Page 66 of Playing With Fire
No dice.
“Come here often?” she asks, placing her hand on the back of the chair across from me, signaling that she wants to join me. Looking past her, I see Shannon pushing Serafina in a stroller andfuck me,she’s still wearing her work attire and she looks good enough to fucking eat.
Shannon stays still, certainly within earshot of my unwanted guest, but not yet making her presence known.
“Often? No,” I answer, still not asking about her in return.
“How old are they?” she continues, nodding to Cam and Ally.
“Three and four.” I roll my lips inward as I watch Shannon’s eyes narrow in jealousy.
The woman in front of me places a hand over her heart and gives a breathless laugh. “My, someone was busy.”
Shannon chooses that moment to join the conversation. Reaching into the stroller, she lifts Serafina into her arms and lightly taps the woman with her hip as she moves around her, directly toward me.
“And he still is,” she says, pouring Serafina into my arms. The little girl must either remember me from the lake, or whatever compelled her to reach for me that day has her smiling and clinging to my shirt again.
I like to think it’s because she can feel the admiration I have for her mother.
“Oh! She’s precious!” the woman says. “I’m Meghan. Itlooks like our munchkins have made fast friends. Thought I’d take a page from their book and try to do the same.”
Shannon holds out her hand. “Shannon. It’s lovely to meet you.”
Meghan doesn’t take the hint and sticks around, causing Shannon to speak up again.
“I hate to be rude, but I need to speak to…um…my husband alone while the kids are occupied.”
“Oh, sure, of course.” Meghan smiles and turns back to me. It’s unclear if she has gigantic balls or just a death wish. “I didn’t catch your name.”
I’m not an idiot.
This just became a pissing match, and while I understand I’ve been fooling around with another man’s wife behind his back,thiswoman is openly flirting with me in front of Shannon’s face, even after Shannon introduced herself as my wife.Which has my heart doing really fucking crazy things in my chest that I’ll need to spend some time with later.Meghan’s daring me to play. She wants me to give her my name even though my “wife” is clearly unhappy about her being here. Whether this thing between Shannon and I dies out or grows brighter, I’m not the kind of man that feeds off that sort of attention.
“That’s because I didn’t give it. Now, if you’ll excuse us, I’d like to speak to my wife,” I say curtly.
Meghan gives a tight smile and nods beforefinallymoving on.
Trying to keep up appearances, I cradle Serafina to my chest as I lean across the table, to kiss Shannon’s forehead, letting my whisper coast across her lips before I sit back down.
“My wife, huh?”
Her face flames with embarrassment. “I panicked,” she whispers, leaning in. “She wasn’t leaving and God, she wasreallyeye-fucking you.”
Her serious tone makes me shout out a bark of laughter.
“It happens occasionally,” I tease, “but trust me when I say I see no one but you, Shannon. I’m not entirely sure that’s good, but it’s true.”
She squeezes my forearm before folding her hands on the table, her eyes moving over to where Camden and Ally are playing with two other little boys. We watch as Ally helps her younger brother collect all the blue blocks around them and put them in a pile.
“She’s a good big sister,” Shannon notes.
“They both have hearts of gold. Just like their dad.” Talking about Will always feels like taking a punch to the solar plexus, but it also ensures he’s not really gone. And I need that.
“Is that who your tattoo is for?” she asks even though the tattoo in question is currently covered.
“Yeah.” I smile, letting his memory fill me with light. “We had this pipe dream of building our own boat and sailing to the Caribbean one day. Will had this ability to make you believe anything was possible. His enthusiasm for life was so contagious.” I realize as I talk that I think that’s what draws me to Shannon. Her desire to make her days count. I feel the enthusiasm she once had for life radiating off her still, even though motherhood and her failing marriage have tried to stomp it out.
“That sounds wonderful. I believe you still can if that’s where your passion lies,” she says, her eyes full of sympathy for my loss. I’ve decided not to tell her about Gregor representing Jason Reed because I know Shannon would unnecessarily shoulder some of the shame.
