Chapter Fourteen

Frankly, Lydia was pissed off. Despite leaving him a couple of voice mails and a text message, she’d heard nothing from Jake all day. She’d been forced to resort to calling the hospital, only to find out that Casey had been discharged earlier. That left her with the afternoon to imagine him at Chris’s house playing happy family with her. No doubt, the other woman was milking it for all it was worth. She’d been practically wrapped around him at the hospital last night. Today, she was probably sitting on his lap and making everything all about her as usual. She could almost hear it now. “Oh, Jake, this has been so hard on me. I barely slept last night. My bed was so lonely and I was terrified. I just don’t know how I can continue to live alone after my scare.” And the scenarios played on and on in her head. Her feelings had nothing to do with Casey and everything to do with her manipulative mother. Jake might not be able to see it, but Lydia certainly did.

She stewed over it all the way home. What an inconsiderate jerk, she thought as she navigated the busy rush-hour traffic. It was better that she find out what kind of man he was now. She could deal with many things, but treating her as if she didn’t matter at all to him was just too much for her. And to think, she’d let herself indulge in the fantasy that he loved her as Mark had said. What a joke that was. Well, she’d had it. She’d be waiting when he got home and she planned to give him a piece of her mind. Then pack her clothes and go to her apartment. She’d talk to a lawyer tomorrow about a divorce and move on with her life.

When she reached their street and saw Jake’s truck in the driveway, her anger came to a boil. She should be happy that he wasn’t at Chris’s house, but all she could think was he had no reason why he couldn’t have taken her last call. She couldn’t remember ever being this angry before, especially at a man. Brett had never done anything to draw her ire. He called when he said he would and usually checked in during the day to see how she was doing. He wouldn’t have ignored her, brushed aside her words of love, nor made her feel as if she’d overstepped her bounds by coming to the hospital.

Lydia parked, then got out of the car and stalked toward the kitchen door. She opened it and got a thrill when it slammed behind her. And there he was, sitting at the bar looking as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Wait—was he seriously drinking a margarita? Lydia didn’t know why, but somehow that was the equivalent of pouring gasoline on a fire. “Hey, sweetheart, how was your day?” He smiled brightly at her.

Are you kidding me right now? Oh, hell no! In a move that surprised her, Lydia narrowed her eyes and stepped forward to grab his drink. He gave her a questioning look, still not seeming to realize how close to getting his ass kicked he was. She shifted as if bringing the glass to her lips before abruptly dumping it onto his head at the last minute. “How was my day?” she parroted over his gasps as the cold liquid ran in rivulets down his face and dripped onto the floor. “Well, let’s see. I dragged myself to the office at the butt crack of dawn this morning after having basically no sleep last night worrying about Casey and you. Then your boss pulls me aside to assure me of how much you love me, which I know can’t possibly be true since you practically broke out in hives in front of me last night when I told you how I felt. But against my better judgment, I started buying into it.” Gesturing wildly with her hands, she continued her epic rant. “I found myself thinking absurd things like maybe you’re just shy, which is laughable when you’re a self-admitted manwhore.”

“A what?” Jake sounded strangled as he gaped at her.

So fired up she couldn’t stop now even if she wanted to, she snapped, “You heard me, whipper zipper! You have a woman in every port. Love ’em and leave ’em. But silly me, I fell for you anyway. And I thought we had something good going. I mean sure, you shift around like your pants are full of bees when I try to have a relationship talk with you, but otherwise, it’s smooth sailing. Plus, we certainly can’t keep our hands off each other. I didn’t figure there was any way you were seeing anyone else with us going at it like bunnies.”

