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“Yum.” I don’t move an inch from my spot.
“In that corner is the petting zoo.” She points to the far right of the yard.
“This is such a great idea.”
“Inside in the gym is an auction that I beg of you to check out and bid on a couple of things.”
“You got it,” I agree when her phone rings in her hand. “Go take that, I’m going to go walk around and see things.”
“Text me where you are, and I’ll come find you,” she says, walking away from me, putting the phone to her ear. I take a minute, watching her disappear into the crowd before I turn and hightail my ass out of here.
“What the actual fuck,” I mutter, getting into the truck and turning it on. “He’s fucking married.”
I close my eyes as I pull out of the parking lot and wait maybe a full thirty minutes before I’m actually on the road back to Sofia’s house. “Married,” I repeat to myself, trying not to have an internal freak-out but failing fucking miserably. “With a child,” I say, making myself even sicker. “I need a drink.” I open the door and step out, reaching into my vest pocket for the key to the door and feeling nothing but fleece. “No-no-no-no-no,” I chant, reaching into the second pocket and feeling the same thing. “This isn’t happening to me.” I open my purse and search for the key I know is not in there. It’s in my green jacket at the door that I reminded myself to get before walking out of the house and forgot to do. I place my purse on the step before walking around the house to the back door, seeing if perhaps I left it open. Walking up the five steps to the door, I turn the handle, only to find it locked. I look around, seeing the window and wondering how mad she would be if I broke it and snuck into her house.
I walk back to the front of the house before sitting down on the step and dialing Sofia. “Hey,” she answers after two rings.
“Hi,” I say, “by any chance, would you have a hidden key outside your house?” I look at the side garden. “Perhaps, maybe under a potted plant?” She doesn’t have to answer me. Her laughter says it all. “I didn’t think so.” I close my eyes.
“Why?”
“I forgot to grab it on my way out, and now I’m sitting on the step, looking up at the stars.” My eyes find the stars that are twinkling in the clear sky. “I thought about it, reminded myself about it, but then I switched jackets, and boom, I’m now sitting outside with no way in.”
“Let me make a phone call,” she offers, and I groan.
“I feel so bad. They are all there at the Christmas thing. How mad would you be if I broke a window?” I look over my shoulder at said window I might break.
“Don’t you dare,” she warns. “That’s all I need, you breaking a window and getting hurt, and then your family will be like, they tried to kill her down there in the South.”
I can’t help but snort. “Fine, whatever, it’s no rush.”
“Got it,” she confirms and hangs up while I put the phone beside me to just take in the night. Something else I don’t do as much here is be on my phone. Instead, I just be in the moment with my thoughts. Five minutes later, she calls me back. “Okay, my cousin is going to come.”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you, and I promise after this, you won’t hear from me until, like, next week. But I am going to the grocery store tomorrow because you guys don’t have any delivery options here.”
“Welcome to the South. You can do this.”
“I can do this,” I agree, putting my phone down when we disconnect. I’m looking up at the stars with my elbows on my knees, just waiting.
The sound of someone approaching makes me look up, but all I can see are headlights. The truck stops behind mine, and the door opens on the black truck and one boot comes down before the other. My eyes roam from the boots to the jeans to the jacket to that fucking handsome gorgeous face. “You have got to be fucking kidding me.” I throw my hands up in the air and spring up from the step. “Are your wife and kid in the car waiting for you?” I move my head to the side to check in his truck, and thank fucking God it’s empty because even I have to admit I sound like a lunatic. “You have some fucking nerve.”
He closes the distance to me. “Wait a second.” He holds up his hand. “If anyone should be pissed off in this situation, it’s me.” He shocks me so much I have no words, none. My mouth hangs open, then closes and then opens again, and nothing comes out. “Yeah, that’s right, Sweetheart, cat got your tongue?”
“Are you insane?” I finally find the words, which are not that much of a comeback, but they’re the only ones coming to mind. “Like, for real? You slept with me while your wife was at home?” I hiss, my head moving closer to him. “God, I can just imagine the dumb excuses you made.” I fold my arms over my chest. “Sorry I didn’t come home last night, a squirrel ate my keys.”
“Wife and kid? What the hell are you going on about?” He puts his hands on his hips.
“I’m talking about the child you were with at the Christmas fair, and don’t even pretend he isn’t your child. It’s like you cloned yourself.”
“Colson is my son,” he admits, “but I’m not married.”
“Oh, and the woman hanging off your arm like you hung the world and laughing at your lame-ass joke wasn’t with you?” I roll my eyes. “Please, spare me.”
“One, all my jokes are funny.” He holds up his finger. “And two, that was Patricia, who is Colson’s mother but not my wife, considering she is married to someone else,” he explains, and his eyebrows go up because whatever he was going to say, I could have bet it wasn’t going to be that. “Now, again, if anyone out of the two of us should be pissed, it should be me.” He points at himself.
“For what?” I shriek.
“For sneaking out on me in the middle of the night.”
