Page 39 of All Our Secrets

William didn’t seem alarmed. I was probably too shocked, too angry, to notice him slamming the door.Had to be it.After the confusion faded, the fury prickled my spine. Was I supposed to believe he mixed the rooms up? The bathroom door stayed open, while mine had been closed.

Later that day, the moment William went to the bathroom at the restaurant, I brought it up.

Mom tossed up her arm and huffed. “It’s fine. He told me he got the doors mixed up.”

“Why didn’t he use the guest bathroom?” I asked.

“Because I was showering.”

I exhaled. “Mom—”

“You always do this,” she muttered, and I cringed as the couple in the booth beside us glanced over at us. “You complain about every man I date. They’re never good enough. Whether it’s their job—”

“Them being a deadbeat,” I corrected her. “Not working, dealing drugs.”

She crossed her arms. “William isn’t a pervert. He thinks of you as a daughter because you’re my baby.”

“He doesn’t know me.”

“Peyton—” Mom’s lips slammed shut when William sat down beside her.

Bile rose in my throat. Just once,onceI’d love to see her in a happy, healthy relationship.

As I watched William eyeball a woman’s ass as she retrieved something he’d dropped, I rolled my eyes. There was no way I could stomach him in my home for an entire week.

Chapter Seventeen:

are you happy?

Peyton

Iwas startled awake in the dead of night. Lifting my head from the pillow, I glanced at the crib. Not a peep from T.J., but there was no way I could go back to sleep until I got up and checked on him. When I saw his little chest rising and falling, I smiled and went back to bed.

I looked toward the window and sighed. My neck felt better, less stiff, and the view was nicer lying down at night on a warm, fluffy bed instead of a wooden chair.

My skin prickled with a strange need as I pulled the sheet higher and tried to settle back in. It wasn’t really strange, but unwelcome. I rubbed the hairs on my arms down as if that could quell the heat. The new angle of my bed had my mind drifting to the person who had moved it.God.I wasn’t even allowed to have s-e-x for six weeks, so it didn’t make sense for my body to want it, especially with the visual of my husband’s best friend.

Ugh. I hated how crazy my emotions had been lately. Maybe I should schedule an appointment with my doctor, but I’d never been good at talking about my mental health. For so long, I’d refused to look at Silas in a way I shouldn’t.That’s not true, a small voice reminded me. More accurately, I hadn’t since our first few encounters. I fell madly in love with Theodore within a few months of dating him. My husband was loud, playful, and could charm the pants off anyone. The opposite of Silas. It had been easy to forget that mysterious, magnetic tension from that first encounter with the broody man. Until I was alone in my room… with my thoughts and a weird tingling inside me.

I gripped my blankets and held them up to my chin. As soon as I closed my eyes, a flash of marred skin, dark, sullen eyes, and grumpy lips appeared. I snapped them open and sighed. He was probably a selfish lover anyway, uncaring of his partner and her needs, because in real life, he tended to say and do whatever, despite how it might hurt others.

But that wasn’t exactly true. He’d always done a lot for Theodore. He was still doing more than he should for his best friend by checking in with me. That was what caused all this weirdness inside me.Nothing else…

Turning on my side, I closed my eyes and willed myself to sleep. Silas appeared behind my closed lids again. This time, it was from a memory. It was from a week or so after Theodore proposed. Silas and I had rarely encountered each other without Theodore around. There was never a reason to be near each other if he wasn’t with us, but a water line busted in our home one morning. Theodore was at work and didn’t know a thing about fixing anything anyway. Water was everywhere. I was running late for school…

I ran downstairs. The knees of my dress pants were wet, and my blouse was soaked. Tears formed when I yanked open the front door.

There Grumpy stood. The hulking, scarred man gave me a once-over: the tears, and my wet, wrinkled clothing. His nostrils flared like he was an angry gorilla or something. I glanced down and discovered that my blue bra was visible through the fabric.

“I’m sorry,” was all I could think to say. I covered my chest quickly, but it was too late. He’d seen, and now I’d made it clear I was aware of his notice.

His eyes landed on my engagement ring that time. His jaw tightened as he strode in, slipping right by me. Treating me like smoke, the nothingness I was in his presence. “Where’s the leak?”

“Master bathroom,” I murmured as I trailed after him.

His boots thudded up the hallway. I felt their vibrations on my bare feet.Even his steps were angry.

Towels were strewn all over the bathroom floor. I’d been cleaning up the mess when he knocked on the door. There was still so much water. If I didn’t get it cleaned up quickly… I didn’t want to think of the damage.

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