“I’ll try to get home a little earlier tonight, but I have a lot of work to catch up on that I was supposed to do over the weekend,” Leo says, doing up his tie behind me in the mirror.
Turning around, I smooth my hands over his lapels and adjust his tie for him. “Okay. We’ll be here.” I smile up into his face.
His hands trail up my arms to my neck, wrapping around the back of it and sinking into my hair. “Don’t bother making the bed.” He leans in to whisper the words to my mouth. I get dizzy, inhaling his cologne and the mint still on his breath from brushing his teeth.
“Why?” I murmur against his lips, my eyes fluttering closed.
His hands roam down my back, pressing me into his chest as his lips softly part mine with the barest hint of a touch. “Because as soon as the kids go to bed, we’re going to mess it up even worse than last night,” he whispers.
The memory of him fucking my mouth flashes behind my closed lids. The way he spread my legs wide afterward to take me hard and deep while making me hold the headboard as he tortured my breasts mercilessly has a shiver raking over me. Goose bumps cause the hair on my arms to rise. He chuckles, knowing exactly what he’s doing to me before finally taking my lips with his and kissing me slowly. His tongue touches but only teases mine before he’s pulling away and walking out of the room.
I finally open my eyes when I hear him saying goodbye to the kids downstairs. Snapping out of my daze, I turn back around to the mirror and throw my hair over my head to pull it all up into a messy bun. When I’m done, I grab my phone off the nightstand and head downstairs to finish getting the kids ready for school.
“Can I take my robot in for show and tell?” Charlie asks on the way out to the car.
I shake my head. “It’s not your show and tell day yet.” I put their bags in the back then hop inside to start the engine.
“I can do special news, though,” Charlie says as he opens his door.
“We’re going to be late if we don’t move it. Ask your teacher if you can bring it in for special news tomorrow.”
He sighs but climbs up into the car. Greta finally comes racing out into the garage, slamming the door closed behind her. I wind the window down. “Let’s move it, missy.”
She laughs, opening her door and getting in. I wait until they’ve both buckled their seat belts before backing out and closing the garage. Driving down our street, I hear, “Squeeze ma belly,” coming from the trunk. “Greta.” My head snaps around when I stop at the end of our street. “Did you put that pink furry thing in your bag?”
Charlie snickers at Greta, whose eyes are bugging out of her head. “Um, maybe?”
“Hand him over as soon as we get to school, okay?” I turn around, flicking my turn signal on and heading toward the school.
“It’s not a he; it’s a she.”
Charlie snorts. “It’s a weird, noisy ball of fur.”
“Is not,” Greta says.
“Is too,” he says.
“Well, your stupid robot is, is, is … is hideous,” she stammers out triumphantly.
I’m going to need more coffee. Turning into the school driveway, I park as Charlie says, “It’s supposed to be. It’s a robot, dummy.”
“Hey!” I turn around, frowning at him. “Not cool.”
He has the good grace to look a little sheepish.
“All right, let’s go.” I jump out and grab their bags, making sure to grab the damn Furby out of Greta’s before she runs off.
Lola laughs, walking over to me. “Oh, shit. You’ve been initiated into the, ‘help, this thing won’t shut up’ Furby club, have you?” She takes it from me, tickling its belly and making the damn thing giggle evilly.
“Shush you. Sophie has one too?”
She nods gravely, handing it back over. “Yep, I took the batteries out a month after Christmas. She hasn’t noticed yet, thankfully.”
That gives me hope. Grinning, I turn around to open the door and place it in Greta’s car seat. I close the door and lean against it, watching the kids run into the school as the bell sounds. She leans in next to me. “Have you spoken to Jared?” she asks quietly.
The smile wilts off my face at the thought of him. Remembering that I still need to see him, to talk to him in person. I hope he shows up tomorrow even if I know Leo might lose his shit. I can’t leave things how they were on the phone on Friday. He doesn’t deserve some bullshit, half-assed explanation over the phone.
“Not yet.” I sigh. “I’m going into the shelter tomorrow. I’m planning on talking to Glenda about taking some time away. At least until Jared’s finished doing his hours.”
She scuffs some rocks below her Converse shoes. “You’re going to see him then?”
“I have to,” I tell her.
I look over to find her brows furrowing over her sunglasses. “But at what risk? Won’t Leo lose his ever-loving mind?” she whispers.
Probably, but I feel stuck about this. “I don’t want to upset him; it’s the last thing I want to do. Not when things look like they’re finally going to work out for us.” I chew on my lip for a beat. “But I need to talk to Jared in person. What I’ve done is pretty shitty on all counts.”
“I get it. But you know Leo’s probably not going to be happy about it, at all,” she warns.
That’s what I’m afraid of. “I won’t lie to him. If he asks, I’ll tell him. But otherwise … I’m just worried it’ll cause unnecessary drama by letting him know that I want to say goodbye to the guy who was there for me when he wasn’t.”
She sighs. “Alrighty, then. So.” She claps her hands. “Let’s go kick some ass.” She turns and climbs into my car.
Kick some ass? “Wait, what?”
She rolls her eyes. “She who shall not be named. Come on; I have an appointment with my gynecologist at twelve thirty, so we can’t take all day.” She closes the door.
