Page 3 of Secrets on Ice

“How?” She shakes her head. “Has this been going on our entire marriage?” My hands tighten around the steering wheel as I don’t have any answers to her questions. “Were we blind?” she continues. “All the early mornings. The late nights. They’re always together.”

“We’re always together, and we’re not having an affair,” I snap, sharper than I mean to.

“True,” she answers meekly.

Silence falls between us.

“I can’t go home,” she says.

“Me either.”

“I can’t look at him without seeing …” She doesn’t finish, she doesn’t need to.

Every time I try to form a coherent thought, Kevin’s face flashes through my mind. The looks of shock and horror, but not guilt or regret, just panic because he’d been caught.

“New York,” I blurt out.

Cassidy turns to me. “What about New York?”

“I can’t stay here.”

“I know.”

“I need to think. Process. Work out a plan.”

“And you think you can do that in New York?”

“With our brothers? Yes.”

Understanding crosses her face. “Yes.” She nods. “Get me the hell out of here.”

And so, I do.

The airport is forty minutes away. I head toward it while Cassidy searches flights on her phone. She finds two seats and books them one way. We have no idea when we are coming home, it’s not something I care about in this moment. Home, what home? It doesn’t exist anymore.

When we arrive, I leave the car in long-term parking. We grab our gym bags from the back seat and walk into the airport. All we have with us is a spare change of clothes, water bottles, and sneakers.

My phone buzzes.

Kevin: Please come home. Let me explain.

Another message arrives.

Kevin: It’s not what you think. Please, Em.

What do I think, Kevin? I think I walked into a house and found you with your hands on another man. But not just any man, your best friend and my best friend’s husband.

I hold down the button and turn my phone off. Cassidy’s buzzes seconds later, her eyes widening as she reads whatever Trevor sent. Then she powers hers down and stares at the black screen.

“Fuck them.”

“One hundred percent.” I nod in agreement.

“The audacity to try and gaslight us after we saw it with our own eyes.” She tsks.

We move through security in silence. I buy us well-deserved coffees, and we head to our gate. All around us, people are going about their normal lives. People laugh, babies cry, someone runs past us trying to catch a flight at the last minute. The world keeps moving while ours has completely blown apart. We sit staring at nothing until they call our flight. Thank God for miles, Cassidy upgraded us to first class.

We deserve it.