Page 38 of My Dead Wife's Ex Will Do
“Okay?” I’m scrambling for composure. “Even if we were, it’s not really any of her business, is it?”
Adrienne snorts. “That’s what I said, but she’s pretty pissed about it anyway.”
I take a deep breath and duck under the water. I let myself sink until I’m sitting on the floor of the pool, wondering what the ever-loving fuck to say to Adrienne about Jason and me.
Because Jason and me are not a thing. Not officially. I don’t even know if we’ll sleep together tonight. Or ever again.
Especially if he finds out that Kelsey knows.
The water presses against my ears, a physical echo of the pressure I feel from Adrienne, her feet braced wide apart, toes painted a vivid red. I’m caught between the secret Jason wanted so desperately to keep from Kelsey, which is out of the bag now, it seems, and revealing what I feel about him to Adrienne. To my daughter.
I’m running out of air. Tiny bubbles escape my lips and float upwards, but Adrienne’s not going to just stand here while I attempt to drown myself. I push up from the bottom of the pool, exhaling the rest of my air on the way, and suck in a deep breath when my head breaks the surface.
“Okay,” I start. “Even if Jason and I have…well, whatever we’ve done?—”
Adrienne lifts an eyebrow at me. “Shouted each other’s names and grunted like porn stars producing the money shot for the cameras?”
I drag a wet hand down my face. “Seriously?”
“That’s what Kelsey said.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I mutter.
“Yeah,” Adrienne says. She sounds a little sympathetic. “Sorry, Vic. Gotta say, I’m glad I wasn’t there to hear anything myself.”
Me too. My daughter hearing her fathers having sex—at all, much less together—is bad enough. Okay, there’s really no worse here.
“How did she hear anything, anyway?” I ask. “What was she doing sneaking around outside our casita?”
“Jason wasn’t at dinner, remember? Kelsey wanted to see how he was feeling and if he needed anything.”
“She couldn’t have texted him? Or me, for that matter? I told her he was fine last night.”
Adrienne lifts that same eyebrow at me again. “I believe she did text you both.”
Shit. I’d forgotten about the text I saw on my phone display when I got up this morning. I didn’t reply because I knew Kelsey was going on the hike this morning with Jason and they left the resort before dawn. I figured he’d tell her that everything was fine.
Except that Jason must have walked into Kelsey’s anger this morning and has now had the entire day to stew in it.
“Why is Kelsey pissed about what she heard?” I still can’t bring myself to admit to Adrienne that Jason and I had sex. “It’s been fifteen years since her mom died and neither of us are seeing anyone else right now. In fact, she just told me last night that she thinks Jason should start dating again.”
Adrienne snorts. “Oh, is that what you’re doing? You two are dating?”
Daughter-in-law or no, I’ve had about enough of this interrogation. “Well, it isn’t actually any of your business, or hers, for that matter, what her father and I do. We’re adults; so is she. We’re all entitled to some privacy here.”
Adrienne sighs and reaches out to put a hand on my arm. “Victor, try and see it from her perspective, okay? Yes, you’re grown men and you’re entitled to fuck whomever you want. But it’s her wedding week and her dads are here to see her get married. You guys have barely talked to each other since she left home for college. All of a sudden, you pick this week to start having wild monkey sex together?”
She stops and tilts her head, pinning me with a gaze I privately think of as her lawyer face. “Wait, how long has this been going on? Because one of the things she’s pissed about is that you haven’t told her that you’re seeing each other. So, if this has been going on for a while and you’ve kept it from her…”
Well, fuck, now I’m really in a pickle. If I tell Adrienne about the night of Leah’s funeral, I can’t also demand she keep that from Kelsey. But which is worse in Kelsey’s eyes? That her dads just started fucking this week? That we’ve been carrying on for weeks or months while hiding it from her? Or the truth?
And what on earth has Jason told her today? Did he lie to her? About all of it? Did he keep the first night from her but admit to what she heard last night?
Jason hates lying. But he was adamant yesterday that she never know about the night of Leah’s funeral.
Now I see why Adrienne is confronting me now. Divide and conquer, I suppose. I wonder whether they’d planned it this way or Adrienne just took advantage of this opportunity she stumbled across today, with Jason and me separated?
I slide out from under Adrienne’s arm and away. “I can’t talk to you about this right now, Adrienne. I need to talk to Jason.”