Um. “What do you mean? Yeah, I’d like to inflict some bodily harm, but I don’t know if I can even stomach seeing her yet,” I say as I climb behind the wheel.
“I’ll stomach it for the both of us. Let’s roll.”
Feeling worried, I turn the ignition over, and we leave her Mazda behind as we drive away from the school.
On the way, my gut starts to churn as I think of all the times I hung out with Fiona. The times we had coffee, went shopping, had play dates and dinner parties. Then recently, cleaning her house. Trying to help her after her husband found out her dirty secret and left her. Left her because of what she did to my husband and God knows who else.
I start deep breathing as we turn onto her street. I don’t know if I can do this. If I can even face her after what she’s done—the lives she’s almost ruined. Parking in front of her massive house, I turn to Lola, who’s been surprisingly quiet.
“Oh, hell.” I look out the window to her house. Her perfect fucking house and perfect fucking gardens with her perfect lies hidden behind it all. “What are we even doing here?”
She shrugs. “I don’t know, but we need to do something. Let’s just go yell at her, maybe punch her in the vagina really good.”
I blanch. “Seriously? Let’s just go. Looking at those stupid ass lions is even making me sick.”
She grabs my hand as I’m about to turn the ignition back over. “If that were my husband, she’d be in unrecognizable pieces and buried in my backyard. And I’d sit there and have tea on my back porch every morning, staring at her final resting place, just hoping she was burning in hell.”
My throat bobs. “O-kay … that’s a little terrifying,” I whisper.
“She’s a crazy fucking bitch!” she almost yells. “You were her friend.”
“I know,” I say quietly.
She points at me. “You were there for her.”
“I know,” I say a little louder.
Her eyes take on a scary shade of blue as she growls quietly, “You gave her your favorite chocolate just last week, for Christ’s sake!”
“I know!” I yell then shake my head. “Okay, wait, Lola. Focus.”
She climbs out of the car and slams the door. Shit.
Shit, shit, shit.
“Lola!” I whisper-hiss, jumping out of the car as she beelines up the sidewalk to the front doors.
I scrub my hands down my face. Okay. Looks like we’re really doing this then. I slam my car door closed and run after her.
“Lola, Jesus, don’t …” I say once my ballet flats slap onto the front porch. But it’s too late. She presses the doorbell then grabs the huge knocker and slams it against the wood. The sound reverberates throughout my stiff body. I can’t do this. Not yet.
The door flies open and Fiona stands there, her brown hair clean and tucked behind her ears and her gym gear on. Of course. Of course, she looks so put together now. I suddenly want to puke all over her stupidly tight clothes.
“Hey, ladies. Come in. I’ve been meaning to call you both actually.”
Lola doesn’t say anything; she just grabs my hand and tugs me inside. My feet drag the whole way, but they don’t move past the entryway. I can’t. Knowing what she did to Leo here, in this house, has my feet firmly rooted to the floor as Lola glances over at me then sighs, giving up.
“Cut the shit, Fiona. We know what you did.” Lola dives right in.
Fiona’s pretty face scrunches up in confusion. “What are you talking about?” And that’s apparently all it takes for red to blur my vision. My body starts trembling as rage and disbelief battle their way through my bloodstream.
“You, raping her fucking husband.” Lola points at me, and I step forward, all fear having left my body as Fiona’s wide eyes turn to me.
“What the hell do you mean? Rape him?” She cackles, legitimately cackles. “Come on, as if you can even rape a man.” She wipes underneath her eyes, still laughing softly. “That’s totally stupid. They all want sex, right?”
I walk right up to her and slap the shit out of her. And when she rights herself, I slap the other cheek with the back of my hand for good measure before Lola pulls me back.
“Are you fucking kidding me? So that’s why you put something in his drinks, right? Because he fucking wanted it?” I screech at her.
She visibly pales even after I’ve slapped her in the face. She takes a step back, rubbing at her cheek. “I don’t know who told you that, but they’re lying.”
I scoff. “Your husband. He has the tapes, you fucking psycho.”
Lola sucks in a breath next to me as Fiona’s jaw hangs open. And I’ve had enough. “Let’s go,” I say quietly, turning and grabbing Lola’s hand.
“You sick fucking bitch,” Lola snarls over her shoulder before slamming her front door closed behind us.
“Oh, God. I’m gonna puke.” I grab my stomach and stop halfway back to the car, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath.
“Do it,” Lola says, “Right here on her precious garden. Tapes? Un-fucking-believable. Leo had better be on top of getting those.”
She grabs my hand when I finally manage to get myself together enough to continue walking back to the car. “I don’t know what he’s doing with them. Dylan apparently has them. Leverage against her or something.”
She pulls her seat belt on, and I do the same. “Let’s hope he ends up getting the disgusting woman put behind bars then.”
I lean forward, dropping my head onto the steering wheel.
“You okay?” Lola rubs my back.
Nodding my head, I sit back up and wipe the tears from underneath my eyes. “Yeah, it’s just been so damn hard to wrap my head around.”
“And seeing her has made it sink its filthy claws into you, huh?” she asks softly.
“Yeah, I guess.” I sniff, turning the car on and checking my mirrors before driving away from that house of nightmares.