All Night Long Read Online Free PDF Page B

quarterfinals in mixed doubles—made a face. “It's just me. Martina and Jimmy spent the night with some friends from the club. And Anya? Anya's at the club. Playing golf. Anya's always playing golf. You want coffee?”
    “I'd love coffee.”
    “I made some with these beans from Kenya. They're the best.” Kat indicated a smooth white carafe on the stone counter. Lydia poured some into the brown earthenware cup. She took it black. Back in Amazonia, the notion of milk in coffee meant a need for reliable refrigerators—there were none— or milk thatcame directly from the goats. However, there were plenty of coffee beans, some of which were harvested right there in the jungle.
    “Thanks.” Lydia sat down at the glass kitchen table. It was covered with fingerprints from the kids, and Anya was forever spraying Windex on it and wiping, despite the fact that she and Kat had more help than most five-star hotels.
    “You know, I honestly can't remember the last time I was here at the house by myself,” Kat observed. “That's what having kids does to you.”
    Lydia inhaled the delicious coffee aroma. “I used to spend a lot of time alone in the rain forest. Hunting, fishing, whatever. When no one speaks your language except your mom and dad, you get really interested in your own company.”
    Kat smiled. “Have you heard from your parents?”
    “Nope.” Lydia shook her head. “And I don't expect to, either. Not until they go upriver to Manaus.” Manaus, in Brazil, was the closest town to where Lydia had lived in the jungle. “Close” being a relative term, of course. It was a brutal hundred miles away via the piranha-infested rugged waters of Rio Negro.
    “Well, if you do, remind them that I'll be in New York starting next week. For the U.S. Open. You think you can hold the fort down here with Anya?”
    “Sure, why not?”
    Actually, there were a number of reasons why not. That Lydia suspected supposedly gay Anya was cheating on Kat with Kiley's definitely male boss— of all people!—was only one of them. That Anya had the charm of a drill instructor in the Russian army was another.
    Kat bit into one of the freshly baked croissants she took froma wicker basket on the table and shook her head ruefully. “I remember—this was before we had the kids—Sunday morning was our time. For Anya and me, I mean. We'd stay in bed until noon. Hell, sometimes we'd stay in bed until dinner. Now, it's like all she wants to do is play golf. This morning, we had a chance for one of those before-the-kids mornings. The alarm rang at seven—she was out the door at seven-thirty. Eight o'clock tee time, she claimed.”
    Lydia was so tempted to just spill it all to her aunt. Tell her what she knew about Anya, and how Anya was cheating on her. But what did she know, really? That she caught Anya making a phone-sex call? Kat already knew that. That Anya had a copy of the
Kama Sutra
hidden in her closet? Fine, maybe she liked erotica. Maybe the idea of being with a guy turned her on. Maybe she and Kat used it, in some way that Lydia couldn't imagine. Maybe that was all it was, though. Fantasy.
    You know in your gut
, she told herself.
You know.
    Sure. But what if you're wrong? You could destroy everything for your aunt. And for the kids.
    “Maybe you need to take up golf, too,” Lydia suggested.
    Kat finished her coffee and wiped her mouth with a white silk napkin. “Golf ? A horrid way to spend four or five hours. If I want to take a walk in a park, I'll take a walk in a park. Thank you, but I'll stick to tennis. Excuse me. I think I'm going to go swim some laps.”
    Without another word, Kat padded out of the kitchen, leaving Lydia alone. It was just as well. Lydia needed to think. She refilled her coffee cup and took it out through the sliding glass doors onto the redwood deck that adjoined the kitchen. There was a hole in the floor of the deck large enough for the trunk ofa palm tree that soared from the ground up through the deck