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“It kind of is.”
I smile. “Okay, a little.” I haven’t looked at my cell phone in an hour, but when I do, I wish I hadn’t. It’s Kelly and she’s wondering where the fuck I am.
Kelly: Dude, you quit and didn’t tell me?
I turn my phone to Jason. “News travels fast.”
Leaning in, he nearly falls off the stool he’s on, catches himself against the table and laughs. He reads the message and raises his eyebrow. “Did your brother tell her?”
“Probably.”
“Maybe you should tell his wife what a piece of shit he is.”
Okay, maybe infidelity isn’t the reason for their split because why else would he have said piece of shit? Clearly, beer makes me overanalyze shit I shouldn’t give a crap about. What I should care about is how I’m going to explain this to Kelly.
Wish me luck.
Rememberwhen I said wish me luck? I need that luck because judging by the way my wife is looking at me, my fate isn’t lookin’ too good. This look, it’s something similar to the time she told me she was pregnant with Mara, which was in fact, when Oliver was only eight weeks old. If you’re doing the math in your head, yes, we fucked before the six-week mark. That time frame is hypothetical if you ask me. Kelly’s vagina handles force a lot better than most. Clearly. Wink, wink.
Back to the situation at hand. With this said look, I’d think maybe she was pregnant again, but that’s not possible because I had a vasectomy right after Fin was born. So it’s not pregnant. I’m going to go ahead and go with “dude quit his job and didn’t tell me.” That’s definitely the look.
She waits, her hand on her hip, kids running around between us while Ella is in the family room with Fin. I don’t say anything at first. I guess I’m waiting for her to yell at me, and I know it’s coming. I’m our only source of income, and I quit today without telling her.
“Before you freak out, I have something lined up,” I tell her, a way of breaking the ice.
“What?”
“I have something lined up,” I repeat, and then realize that’s not what she asked. Maybe I should have skipped the fifth beer? I step toward her and wrap my hands around her waist. “Jason knows a guy with a shop. I’m gonna start up my own place.”
“Okay.” She nods, but there’s a tightness to her face, as if she wants to believe me that everything’s going to be okay and knowing deep down, we have absolutely no control over that. “What happened?”
I look around to see if the kids are near. They’re not. “I walked in on him and Ava this morning. I told him if he didn’t tell Xianna, I was walking out. So I did.”
“So you quit because your brother is morally challenged?”
Drawing in a deep breath, I think about why I did quit. “I think it was more than that.”
Kelly nods but doesn’t say anything. I can’t tell if she’s disappointed I didn’t talk to her about it first. I’m sure she is, but what’s that saying? Better to ask for forgiveness than permission? I’ve always hated that term.
“Are we really going to dinner with Kate and Jason?”
Again, she nods and pushes away from me to reach for the pizza on the counter. “We are.” Pausing, she unwraps the plastic from around the pizza and places it on a baking tray. “There’s this restaurant downtown Charlee wants to try with us all.”
I lean into the counter beside her and cross my arms over my chest. “Allmeans?”
Kelly reaches around me and then presses the button to the stove. “Us, them, and Charlee.”
“What about Steve?”
Her back is to me now, and yes, I check out her ass. She’s wearing jeans. A change from those Lululemon leggings she had to have, and though I’m not saying they don’t look great on her, I’m still not wild about their price tag. “He’s working in Tampa this week,” she tells me, filling the kids’ cups up with water and ripping open a package of paper plates.
I take the paper plates from her and set them on the island where I assume she’s having the kids eat. “Oh. And no Bonner and Ashlynn?”
Her eyes don’t meet mine. “Bonner’s coming, I guess, but Ashlynn’s working tonight.”
I fight off a smile. For some reason, I can’t possibly think of Ashlynn’s job asworking. Shouldn’t she just say she’s fucking tonight? Speaking of fucking, I think I remember us having plans tonight. “But I thought we were going to have car sex.”
Placing the pizza in the oven, Kelly’s eyes find mine and she winks, one hand on her hip. “Maybe we still can. Kate has a minivan.”