Page 53 of The Perfect Distraction

“You’re the first person I’ve told the entire story to. As much as I hated my wife at that moment, I knew that it was partly my fault. There must have been something I’d done or hadn’t done that had caused her to stray. So, I kept it to myself, and when people asked, I made up some bullshit about Gretchen and I growing apart and that we mutually agreed to divorce. I didn’t want anyone’s pity, and I didn’t want to risk Joey finding out by accident. So, there it is, the demise of my marriage in a nutshell.”

While she’d wanted him to be open with her, now that he had, she had no idea what to say. Anything she thought of sounded trite or clichéd.

She went with the simplest and safest response she could think of. “I’m sorry.”

“Thank you for listening.”

“Anytime, and I mean that.”

“I’m sure you can relate to some of this.”

“Absolutely. Even though it’s been almost a year, the pain is still there. That’s the main reason I came here—to try and get past it.”

“Do you think we ever will?”

We. She liked the sound of that. “I’d like to believe we will.” Even though he’d shared a lot with her, she still had questions. She decided to go with one for now. “How do you and Gretchen get along these days?”

“So-so. We do what we have to for Joey, but we’re not exactly best friends.”

“You’re a good dad, Colton. It’s admirable how you’ve handled this for your son.”

“So far, so good, I guess. But he’s not a teenager yet. Check back with me then.”

He chuckled, and so did she; however, she also felt a twinge of sadness. She probably wouldn’t know Joey as a teenager.

“Do you think Joey was okay with me being there tonight?” The last thing she wanted was to make this more difficult on him. If Colton was still processing the divorce, Joey had to be too. He might not welcome the idea of another woman in his dad’s life even though she wouldn’t be there for long.

“I talked with him after you left, and the thing he seemed most upset about was missing out on the beach. That’s a kid for you!”

“Maybe we can take him some time,” she ventured, hoping it wasn’t too soon. Colton was probably still raw from digging up the past.

“I was hoping you’d say that.”

“You were?”

“Yeah. I was worried I might have scared you off tonight.”

She giggled. “It would take a lot more than that to scare me off.”

“Oh, yeah. Like what?”

She smiled in response to the one she heard in his voice. “Let’s see. Do you have a criminal record?”

“Do speeding tickets count?”

“No.”

“Then, no. What else?”

“Do you have any communicable diseases?” She laughed even though it didn’t hurt to check. One could never be too careful.

“My last physical was stellar.”

“Whew! I think we’re good, then.”

“So, does that mean we can have a repeat of this weekend?” he asked, his voice dipping lower and deeper.

“I’d like that, minus the part about almost getting caught.”