Page 109 of Hot Shot

He’s stunned silent. I amthrilled.

“I mean, it was only supposed to be for one night, but the annulment paperwork was never filed. Good thing you and I didn’t work out. I was already married to Wilder and I have been this whole time.”

Davis shakes his head and I watch him trying to puzzle it out, trying to understand. “You…you knew?”

“What if I did? What if this whole time, you were fucking Henry and I was literally married to someone else? How would that make you feel?”

“Did you know?” he asks darkly.

I consider saying yes, but I won’t lie to him as easily as he did to me. “No. I didn’t know,” I concede.

“So, what,” he sputters, “you found out and figured why not?”

“It was a little more complicated than that, but that’s the gist. The rest of it is, again, none of your fucking business. I’m married to Wilder and you’re with Henry and who fucking cares what else? Now tell me why you’re here instead of calling or emailing or sending a carrier pigeon or something?”

“You blocked me everywhere.”

“So call my mom.”

“She blocked me too.”

I sigh, shifting to my other hip, staring at him while I wait.

After a second, he seems to remember himself. “I, uh, well, I need you to sign these papers to take you off the lease.”

“Great. Awesome. No prob.” I extend my hand for whatever he needs.

He takes the papers out of the folio and sets them on top, then hands the stack over. A pen from his pocket follows.

I grip the folio and sign the first page, saying, “I don’t know why you didn’t just buy a place like you buy everything else.”

A huff. “You know I’m waiting on a place in that development by the—you know what? It doesn’t matter. Henry can’t get his key fob and parking spot until you’re off the lease.”

My pen stops mid loop on the second page, then scribbles out the rest of my signature in an illegible, angry doodle. “Wouldn’t want Henry to have to park on the street.” I shove the folio and papers at him, but the pen is gripped in my fist like an ice pick. “Well, thanks for stopping by to remind me about all the lying and cheating and whatnot. Oh, the whole part where you wanted me to forgive you so you can sleep at night was a nice touch. Somehow, you can still surprise me. It’s been nice reliving it all.”

He glares, angry and hurt. “Well, you seem to have gotten over it just fine.”

A bitter laugh cracks out of me. “Fuck you.”

Davis stands up a little straighter, his beautiful jaw set in determination and voice hard. “In the church that day, you told me I ruined your life, that I left you with nothing. You said my life became your life and you couldn’t have the things you wanted. Right?”

“I don’t see what that has to do with?—”

“And then you move back here, get married. Tohim. Live inhishouse. You poured yourself into someone else’s life again. You don’t want to lose yourself? You want to blameme? Maybe that’s just what you do. Maybe you’re empty. Maybe youneedsomeone else’s life to latch onto and feed off of, to fill you up. To give you someone to blame when it all goes to shit.”

I recoil, taking half a step back and a gasp that holds no oxygen, my chest in a vice and tears pricking my nose and eyes. The words are dry, cruel.

What’s worse? They’re true.

Wilder busts out the front door, nostrils flared like a bull as he charges toward Davis. Shock registers on Davis’s face only a second before Wilder has him by the front of his jacket, his muscles popping.

It’s in this moment that I’m certain Wilder is going to kill him.

“I thinkmy wifehas put up with you long enough,” he grinds out. “Anything I can help you with?”

“I-I?—”

His fists tighten, his forehead drawing closer to Davis’s. “Like a bruised kidney maybe? A broken nose? Or I could do everyone a favor and send you back to that lying sack of shit with two black eyes? Say the word, because I’ve been itching to fuck you up since the second you stepped foot in this town. Give me a reason. Gimmeone. Good. Reason.”

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