Page 157 of Affair
Well, as much as a person could when they had just had to do something incredibly difficult.
As she approached, he turned his head, and saw her coming.
“Hey, Honey,” he said, patting the chair beside him. “I see you found me.”
Elizabeth knew that if Gene wanted her that close, there was likely a reason.
Someone was struggling.
It looked like she had to help the man work his way through it. For the last hour, Ethan had been texting her non-stop, and she didn’t answer.
Honestly, she didn’t know what to say to him.
When she sat, he held her hand in his bigger one, and kissed her knuckles lovingly.
That was one of the sweet things about Gene.
He was truly a kind, loving guy. He was very aware of people’s feelings, and gentle with their souls. Now, he was trying to fight that rage.
Oh, she knew the kind that was brewing. Honestly, it was the same she felt when she found out that Sam had been murdered.
Or that Charlie had meddled in her and Chris’ relationship by sending in the marriage license.
Oh, and there was the fact that Tony Morell had come across her father as he was dying, and left him for dead to spite her.
Yeah, she knew rage.
It fed her many times.
“Want to talk about it?” she asked.
Actually, Gene did. He needed to get it off his chest, and Ethan wasn’t there. Now, he was going to test out the theory that she was also part of his heart.
By trusting her.
“I wanted to kill him. I wanted to hurt him so bad for punching me in the face. Then, I wanted to strangle him for trying to hurt you, a woman, and what this is doing to Ethan. I’m barely containing my rage.”
The irony was, Gene looked cool, calm, and collected, but clearly, he wasn’t.
She brushed some of his dark brown hair from his forehead, and let him continue.
“Ethan has been on edge, and he is worried I don’t want to come back. Tommy put that fear there. Even out of my life, he’s interfering in my life.”
She reassured him.
“Ethan will be okay,” she admitted.
He hoped so.
“I’ve been in love with Ethan for what feels like my whole life,” he admitted. “I wish I never left him.”
She was honest.
“We’re on the path we’re on because we’re supposed to be here. You had to leave, Gene. If you didn’t, he wouldn’t have met me, and he wouldn’t have his family. You began the healing process, I continued it, and now, we finish it together.”
He kissed her on the cheek.
“I love you,” he said. “I know when I went into this, I saw you more as Ethan’s wife, and the woman who allows me to have an open relationship with her husband, but I need you to know it’s more.”
