Page 140 of In Spades

“That’s usually a good thing.”

“Even good people get traffic tickets. They have some sort of digital footprint. When I ran his information, it was almost like he didn’t exist. But you were happy, so I kept my eyes open. The first poker night he showed up to, Isaac hauled him outside and chewed him out about something. It was pretty quick after the news broke that the inn sold, so I figured the two had to be connected.”

I tried to sniff back the tears, but it didn’t help. They ran down my face as they pleased.

Steve draped his heavy arm across my shoulders and pulled me into his side. “What are you most upset about?”

I cocked my head, resting it on his arm. “Everything. I’m mad that he lied to me when he could have just given me the reassurance that I needed that I wouldn’t lose my job. I’m mad that he only shared a part of his life when I aired all my dirty laundry for him to see. I’m mad that I fell for him in the first place. I’m pissed that I put the kids through this.”

A fresh wave of hot tears built behind my closed eyelids. “I’m so fucking angry that I thought there could actually be good things for us in the future. That after all the hell we’ve been through, everything was going to be okay.”

Steve’s phone rang with an incoming call from Maddie.

I glared at him until he shoved it back in his pocket.

“And I’m mad at people who I thought were my friends,” I continued. “People that I trusted. They lied to me, too. They’re complicit in all of this.”

Kylie peered at us through the curtains.

“Great,” I said, lowering my face. “What the hell am I supposed to tell them, Steve? They loved him as much as I did.”

Steve cleared his throat and stroked his beard. “You’re gonna tell them that everything’s gonna be okay. Because it is.”

“You can’t know that for sure.”

He raised a thick eyebrow. “Yeah, I do. Don’t test me, kid.” He went back to running his palm over his beard. “Have you ever looked at the back of a rug?”

I shrugged. “Yeah?”

“Pretty damn ugly, isn’t it?”

“Will you stop being cryptic as hell and get to the point?”

“You know, sometimes we don’t see how good something is going to be in the end because we’re caught up in all the shit around it. A weaver doesn’t stop weaving because the back of a rug looks like a mess. He knows there’s something beautiful happening on the other side. It’s just not time yet.”

I hated when Steve got old and wise on me. He was always right, but I was always stubborn. “What are you telling me to do, Steve?”

He looked at me, face stern. “There is nothing remotely admirable about letting something good walk away just because you want to win an argument.”

I glared at Steve. “So, you’re saying I should let him get away with lying to me? That I should let people walk all over me?”

“Nah, that’s not it at all. I think you and him need to have yourselves a good fight. Yell and scream at each other and get all your shit out in the open. He owes you an explanation, and you owe him the time it takes for him to give it to you. If you want to walk away after that, it’s up to you.”

“I don’t owe him a damn thing.” I cut my eyes at Steve. “He lied to me.”

“And let me guess, you didn’t tell him about the kids right away either. You probably waited a while to tell him about your parents.”

“Because I was protecting them,” I shot back. “And if you can’t see that, then you can leave right now. I’m not gonna be judged for how I’ve had to handle situations that y’all have never had to deal with.”

“No one’s arguing that you got dealt a shitty hand, Kris.”

For the first time in a long time, I saw pain in his eyes. It had lessened since he fell in love with Erica, but it was back in full force tonight.

“I remember the night I called you,” Steve continued, voice strained. “Chase was busy putting your mom and dad in the back of separate cars. Kylie was rocking Zoey, and Hunter was hiding behind her. Logan was the only one who could remember your phone number. He was too shell-shocked to talk, though. So, I sat down with him on the front porch of your parents’ house and told him if he’d dial, I’d talk to you and explain what was going on. You wanna know something? It took you three hours to drive back here from college, and not once did they doubt that you were coming for them and that everything was going to be okay.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat. “You never told me that…”

“Kristin, listen to me. The kids are strong. They’re resilient. If this really is the end for you and Solomon, they’ll be alright. They can handle it. You raised them well.”

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