“Lydia.” Jake glanced around wildly before looking back at her. “Honey, I need to tell you—”

She was determined to finish unloading, so ignoring his pleas, she said, “But the absolute suckiest thing you could have done was to leave me at the office all day without answering my calls or texts.” She reached forward and poked a finger in his chest for emphasis. “I’m Casey’s stepmother and your wife. But I had to call the freaking hospital to find out if she’d been released! I love that little girl, and it killed me to be pushed to the side when she was hurt.” Tears filled her eyes as her emotions took a turn in the opposite direction. “Do you have any idea how that made me feel, Jake? I should have been there last night, and you damn sure should have kept me updated on her condition. If you cared about me at all, you would have wanted my comfort last night instead of Chris’s! I swear I could just choke you,” she finished weakly, suddenly exhausted.

“Well, it certainly sounds as if he needs a good butt kicking to me,” said a voice somewhere behind her.

Lydia stiffened and then whirled around. “Who?”

At some point, Jake had grabbed a towel and was now wiping his face so his speech was muffled when he said, “Honey, these are my parents, Ada and Joe Hay.” Looking past her shoulder, he added wryly, “Guys, this is my wife, Lydia.”

Well, this couldn’t possibly get worse. Utterly humiliated, she turned to face the couple standing near the stove. His mother was stirring a pot and his father looked as if he was seconds away from rolling on the floor in laughter. Jake’s mother put a lid on the pot then wiped her hands on a dishcloth before coming to a stop in front of Lydia. The older woman surprised her by throwing her arms around Lydia and hugging her tightly. “Nice to meet you,” Lydia squeaked out against her shoulder.

Ada Hay pulled back and Lydia didn’t know whether to be horrified or relieved that she was grinning broadly. “I always knew that any woman who married one of my boys would need a backbone. They’re both stubborn, but Jake is probably the worst.”

Jake’s father snickered while Jake called out, “Thanks a lot, Mom.”

“Um, did you hear all of that?” Lydia asked, hoping to God that they’d just caught the last of it.

“My favorite part was the ‘whipper zipper.’” Ada giggled. “Don’t get me wrong, no mother wants to know that her son spreads it around town, but I have a feeling that won’t be happening anymore.” Then she fixed a glare on her son. “You haven’t phoned your wife today? I won’t even go into why you’d need to call her when she had every right to be there with you.”

Jake fidgeted uncomfortably before admitting, “Chris broke my phone this morning, and I haven’t had a chance to get another one yet.”

His father looked at his wife and nodded. “I told you I heard something when we were taking Casey down for ice cream. Remember, I went back to get my hat but changed my mind when I heard Jake and Chris arguing. As I was walking off, I heard a crash but figured the boy could handle it.”

Puzzled, Lydia asked, “Why would she break your phone?” Considering Chris had been acting like an angel lately, that seemed a little strange, even for her.

Sighing, he admitted, “Because I called her out on her behavior at lunch the other day. Incidentally, she also confessed that she doesn’t have a boyfriend and she just wanted to make me jealous. So we had the talk where I told her that I loved my wife very much and she and I would never be anything but the mother and father of Casey. She got angry and my phone was sitting on the bedside table in the hospital room so she threw it on the floor and then stepped on it for good measure.” Despite the angry words she’d hurled at him, he looked deeply apologetic as he said, “Things got crazy after that. Casey was released and I had to deal with Chris acting like an all-time bitch. But that’s no excuse. I should have found a phone to call you.”

Lydia barely heard the explanation about the phone. Her attention was focused on the words he’d spoken before that. He’d told Chris that he loved her. Did he mean it or was it just a way to get her to back off? As she was struggling with what to say, his mother cleared her throat. “Your father and I are going to run to the store. I need a few more things for dinner.”

“What could you possibly have forgotten?” Joe asked, looking bewildered. “We damn near bought out the entire supermarket not an hour ago.”

Ada gave a long-suffering groan before taking her husband’s arm and pulling him toward the door. “Do you really want to stand around and listen to the details of your son’s sex life? I’m as open-minded as the next person, but I’d still like to keep a few mysteries where my boys are concerned. Now, can we please go to Publix to wander around for a while?”

Clearly not bothered in the least by her chiding, Joe looked at first his son then Lydia. “Well, I guess we’ll let you kids have some privacy now.” Pointing at his son with a smirk, he added, “Good luck, whipper. You’re probably gonna need it.”

