His Other Wife by Deborah Bradford

legs as if they expected the Magic Kingdom
     to materialize behind her. “Hello,” she said to the boy. “Ben, isn’t it?” For the first time, she realized he was carrying
     a basketball against his hip.
    “Yeah,” he answered. “That’s me.”
    “That’s not the way you act when you meet someone, Ben.” Pam stopped her son mid-exchange and directed him what to say; heaven
     forbid he wouldn’t introduce himself properly.
    This time, Ben extended his hand toward Hilary as prompted. “It’s nice to meet you,” she said.
    “Nice to meet you, too.” When Ben spoke again, his voice was oozing with hope. “Do you think Seth will shoot hoops with me?”
    “Oh, I’ll bet he will.”
    “You really think so?”
    “I’m pretty sure. You’ll have to talk to him about it, though.”
    The little girl, Lily, gazed past Hilary into the house. “Where is he?”
    Hilary honestly hadn’t known the kids would be this excited. “He isn’t here right now, sweetheart. He’s gone for a little
     while.”
    “Oh.”
    Hilary had never seen such dejected faces in all her life. She hadn’t expected hero worship. “He’ll be back soon, honey. I
     promise.”
    Their moment of greeting stretched into something awkward. Hilary took an abrupt step back so the Wynn family could enter.
     “Come in. Come in.” She gestured. “Oh, Pam. What are you doing still standing out there on the porch? The airports are the
     worst, aren’t they? You’ve been traveling all day.” And after Eric entered, she watched him stand in the middle of the living
     room with his arms crossed as if he wasn’t certain how to move inside her space anymore.
    “I’m glad you finally bought this,” he said at last. “There are such bargains in this market. And Pam likes the waterfall
     beside the front gate.”
    Hilary’s pride took over. Hadn’t he lost the right to tell her if he thought something was wise or not? This is what you get with a household divided, Eric. A modest house with a water feature.
    Luckily, she had her nurse’s salary to rely on. Hilary had only agreed to let Eric help with a small amount of child support,
     which would end when Seth turned twenty-one. She’d refused the alimony payments Eric had offered. She’d turned down Eric’s
     offers to send money when she and Seth had gone through the rough spots. And, even without that, she’d managed to scrape together
     enough to get them into a neighborhood where Seth could stay in the same school district where he’d started. She’d managed
     to put together a comfortable home for the two of them, although there hadn’t been room in the budget for many extras. The
     nurse with the purse, Gina had called her. Thank heavens for that. “It’s been good for me and Seth. Good for him to feel settled.”
    The little girl began to twirl in the middle of the living room, her skirt billowing around her like a morning-glory blossom.
     Hilary remembered loving to twirl at her parents’ house. She recalled falling down, seasick, as the floor pitched and she
     couldn’t stand up anymore. If this had been any other child, Hilary might have found her charming.
    “Lily,” Pam said. The one word, “Lily,” and the child stopped. “You don’t behave that way when we’re guests.”
    “Oh, please,” Hilary said. “Let her. I don’t mind.”
    Pam turned to Hilary. “The last time I let her do that until she stopped, she wore the wax off my mother’s floor.”
    “Well, I don’t wax my floors,” Hilary said, and was instantly sorry for the disclosure.
    Lily took a seat on the sofa. Ben sat beside his sister. He held the basketball between two hands and stared at it the way
     he would stare into the face of a friend who had forsaken him.
    “You told Seth what time we’d be here, didn’t you?” Eric crossed the room and rumpled the boy’s hair. “I can’t believe he
     isn’t here waiting for us.”
    “Of course he’s not here waiting for you, Eric.” She