Page 61 of I Do, or Dye Trying
It was my turn to gasp like Mrs. Adams. “Our friends have come to expect nicer food than hot dogs and baked beans.”
“Our friends love us regardless of what we serve,” Gabe said. “I bet they won’t even know if there’s any meat offered at all if you make your baked macaroni and cheese.” I ignored the door he opened with his meat comment and got to the heart of his meaning.
“Gabe, do you want me to bake macaroni and cheese to go with the pork chops I picked out?” I asked.
“Maybe, if it’s not too much trouble,” he said. “I don’t want you to spend all day working on a cheese sauce.”
“I promise you that it’s no problem,” I told him as I headed to the frozen food section in the store. He already learned my truth about my quick fix for mashed potatoes on a weeknight. It was time he learned the secret to my macaroni and cheese. A marriage built on lies was destined to fail.
“Be careful, Josh. Be alert to everything around you,” he said, but I was only partially listening because I had locked eyes with Laura Sampson. “I will.” Then I told Gabe that I loved him and disconnected the call. “Hey, Laura,” I said when it was obvious from her expression that she wanted to speak to me.
“Congratulations on your marriage,” she said sweetly. “I hope you both will be truly happy together.” I had only seen her a few times since Billy was arrested, and although we were always cordial, I felt awkward in her presence. Gossip about the status of her marriage to Billy was practically nil, and I didn’t want to know anyway.
“Thank you, Laura. I appreciate that very much.” I offered her a wide smile and hoped that was the only thing on her mind so I could get going, but I wasn’t so lucky.
“He’s sorry for what he did to you, Josh,” she said softly while looking at her feet.
“For which time, Laura?” I asked, unable to keep the bite of temper out of my voice.
She snapped her eyes up to meet mine again, and I saw so much sorrow in her expression that I regretted my tone immediately. “I’m pretty sure all of it. Billy wrote you a few letters from jail, but they detained them before they were mailed to you.”
“You think?” I asked her. “He admitted to stalking and harassing me. I’m no expert on our penal system, but I’m pretty sure that it’s frowned upon for inmates to reach out to their victims.” Laura flinched, and I was reminded just how much of a victim she was also. She wasn’t my enemy. I moderated my tone and said, “Laura, I hope that Billy is truly sorry for the things that he did to both of us, but my happiness isn’t contingent on it. I made my peace with the past and the things he did, and I don’t care if he’s happy or not. I do care about your happiness and that of your children. If you ever want to talk about you and your kids, I’m game, but discussing Billy—past or present—is off-limits.” There was one thing that nagged at the back of my mind that only she or Billy could answer. “Except for one thing,” I amended.
“Okay,” she said hesitantly.
“How’d you guys live here for six months without me knowing it? I own the business that’s at the epicenter of gossip.”
“Billy was adamant about not living in Blissville,” she told me. “I knew he was trying to avoid seeing you. We rented a house that was far enough in Carter County that it had a Goodville zipcode. I don’t know why Delaney never talked about Billy to you during her visits; maybe she suspected there was something between you.” That wasn’t likely because publicly Billy had treated me like shit. “We did all of our shopping in Goodville, and he had no reason to come to Blissville until the time he dropped the kids off to Delaney at your salon. He deteriorated quickly after that. Josh, I’m…”
“Please don’t say that you’re sorry.” I could see the apology in her eyes and hated that she thought any of it could be her fault.
Laura nodded slowly and pasted a trembling smile on her lips. “Anyway, I won’t keep you. I just wanted to tell you that I’m happy for you.”
“Thank you,” I said again. “I’ll see you around.” We didn’t attempt an awkward hug or anything; we just continued with our original destinations.
My mind wanted to stray to the conversation I had with Laura and the things that were left unspoken at my insistence, but I promised Gabe that I’d be alert to what was going on around me. As much as I hated whatever scheme he, Adrian, and John would come up with that evening, I agreed that we couldn’t keep looking over our shoulders every two seconds.
Gabe helped me pack the groceries in the house once I got home. The look on his face when he saw the box of frozen macaroni was priceless. His jaw practically hit the floor like a cartoon character. “You’ve been serving me frozen macaroni and cheeseallthis time?” he asked. “I can’t believe it.”
“Gabe, we’ve been a couple for less than a year,” I told him. “I might’ve served this to you three or four times.” His crestfallen expression seemed extreme compared to my crime. I stood straight and put my hands on my hips. “What did you do?”
“What makes you think I did something?” he asked, but the guilty expression in his eyes gave him away.
“Spill it, Husband Hot Lips,” I demanded.
“Dorchester and I might’ve entered you and Deanna into a macaroni and cheese contest,” he said sheepishly.
“Why would you do that after Deanna was humiliated last time?” I asked in stunned belief. “Oh my God, now it’s my turn to be humiliated.”
“Well, I…”
“Maybe she’ll show me the same mercy I showed her,” I said to Gabe. “You better hope so anyway,” I told him. I debated putting the frozen pasta in one of my baking dishes but decided against it. That kind of devious behavior would only encourage the jackasses more.
It turned out that I didn’t have anything to worry about because Deanna unpacked an identical aluminum foil pan to the one I bought from the store. We shared a glass of wine and a good laugh over the incident before the other guests arrived. Gabe looked at me hopefully when he popped into the kitchen to get two more beers out of the refrigerator. He thought all the laughter meant that I forgave him. I narrowed my eyes that let him know he could expect retribution later that night. Unfortunately for me, he seemed more excited about hispunishmentthan sorry about his actions.
IKNEW WHAT THElook that Josh sent me in the kitchen meant. I loved how he thought I would be intimidated. Instead, my head went into hyperdrive wondering what he’d do to torture me once he got me alone upstairs, or anywhere in the house for that matter. We had free range fucking until we decided to have a family.
“Why’re you looking so damn happy suddenly?” John asked when I returned with his beer. “You went in with your tail tucked between your legs and came back out… Ohhh.” He winked playfully.