The Misadventures of the Laundry Hag 00 - Skeletons in the Closet

me a weak smile anyway. “Please be careful out there, Maggie. I’ll check in on you later.”
    I nodded and exited through the door he held for me. Neil sat in a chair with fingers steepled across the busy room. Anyone who didn’t know him would think he was utterly serene, but I made out the tense lines around his mouth. He rose in one fluid movement, his gaze trained on me. I scurried to his side, and he grasped my trembling hand in his steady one.
    “All set?”
    I nodded again, thinking that since the cleaning gig wasn’t working, I could sell myself as a life-sized bobble-head doll.
    The march to the car was quiet, and I settled myself in the passenger’s seat without comment. Neil shut the door behind me and made his way to the driver’s door. He sat and shoved the keys in the ignition but made no move to start the car. Instead, he leaned against the seat and closed his eyes. I looked at his beaten-down expression, one that I knew so well. Neil had the ultimate poker face. According to the SEALs who’d served with him, he was adept at showing no weakness in the hot zone, exuding confidence to encourage his team and strike fear into the enemy. When he came home from a strenuous mission, however, he’d let all of the tension out. I suppose it was like a pressure cooker—you had to vent the steam at some point or risk an explosion.
    I watched him for a moment, since it was easier than giving in to my own misery. I didn’t want to think about the deaths or the connection I had to these people. Neil took some even breaths, and I studied his handsome profile with the same awe I’d felt for close to a decade whenever I looked at him. He hadn’t aged visibly, and if anything, his confidence and determination were stronger than ever.
    “You’re sexy,” I told him.
    That got one eye open. “Don’t try to butter me up. I’m so mad and I’m doing my best not to yell at you, but I need a minute here.”
    “Why are you mad at me?” I loaded my tone with extra naïveté.
    “Maybe because you lied to me about the wheelbarrow? What the hell were you thinking?”
    “I told you, the van wouldn’t start, and I had to get to the store!” I knew I had no right to be outraged in the face of his wrath, he was absolutely right to be upset, but I’d learned long ago not to give any ground when going up against a difficult man.
    “Maggie, don’t even try to justify your actions. You were thoughtless, and you hid things from me. In my book that means you’re the one in the wrong.”
    “Oh, get off your high horse Mr. Perfect; you don’t have a clue what I went through trying to put on a dinner for your parents and their guests! Everything I do is to help protect and support our family, so don’t sit there being all uber sexy and thinking you are in the know about everything! I didn’t hide anything from you, but things started happening so fast, and your parents were coming, and you were at work, so I did what I had to, Neil! It’s what being a SEAL’s wife taught me, that when I’m home, I can’t sit around and worry about what might happen, I have to do whatever I can.
    “You don’t know; you don’t understand what I had to go through, worrying about whether you were safe, not knowing when you’d be back and looking to the right and the left and not seeing any relief! Being married to you and your military career made me this way, so you have no frigging right to complain now!”
    Tears tracked down my face, and Neil stared at me like I’d grown a third eye, but I was beyond caring. It was my turn to take some deep, even breaths before I got out of the car. I couldn’t be in a confined space with him right now, not because I was angry, but because he was right and I had sucker punched him with a backlog of issues deeper than the Atlantic.
    I stepped over the curb, glad I’d put boots on before going to the police station, and headed for home. The trek would have been excruciating in heels. I knew Neil wouldn’t come after me, not right away. There are certain things married couples may never say to one another, but are understood and accepted. I’d trod on sacred ground with my complaints about being a SEAL’s wife, and Neil needed some time to accept that history was not repeating itself.
    I fumed for three blocks and was just starting to cool off when my cell phone rang. I didn’t recognize the number, but answered anyway.
    “Mrs. Phillips? This is Janice Montgomery.”
    Against my