Page 51 of An Unfinished Memory

Random tingles spread throughout my body for the rest of the movie. I’d try to sit in one position, but my leg would quiver. So I shifted to another. Ethan, to his credit, didn’t try to share my lemonade or put an arm around me again.

When the guys dropped me off at Vienne’s car at Rattler’s, I gave Ethan a wave. A clear, platonic sign. “It was nice to meet you. Thanks for the movie.”

Jake’s gaze jumped between me and Vienne. “It’s early to call it a night, isn’t it?”

“I’m beat,” I said immediately. “It was a long week.” It was a long damn movie. My body had wanted to find Wilder and take him home instead of sitting with Ethan. Guilt had stretched each second out to minutes. I was a crappy friend to yet another person.

I had three friends! How would I betray Tova?

“I should get home.” Vienne ran a hand through herhair, somehow keeping her many bracelets from tangling in her long strands. “I have some work to do in the morning, and I promised Catherine we’d do some shopping.”

Jake’s shoulders drooped. Ethan had an amused smile, like he knew what Jake was after. Gah! He was a nice guy. Why didn’t I go for the nice guy? I bet he was home every night and would spend the weekends with his wife instead of working.

I bet a guy like Ethan wouldn’t give up his passion because of his dad.

I bet a guy like Ethan wouldn’t let his wife walk out before trying everything.

The more time that passed since my orgasm in the middle of a dark theater, the more my common sense returned. How dare he spy on me? How dare he touch me?

Just in general—how dare he?

On a wave of growing frustration and anger, I stomped to Vienne’s car. She got behind the wheel of her red SUV, and when we were closed in, she started it and stared out the window. She kept the vehicle in park.

I was content to mentally froth over Wilder’s audacity.

“Is there anything you want to talk about?” she asked lightly, almost deceptively.

Oh, no. Did she see anything? “No?”

She tapped her chin. “That’s not a confident answer.”

I picked at my nails. Almost a month of sneaking around, and I had thought I could handle it. Wilder crossed a line tonight. But the fact was that I knew it, and I still let him get me off when I was on a date. “I’m not ready to talk about it. It’s…private.”

“Mm-hmm.” She narrowed her eyes while lookingout. “Mm-hmm. So when I thought I saw a guy who looked like Wilder pull into the parking lot while we were getting concessions, I probably wasn’t imagining things?”

My stomach clenched into a tight ball. A cold flush of horror wrapped itself around my head and neck. “Uh…Um…What?” My voice pitched up.

She was giving me the mom-stare. She didn’t believe I was innocent of anything to do with Wilder right now.

I covered my face in my hands. “I’m sleeping with him.”

Her silence prompted me to peek through my hands. Her stunned gaze was on me, her mouth hanging open.

I plopped my hands on my lap. “It’s as bad as it sounds, isn’t it?”

“I…don’t know? Sleeping with your ex?” She shook her head and chewed the inside of her cheek. “I did it. Once.” She grimaced.

“That bad?”

“Sex with him was always…” She wrinkled her nose. “Dry. But I was madly in love with him, and he was the one to end things, so yeah. I hopped between the sheets again.” Her lips thinned. “Anyway, it was just another one of his games. It was wrong. My hopes that he’d man up officially died after that. I don’t get the impression Wilder is a game player.”

“No.” I rested my head against the headrest. My secret was out, and I didn’t realize how much the secret had bothered me. “He’s not. But I’m not his priority. I wasn’t when we were married, and I’m still not. Yet he showed up at the street dance and we just…I wasn’t having sex with anyone else, so why not?”

Her brows drew together. “The street dance?”

I told her what happened, to include the steamypickup session in the pouring rain. “And yep. We’re having great sex, and we aren’t telling anyone because what if Aggie thinks I’m a horrible person? She’s been worried about him. The guys were too. They didn’t tell me, but I could see it when they mentioned him. They were afraid he wasn’t moving on.” He hadn’t moved on. Neither had I.

Understanding filled her eyes. “They won’t think you’re horrible.”

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