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“I’m sorry, I would’ve called you sooner, but the meeting with Ashley didn’t end until after seven, and then I went to my mom’s for a little while.”
“That’s okay.” Paige brushed aside his apology, which she didn’t think necessary. “So, how did it go with Ashley?”
“It went well, all things considered,” he said, then gave her a brief accounting of the meeting.
When he was done she sat there for several moments, and while a small part of her felt bad for Jacob—who was essentially losing his mother—a bigger part of her rejoiced in the removal of a parent who held her child in such low esteem. Sometimes the worst thing was actually having a parent in your life, especially when that parent didn’t give a shit, because indifference was a form of abuse, too. “Sole custody. That’s good news.”
“What was that?” he asked.
“I said that’s good news,” she repeated, this time louder, to compensate for the bar noise around her.
“Yes, it is.”
“I’m sure your mom was pleased, too.”
“She was.”
“Did you talk to Jacob?”
“No. Lauren and I will do that when it becomes official.”
A brief silence fell between them, and even though he looked worn out, she hadn’t seen him in forever and was struck by the strong urge to do so. “Why don’t you come join Jules and me for a drink?”
He looked like he was contemplating her invitation, but then shook his head. “Thanks, but I wouldn’t be very good company right now. Maybe we could get together tomorrow, instead?”
“I work tomorrow.” Paige made a face. “Back-to-back Christmas parties.”
It was his turn to make a face. “That figures.”
“I’m off Sunday, though,” she told him with enthusiasm. “We can spend all day together.”
David actually looked like he was debating the merits of that, before finally nodding. “Okay,” he said. “Sunday it is.”
Taken aback at his expression, which was more resigned than thrilled, she blinked at him. “Is something wrong? You look like the last thing you want to do is spend time with me.”
“It’s not that. I was just hoping to see you before that. So we could … talk.”
“Oh? What about?”
“Just a couple of things.”
She blinked at the oddly vague, non-answer. “Well, we can talk now, if you want.”
He said something, but she couldn’t hear a word of it, as the people next to her burst out laughing.
“What did you say?” she asked.
“I said I’d rather we talked in private, and not on the phone.”
David’s now serious tone and expression (the combination of which seemed to hint at something borderline ominous) made her frown. Was it ever good when someone wanted to ‘talk’ about ‘things’ and needed privacy? Not to her knowledge, it wasn’t, and at that point, the alcohol she’d consumed started driving the bus. “Well, I’d rather we talk now, because you’re legitimately freaking me out a little bit.”
After what appeared to be a mental war, David took a deep breath, then began talking. As she listened to him share his struggles for the past ten days, of his feelings for her being at war with his belief they’d blinded him to what was happening to Jacob, she went from shocked to indignant.
“You’ve been … blaming me?”
“In a way, yes, although I didn’t see it at the time. I was so horrified that it happened right under my nose, and I kept thinking that I would’ve seen it if you and I hadn’t been …”
“Having sweaty, needy, mind-blowing sex?”
