“What? No!” Rosie’s face flamed. “I absolutely do not want to walk in on our parents having sex!”
“They’re not having sex. They’re pretending to have sex.” Katie walked across the room, pushed open the door and heard her mother’s horrified gasp.
“Nick! Oh God—” She grabbed at
the covers, pulling them high.
Katie heard her father swear for possibly the first time in her life.
“We’re so sorry,” Rosie blurted out, yanking at Katie’s sleeve. “We’ll come back later.”
“No.” Katie had never been more confused in her life. “I don’t understand. You’re getting a divorce.”
“Katie—” Still clutching the sheets with one hand, her mother held out her other hand. “I know how upset you were yesterday. We tried calling you.”
“There was no signal.” And she’d been with Jordan, and—
She wasn’t going to think about that now.
Her father sat up, keeping the sheets carefully across his chest. “We were worried.”
“We’re so sorry.” Rosie tugged at Katie again. “Please—”
Katie didn’t budge. She was so frustrated by the situation she felt as if she might explode. “You can’t do this! You have to be honest. We’re adults.”
“Katie—” Her mother frantically smoothed her hair. “Your father and I need to talk to you. Perhaps that’s best done alone.”
“Of course.” Rosie turned away, relieved, but Katie grabbed her.
“No.” She focused on her parents. “You have to be honest. Rosie keeps using the two of you as reassurance that her own relationship will work.”
Rosie gave a horrified squeak, but Katie plowed on.
“She’s been having doubts and she’s handling those doubts by telling herself that because you met and married in a whirlwind, as she plans to do, and are still happily married after thirty-five years, that means her relationship is going to be okay, too. So you need to tell her the truth. You need to tell her you’re getting a divorce, so she can figure out what that means for her own feelings and her own relationship.”
There was a taut, agonizing silence. She realized that her parents weren’t looking at her, they were looking at Rosie.
So was Dan.
He was staring at Rosie as if he’d never seen her before. “You’ve been having doubts?”
“No!” Rosie sounded horrified. “I mean maybe a few, but that’s natural, and—it was nothing.”
“Oh sweetheart.” Their mother’s face was a picture of concern. “You should have said something. Why didn’t you?”
“Good question.” Dan’s voice was thickened by emotion. “Why didn’t you?”
Rosie whirled on her sister. “What have you done?”
What had she done?
Katie started to shake. “I didn’t—I thought you should know the truth about our parents, that’s all.”
Her mother had the sheet clutched tightly across her breasts. “We’re not getting a divorce, Katie.”
“But—”
“Katie—” This time it was her father who spoke. “Your mother is telling the truth. We’re not getting a divorce.”