For Lucy

As I make dinner, Lucy messages me.

Lucy: Don’t be mad. Mom thinks you had a woman stay the night last night.

I narrow my eyes at her message.

Emmett: Why would she think that?

Lucy: Because I told her.

Emmett: Why?

Lucy: Because we have to know.

Emmett: Know what?

Lucy: If she’s really ready to let you go forever.

Emmett: By lying to her?

Lucy: You can tell her the truth. She’s dropping me off at Racer’s house.

Emmett: I think you need to tell her the truth and then come home so we can talk about your issues with acceptance.

Lucy: She’s really bothered by it. She hasn’t said anything to me on the way home.

I stick her filet of salmon in the fridge and sit down to eat mine along with green beans and rice. Two bites into my dinner, the doorbell rings.

“Just great.” I sigh when I see Tatum’s car parked in my driveway. “Hey.” I give her a tentative smile when I open the door.

“I’m not okay with you having random women stay the night when Lucy’s living with you.” She barges past me.

“Come in,” I mumble. “Random women?” I shut the door.

She pivots, hands balled at her sides. Her unruly dark hair partially pulled back with strays all around her face, clinging to her red cheeks. “Lucy told me there was a half-naked woman in the kitchen this morning when she awoke. AND … she heard you and said half-naked woman last night. She called her a screamer.”

Dear lord … Lucy is quite the storyteller. A screaming woman?

“Screaming is a bit of an exaggeration. Maybe deep moaning, but not screaming.” I don’t know why I’m playing this game. Maybe because I didn’t expect Tatum to be so enraged. Lucy’s seventeen not seven.

She flinches. “It’s inappropriate.”

“Dating? Having sex? Have you not had sex with Josh with Lucy in the house?”

“That’s different?”

“How so?”

“Because Josh isn’t some random guy I brought home.”

“What makes you think this woman was random?”

“Uh …” She drops her jaw. “Because Lucy said you couldn’t even remember her name. Emmett! What is wrong with you? Why would you even sleep with someone if you didn’t know them well enough to remember their name in the morning?”

Oh Lucy …

This story just keeps getting better.

“I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again. I’ll write my date’s names on my palm so I remember in the morning.”

“Who are you?” She juts her head backward.

“Her name is Laura. I didn’t forget her name. I just didn’t want Lucy to grill me on our relationship. It’s early.”

“Not early enough to sleep with her.”

I rub my lips together to keep from grinning. “We didn’t do much sleeping.”

“I hate you.” She stomps to the front door and grabs the handle, but not before I grip her other arm.

She hates me? That’s a strong word she’s only used in regard to our past. But now … because of some made-up one-night stand, she hates me?

“You don’t get to hate me for having sex. Not after the kisses in the garage. Not after the orgasms we had together the day Josh took Lucy to the baseball game. And definitely not when you’re two weeks away from marrying the wrong fucking guy.”

“Well you …” She rips her arm from my grasp as angry tears build in her eyes, red and feral. “You did this. ALL of this! You lied to me about Austin. You let us get a divorce. You let me grieve the loss of us. You let me fall in love with another man. Then you kissed me! And you let that moment happen the day of the game. And you never said one goddamn word! Now you’re screwing some random woman in our house. In our bed. With our daughter just upstairs. That’s NOT OKAY!”

“Why?”

She shakes her head as the tears pool to the point of release. “You know why.”

“No. I don’t know why. Because you still think I deserve to be alone for the rest of my life? Because you don’t think I’m worthy of that kind of pleasure unless you’re the one doling it out on your terms?”

“You were mine.” The tears fall in fast streams down her face and onto her shirt and my floor. She doesn’t make any attempt to stop them or wipe them away. “I let you think you stole me, but I gave myself to you, and in return you were mine. My husband. My lover. My friend. My children’s father. My strength. My fucking everything. And you let us end.”

I’ve waited years for this moment. For everything to be out in the open. For all the excuses to be gone. For it to be me and her with nothing but the truth no matter how much it hurts. And boy … does it ever fucking hurt.

“I did it for Lucy.”

“You had no right!”

“I did it for Lucy.”