Page 7 of Dream House
Bear’s voice goes cold. “Did you do something in Bryce Canyon you shouldn’t have?”
“No,” I say, scowling.
My brother shrugs. “No offense. Six weeks is a long time.”
Maggie whirls around and swats him across the shoulder. “It is not,” she says hotly.
My brother’s eyes widen. “Babe, that’s not what I meant.”
“How come that’s the first thing you thought of? You said it like you couldn’t blame him if he cheated on Zoe after being gone just six weeks—”
“I—”
“You’re gone offshore three weeks at a time.” Her eyes blaze like embers. “Does that mean you’re halfway to infidelity by the time you get home?”
“Of course, not—”
“And what if my doctor hadn’t cleared me for sex at my six-week appointment?” Her voice is climbing and getting shaky the higher it goes. “Oh my God, is that what this is about? Is that why you said six weeks is a long time?”
My brother shakes his head so hard, I’m afraid he’ll wake the infant in his arms. “No, no, Maggie. I’d wait for you forever. You know that. Didn’t I prove that to you already?”
I’ve seen sand crabs scurry for cover on the beach. They’ve got nothing on my wide-eyed brother.
“Because I’ve carried two children for you and dealt with chronic constipation and hemorrhoids both times—”
I groan again, but no one hears me. Judging by his face, Bear looks like he’s groaning too. He shoots me a pleading glance.
“And if you think I’d go through that again after you dipped your dick into some festering twat—”
“Maggie,”I charge in, rescuing my brother if for no other reason than I don’t think I’d fare well if this is the night he gets kicked out too. “You’re all the woman Bear can handle, and even if Zoe and I aren’t destined for marriage, I never have and I never would have cheated on her.”
Maggie turns her glare on me, nostrils flaring. Her chest rises and falls. If she just breathes for a few more seconds, she’ll calm down. I’ve known my sis-in-law long enough to know that.
She looks back at Bear. “Is that true?”
“Y-yes. All of it,” he stammers quickly. “You’re all the woman I need. Always have been, baby.” Bear looks like he can’t decide if he should say more or stop while he’s ahead. He shuts up.
Smart move, bro.
Maggie takes a deep breath and empties her lungs. She turns back to me as if she never veered over the double line and vaulted the guardrails into hysteria.
“So you were faithful to Zoe the whole time you were in Utah?”
“Yes.” It’s true.
I don’t tell them that Summer Field Camp is the last place anyone would want to attempt a hook-up. I think I had gravel in my asscrack for six solid weeks. Geology students don’t spend time in the field without getting their hands dirty. And their feet. And their eyelids. And their taints.
Maggie studies me for a minute. I can see she believes me, but my answer doesn’t satisfy her. “So if it wasn’t someone else, what changed?”
I was gone the whole month of May and half of June. When I first got back, Zoe seemed to have missed me like crazy. I was glad to see her too. Even though Bear got his ass scalded for saying it, six weeksisa long time when you’re used to having sex whenever you want it.
The whole month of July, we couldn’t seem to get enough of each other. We even took a long weekend and spent it in a lakeside cabin in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Skinny-dipping in the heat of the afternoon. Coffee on the screened in porch in the mornings. A bottle of wine on the dock at sunset.
Best trip we ever took.
But I started to notice that Zoe kept mentioning me graduating next May. Like every day.
And I started to pick up that every time she said it, it was with a question underneath her words.What happens next?
