Page 72 of Crush
“You're doing it to punish me.”
I chuffed. “No, actually, I'm not. And I resent you saying that, honestly.”
“Then why are you doing it?”
“To protect your daughter.”
“What does Chloe have to do with this?”
“The other night, she told me about Buddy and Carly Parker.”
“Oh.” I could hear Shea recoil over the phone. “She told you about the affair, then?”
“Yes. And she told me that she was the first person to find out about it.”
“Eh.” Shea grumbled. “Yes and no.”
“Wait—are you saying that you knew your wife was having an affair?”
“Why do you care? I thought you didn't want to be my phone pal.”
I rolled my eyes. I was starting to see where Chloe had gotten some of her flair for the dramatic.
“Stop it. You can either tell me or not, but don't act like a vengeful dick.”
Shea huffed. “I just don't know why you'd care.”
“I care because whatever happened obviously affected you and Chloe both. And I'm just trying to understand.”
Shea's end went silent.
I spoke into the void. “Hello? You there?”
“I didn't know about her thing with Buddy until Chloe told me,” he said at last. “But it wasn't her first affair, so it didn't exactly come as a surprise.”
“I'm sorry,” I said. “Why'd you stay with her?”
“Our baby daughter was just born. And we were just married. Everything happened so fast—we met, she got pregnant, we had a shotgun marriage, then Chloe was born, and then my teammate came clean to me.”
“Wait, you mean she cheated on you withanotherteammate? Before Buddy?”
“Yup. When I met Cynthia, she told me she was my biggest fan. Thing she never told me was what a big fan of all my teammates she was, too.”
“Wow. I don't know what to say—that's just awful.”
“Cynthia begged me to stay. She said it'd never happen again. And she swore she only cheated because she was lonely with how much time I spent on the road—but that didn't really explain why she'd cheat on me with my D partner. It's not like he was around anymore than I was, after all.”
“What a bitch. I think I hate her.”
“I wasn't exactly a perfect husband myself. I wasn't around as much as I should've been. Even when the team was in Boston, I'd rather hang out and party with the boys. It's why I always pushed Lance and Radar so hard to grow up the past couple years. It's why I want them to be good men, good fathers.”
“Does Chloe know there was another affair?”
“No.”
“Maybe sheshould. It might make her feel a lot less guilty.”
“No way.” He thought it over, then sighed. “I don't know. Maybe you're right. I always worried it could cause more problems, though.”
