which Amanda's father belonged. The ceremony was held overlooking a salt marsh, with willets, terns, and three hundred guests bearing witness. Then, led by the bride and groom, who walked arm in arm, those three hundred guests trooped across the eighteenth green and around the clubhouse for a buffet dinner in the garden. The place was lush with greenery, vivid with lilacs and peonies, scented with roses, all of which was appreciated far more by the bride's guests, who were into form, than the groom's, who were into fun. Likewise, the toasts ran along party lines, starting with that of the best man. Will O'Leary was the next older brother to

Graham, who was the youngest of eight

siblings. Champagne glass in hand,

he directed an O'Leary grin at his wife and four children before turning to the groom.

"No matter that I'm the older of us by a year, you've been a tough act to follow, Graham O'Leary. You always did better in school. You always did better in sports. You were always the one elected class president, and boy, there were times when I hated that." There were chuckles. "Not now, though, because I know something you don't." His grin turned mischievous. "You may have gotten the family's looks and brains, but that doesn't mean much in the dark of night. So. I wish for you and Amanda everything I've had these past fifteen years." He raised his glass. "To you both. May your lives be filled with sweet secrets, hearty laughter, and great sex."

There were hoots and cheers, the clinking of glasses, the downing of drink.

When the noise subsided, Beth Fisher stepped to the microphone. One of three bridesmaids dressed in elegant navy, she spoke softly. "Amanda was single a long time, waiting for just the right guy to come along. We used to commiserate about that, she and I. Then I met my guy, and Amanda got busy with work and put her own search on hold. She wasn't looking when she first saw Graham, but that's how some of the best things in life happen." She lifted her glass. "To Amanda and Graham. May you love each other forever."

Amanda hadn't put her search on hold, so much as despaired that she would find a man she could trust enough to love. Then, one unsuspecting August afternoon, she sought refuge from the heat of Manhattan by visiting her former thesis advisor in Greenwich, and there Graham was, stripped to the waist and sweating beautifully as he planted junipers on a hillside by the woman's home. There were six men at work. Amanda had no idea why her eye was drawn to Graham rather than to one of the others.

No. That wasn't true. She knew very well why her eye was drawn to him. He was riveting with his dark hair and close beard, taller than the others and more finely muscled, though she later learned that he didn't often do the digging. He was the brains of the operation. She claimed to have been drawn by that, too.

And how had she fen own anything about brains from the distance of a hundred feet? His eyes. They had found hers over the slant of that dug-up hillside, and had held her gaze in a way that suggested either total brashness or supreme confidence. Both were foreign to her experience with men, and one as titillating as the other. Then, barely Page 3

Barbara Delinsky - The Woman Next Door

fifteen minutes into her visit, he knocked on the door with a drawing of the landscape plans for another part of the yard. The interruption was deliberate. He admitted that right from the start. He had wanted an introduction, and he got it. The groom's oldest sister, MaryAnne O'Leary Walker, came to the mike wearing a green suit that had fit her better before the last three of her five children were born. Undaunted and confident, she turned to Graham, who stood surrounded by friends, an arm around his blond-haired, white-laced-and-beaded bride.