Lydia knew that her face must be in flames as his parents left. Dear Lord, the intimate details she’d spat out in front of them! And the manwhore part. That one was likely to haunt her forever—even if it was somewhat true. Okay, maybe he hadn’t been that bad, but all indications would point to the fact he had been a little fast and loose with the women. “So . . . they seem nice,” Lydia said lamely. The room was quiet for so long that finally Lydia couldn’t stand it any longer. “Okay, I’m sorry for saying all of that in front of them.”

Jake moved to the sink and wet some paper towels as he attempted to clean some of the sticky drink from his face and neck. “That’s my fault. I should have called you. Some of this could have been avoided if I had,” he stated calmly.

Now that her anger had died down, she was getting nervous and feeling the need to fill the silence. “I may have possibly taken the whole, um . . . sleeping around thing a tad too far as well. You did say that you usually didn’t have relationships, so I did have some basis for it.”

His stare pinned her in place as he said, “That’s correct. I haven’t been one for serious involvement with women in the past. But I also haven’t been a man who lowered my zipper anytime, anywhere. I do have some standards, Lydia.”

This was getting more uncomfortable by the minute, and frankly, after doing nothing but obsessing over her relationship and worrying about Casey, she was too burned out to go through it again. If he wanted to be mad at her, then so be it. Throwing her hands up in the air, she said, “You know what? I can’t do this right now. I’ve humiliated myself by throwing a hissy fit in front of my in-laws, which is completely unlike me. I’ve never had to force a man to have ‘the talk,’ but I seem to be doing that a lot as well. I’m turning into one of those needy, clingy women that I never understood.” Refusing to look at him, she rubbed her eyes before adding, “I’m tired, Jake. Mentally, emotionally, and physically. I’m going to go lie down and hope when I wake up, this will all have been some bad dream. Please apologize to your parents for everything.” With those parting words, she forced herself to put one foot in front of the other until she was in the bedroom. She debated leaving and going to her apartment, but she didn’t have the energy. So instead, she curled up in the middle of the big bed and allowed her body to relax. Her last thought as she drifted off was that Jake hadn’t come after her. It looked as if she’d left the last pieces of her marriage, along with her dignity, in the kitchen.

*   *   *

Jacob scratched his head and tried to process what had just happened. To say he’d been a bit blown away by first the margarita on his head, then the verbal slap down, would be an understatement. His wife, it seemed, was full of surprises. Of course, that was probably to be expected when you didn’t actually spend much time learning about each other before the actual nuptials.

Naturally, he’d been a little discomfited to have his sexual past ridiculed right there in front of his parents. He couldn’t imagine many men who wanted their mother to hear them called “whipper zipper.” It also bothered him that Lydia thought so poorly of the choices he’d made. But he guessed he couldn’t toss all the blame on her. They’d rushed into marriage for all of the wrong reasons and then sort of fell into a relationship. There hadn’t been more than a handful of meaningful discussions between them concerning their past. Although, possibly, he was the one who hadn’t felt the need to confide in her. Lydia had spoken in great detail about her love for Brett and those years of her life. She’d also given him insight into what it had been like for her since he’d passed away.

Other than talking about his daughter and some of the issues he had experienced with Chris, he hadn’t been as forthcoming and that was on him. He certainly couldn’t blame it on the fact that she wasn’t interested because he knew she was. It mostly came down to the lame excuse that men tended to avoid uncomfortable subjects and that included their past history of dating and sex with other women.

He’d planned to talk to Lydia tonight and tell her how he felt. He hadn’t been expecting the big scene in the kitchen, though, so he’d been temporarily thrown off. He knew one thing, though. He couldn’t let her go to bed another night thinking he was a jerk who didn’t care about her. So squaring his shoulders, he prepared to go talk to his wife. His wet clothes were still clinging to him, and he hoped that if she felt the urge to toss something over his head this time, it was at least just water. This sticky stuff was damned uncomfortable.