Page 31 of Lust in Translation

No one says anything else on the subject, and for that I’m thankful. I’m worried I’m going to hear all about it tonight. In Adam’s room. In his bed. Conversation is safe throughout dinner. We talk about work. Leo and I make a couple jokes in Spanish. Just enough banter to not make anyone else feel left out, but not too much that anyone thinks we have inside jokes. I clean up, staring out the kitchen window. Juliet dries the plate I pass her. She apologizes for earlier and asks me if I’m going to decapitate Adam.

I laugh. She laughs, but the smile is short lived. “We need to talk tonight. Really have a heart to heart.”

“That bad?” I counter.

“No. Things are just as I suspected.”

I nod. I can’t do anything else right now. Adam and Leo are talking about the cat. The only safe subject they have in common. “I’ll brace myself.”

Juliet snaps me with the towel and we both laugh. When the exchange is over, we find both Adam and Leo looking at us. At me. I press my lips together. “Dessert anyone?”

Both men respond with a firm, taut, “Yes, please.”

I swallow hard and take the cake stand out to the island and cut the exact number of pieces. The room spins a bit as all of tonight’s alcohol seems to hit me at once. I haven’t been drunk since the weekend after Noel died. It was not a good night so I’ve tried to avoid this type of numbness at all costs. Tonight, I’ll face it head on, evidently.

“Why couldn’t Avery make it?” I ask, voice a bit sloppy, when we’re all eating dessert.

Leo clears his throat. “I thought it best if she didn’t come.”

Adam keys in immediately. “Why is that?”

Leo meets my eyes and I know he’s going to tell Adam what he wants to hear. My heart pounds out a warning.You’re going to be found out!Leo’s steely gaze meets Adams. “She has the flu. Wouldn’t want her infecting anyone.”

Adam deflates, disappointed in the answer. “Tell her we missed her tonight.”

How did she get the flu, Leo? How did she get the flu? White lace panties. White lace panties. White lace panties on your floor.My eyes are filled with accusation as I meet Leo’s gaze. He looks away. I read him so well that it’s the same thing as admitting to it.

“Could have been you, Kendall. You lucked out!” Adam exclaims, licking frosting off his fork.

I quirk one brow. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Juliet sighs out a long breath. I smell cake. That’s what I’m going to associate white lace panties to now. Cake. Vanilla. “You brought over that soup, remember? Could have picked up the virus on a multitude of things. A doorknob, the counter, anything you touched.” Adam waves his fork around.

Leo laughs. “She was careful when she stopped by.” Ever the pragmatic.

Adam swallows—a jerky movement of his neck. “I’m sure she was careful.”

“Tell Avery we’ll catch her next time for sure,” Juliet adds. “The flu is really bad this year. Tell her to get the vaccination next year. You, too.” She sends a pointed look at Leo. “The medical studies are actually compelling. The vaccines work.”

A blessed change of subject. Tomorrow my whole body will ache from holding this rigid, on-edge posture all night. “They try to make me every year,” Leo says. “I don’t like putting anything in my body that I don’t know the origins of.”

“It’s worth the risk,” Juliet argues. “Do you recall how awful you felt a few days ago? That could have been avoided completely.”

Leo explains his way around getting the vaccine so well that everyone is convinced of his reasons for not getting it. He’s one of those charismatic people who can take anything and turn it into something else entirely. How do they do that? Sheer will? My life wouldn’t resemble a soap opera if I had his skill. As he talks, he picks up our empty dessert plates and brings them into the kitchen. He dumps them into the sink.

“I’ll clean up later. Please don’t worry about that,” I say, approaching him from the side. I don’t mean to get as close as I do, but my shoulder brushes against his and I lean away so quickly you’d think he’d burned me. “Here,” I say, reaching for the sponge, trying to move him away.

Leo grins down at me, and for the first time all night, my shoulders relax. Another skill of his—forcing his calming presence on me like a salve. “I can wash plates.” His finger brushes mine as he takes the yellow scrubber from my hand and begins circling the ceramic fox-imprinted plate in gentle strokes. “Unless you’d rather I go chat with your husband. The choice is all yours.” Another wide grin.

Shaking my head, I laugh a short burst. It’s just loud enough to draw eyes, and I immediately put a hand over my mouth. Uh-oh. My happiness is showing.

“Something you care to share with everyone, or is it more of a private joke?” Adam asks.

Juliet smiles at me. I stutter for a second or two, let my eyes fall on the soapy bubbles on Leo’s thick forearms. My throat goes dry.Think on your toes, Kendall.Plates. Grass. “That time you were mowing the grass out back, Adam. Remember it kept stopping and shooting fire and it took twice as long to finish?”

“And I asked how are lawnmowers like husbands?”

There’s a pregnant pause. “How?” Juliet asks, finally cluing in.

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