Page 103 of All Our Secrets

“King used to play video games all the damn time,” Devin laughed. “He should be halfway decent, at least.”

Silas stiffened and averted his gaze.

“Yeah, I remember Steven saying something about it.” I waited for Silas to glance my way again before adding, “I used to play all the time too.”

We had something in common. Theodore never knew how much I loved gaming because I lost the joy in it when King vanished. In the end, my late husband only heard about the friend who’d ghosted me. Theodore had never known how much my King meant to me.

I wondered what my old King would have said about my situation. I was in love with my husband’s friend, who happened to be called King too. He never liked me dating anyone, so I doubted he’d have anything nice to say about me contemplating upsetting a lot of people to be with Silas King.

Life was strange. If I had both Kings in a room together, what would I see?

“He really did,” Sarah agreed, knocking me out of my reverie. “Didn’t he play with some chick all the time?”

My stomach sank to the floor. Not this again.It’s in the past, Peyton. Stop grinding your teeth.

Devin bumped Silas’s shoulder, waggling his brows. “Might have something to do with why he played so much.”

Sarah was an evil friend. The woman winked at me, knowing she was on the verge of bringing a fire-breathing dragon out of me if I heard about another woman from Silas’s past. Becky was hard enough.

The menacing glare Silas gave Devin could kill. “Shut up.”

“I played with a bunch of friends,” I added. “Remember when we first met, Silas? I thought you were my King.”

I waited, waited, until the twist in my belly grew worse.

Our gazes clashed. “I remember.”

“Oh wow. I didn’t know this,” Sarah piped in. “And ‘my King’?”

“Yeah. They sounded so much alike.” I refused to look away from Silas. The need to see his expression overpowered any vulnerability.

“You never saw this dude?” Sarah asked.

“Nope. Only knew him by MoodyKing1.”

“Well, our King is better, right?”

I shrugged.

“Stop yacking, woman. It’s time for you to lose.” Devin smacked his wife’s ass, and she slapped his shoulder.

Silas’s ability to remain aloof never surprised me. In fact, it hurt.

_____

“I had fun tonight,” I told Sarah.

Sarah grabbed T.J.’s hand. “He’s such a good baby.”

“He is.”

Silas waited by the door for me, holding the diaper bag while I put T.J. in his car seat and said goodbye to Devin and Sarah. Then we stepped outside. The silence was heavy. It clung to my arms, causing goose bumps to erupt.

I opened my back door and clipped the car seat in when he said, “Come to my place.”

His deep voice hit all the right spots, awakening every nerve ending I had. My natural response to Silas King was the shit people wrote about. That was a problem. These feelings didn’t care about right or wrong. Emotions like this caused so much fucking pain.

Stepping back out of the car after I double-checked that the car seat was secure, I turned. “You used to game online with someone?”

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