Page 98 of Best In Class
A seething Stella opens the front door. “You unbelievable idiot.”
“She okay?”
“What do you think?”
“Look—”
She punches me.
She punches me, in the gut.Stella hits me…with her fist.
Unbelievable!
She doesn’t do any damage but I’m shocked. I rub my belly where she struck.
Noah whistles. “I showed our sex tape to her father, and she never hit me.”
Stella turns to glare at her husband. “There’s still time.”
He makes kissy sounds at her, and she growls.
I take the opportunity to step inside their house and shut the door behind me. I look around to find evidence of Luna’s presence.
“How pissed is she?” I ask.
They both give me a quizzical look.
“She’s outside.” Noah jerks his thumb to Stella’s beautiful garden. “In the gazebo.”
“She’s drinking,” Stella adds.
“What?” My heart thunders. Luna likes a drink, but she doesn’t get drunk.
“Iced tea,” Stella replies acidly.
I sigh in relief. Drunk Luna is not a pretty sight. There’s anger. There are discussions about life and love. There’s a lot of sarcasm. There is snark. There is…well, it’s a shitshow.
“Long Island Iced Tea,” Noah corrects his wife.
“Fuck! You know better than to let her drink,” I thunder at Stella.
She gives me a withering look. “It was that or have her sedated. She was a mess. She was…crying. Falling apart. I…I had to do something. Drunk Luna is much better than Sad Luna.”
My stomach drops.
“How could you not tell her, Dom?” Stella marches further inside the house. I follow, as does Noah.
Their house is open-plan, with lots of light and windows to the garden. The gazebo is in a corner, and I can’t see it from the kitchen-dining-living space.
“I…I didn’t know how to.”
“That’s pretty thin brew, man.” Noah looks at me with pity.
“Her father?—”
“I know, Dom,” Stella cuts me off, voice shaking. “We all knew he was a bastard, but Luna spent yearsthinking you didn’t love her. That you chose to leave. And you let her believe that because—pride? Shame?”
I try to speak, but suddenly my throat won’t cooperate.
