Page 80 of Filthy Rich

“Sit back down.” Dave points. “We can explain this.” But he’s smiling like it’s all no big deal.

“Do you not care that he cheated on you?” I need to be looking at Seren when I ask. If she’s faking, I’ll see the signs.

Seren’s smile is a knowing one. “Just listen to your dad.”

I sit back down with a sigh. Octavia immediately takes my hand. I knew I was right to bring her.

“But how did Seren get the picture?” Octavia asks. “Did you accidentally group text it?” She’s looking at me.

I whip my phone out, but no, just Dave.

“There’s some kind of weird glitch with our phones,” Dave says. “We managed to disconnect them, but anything you send through iMessage to me goes to her laptop, too. She probably got it the second you sent it. They pop up whenever she’s using her laptop.”

“I did run out of that meeting pretty quickly,” Seren says. “But they’re probably relieved. They were getting a little annoyed with me talking about the cost savings of installing more energy efficient fixtures.”

“I’m confused, too. You thought this was evidence that I was having an affair?” Dave reaches down and grabs the wadded-up paper off the ground and slowly smooths it out. He points at his shoulder. “This happened before I ever met your mom.”

I frown. “You look?—”

“He’s gained some weight,” Seren says, “but the Fansees are like Keanu Reeves.” She shrugs. “They never age.” She slugs his shoulder. “The jerk.”

“If you make me lose a lot of weight, I might be all saggy and baggy.” He sighs.

“It’s not me making you lose weight,” she says. “It’s your doctor.” She turns toward me. “At his last appointment they told him he’s prediabetic.”

Dave unbuttons his shirt and yanks one shoulder down, showing me a tattoo. “We really should have gone swimming more often. I blame the New York weather. You haven’t seen my shoulder?”

I lean closer, squinting. There’s some kind of tree tattoo. Or is it a shamrock? “What is that?”

“It’s our family symbol,” Seren says. “I got one too, on our honeymoon.”

Dave points at his shoulder in the image. “See? No tattoo. Pre-Seren Dave did all kinds of stupid things.” He shakes his shirt back into place and wraps his arm around Seren. “She knew I wasn’t a saint before, though.”

“I mean, are you really a saint now?” She leans her head on his shoulder.

“What were the little red blobs?” Octavia asks.

“For our symbol, we chose a tree,” Dave says. “To represent that we’re growing our own family now, but we gave the tree a four-leaf-clover shape, because we believe that we make our own luck.” The look he gives Seren is almost disgusting, it’s so sweet. “And the blobs, as you phrased it, are small, red, apple-hearts. Each of them has a single letter printed beside them. The first had an E. Then a B. The next was a J, an A, and a K.” Dave looks at me.

“Our names?”

Octavia says, “Aw, that’s so sweet. I love it.”

“Except Seren only has the tree with one heart,” Dave mutters.

“Tattoos hurt a lot more than I expected.” She taps her fingers on the table. “I went to get the other apple-hearts added two different times, but I had to wait for a while for my turn, and I always chickened out before they were ready for me and left.”

“She does love you guys,” Dave says. “Just not as much as she hates needles.”

“To be fair, if I’d known how much it would hurt before I got the first one, I’d have backed out on the matching tattoos entirely.”

“I’ve never seen yours either,” I say.

Dave clears his throat. “It’s in a place you’d be unlikely to see.”

Ew.

“Which is good,” Seren says, “because otherwise, the kids would probably be upset I only have Emerson listed on the heart. He was the only one of you I’d met when we got it done.”

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