Page 68 of Nothing to This

“They’re playing board games?”

“In the living room,” he said.“I’m putting my money on Sky.”

“Kye will wipe the floor with them.But he’ll be so charming that your mom and Brenna won’t notice they’ve had their asses handed to them.”

He exhaled a murmur of a laugh and held her tighter, slowly beginning to move like they were dancing to an inaudible tune.

“You know…” she teased.“We have a clear shot at freedom right now.”

“We do?”

“The front door is right there.I bet we could be out of here for a half hour before they even noticed we were gone.”

“Plenty of time to get to the jet.Where would you like to go?”

“Venice,” she said.“Oh, or Monaco.”

“Monaco?”

“Sure.The kids couldn’t be mad about that because they’d hate it there.”

Still slow dancing, holding each other, every muscle relaxed while the smile in his tone grew.

“You don’t think we’d miss them?”

“We’d come back,” she stated like it was obvious.“Soon as I wipe you out in Monaco.”Breathing in, she sighed out her plan.“We come back, sell this place and use the money to buy ourselves a trailer in Michigan or Texas… You need to buy a wife beater and start drinking beer from the can.”

He laughed.“I do?”

“Sure.You can sit on a lawn chair wearing a ball cap making enemies of the neighbors by sleeping with their wives while they’re at work or out hunting.”

“Thought you wiped me out.”

“Your fortune, yes, but women sleep with you ‘cause you’re hot, not because of your money… at least at first.”

“What will happen to the kids?”

“They’ll grow up resenting us, which they’re going to do anyway.Kye will speak with a twang, wear pants that are too big and borrow your jalopy to go park with girls on weekends.”

“And Sky?”

“Will start wearing crop tops and hoop earrings, shouting about how grown up she is and how we’ll never understand.”

“I think she’ll do that anyway.”

“Maybe.”

“And us?”

“We’ll gradually descend into alcoholism and resentment.Going out to bars at the weekend, I’ll flirt with other men to piss you off.I’ll throw myself at them until they take advantage, then you’ll pin them down in parking lot brawls.I’ll drag you away before the cops show up and we’ll scream at each other back at the trailer, but I’ll mop up the blood and clean your wounds, while telling you how stupid you are for getting into fights.”

“And I’ll agree with you, but say I lose my head when I see other men touching you.”

She smiled.“Exactly.”Another sigh.“Then, with too much alcohol and regret in our systems, and the realization that our kids ran off and abandoned us long before, we’ll start the cycle all over again.You’ll knock me up right there against the aluminum siding.”

Running his hands up and down her back, he released a sound of satisfaction.“That’s some future we’ve got ahead of ourselves.”

She opened her eyes that had closed somewhere along the way and glanced across the room again.“And it all starts with walking out that door.”