Page 86 of Silver Player

“Not a fan.”

“Really?”

“Bad experience as a child.”

“Another drinking story?” I tweak a brow as I blow at the steaming mug. His eyes narrow in on my lips, pursed as I release the air.

“More like a holiday mishap. I tend to overindulge in things and one too many Peeps later, a rainbow of them…shall we say…revisited the Easter table.”

I laugh. “Oh my.”

“Yeah.” He smiles as he sips his hot chocolate and a white dot forms on his nose.

“You have something…” I point at my own cold nose and twirl my finger around it. A thick fingertip swipes at the spot, and then he places said finger in his mouth, sucking off the sweet whipped cream. I watch, his finger lingering between those warm lips, and I swallow hard.

As his finger recedes, we fall silent, surrounded by the lack of noise. “It’s very peaceful here.”

He nods. “It gets kind of quiet. It’s one reason I hang out at the pub so much. I like the noise. But I also like having a place where nobody knows my business. This is my space for when I need to wind down.”

Again, I wonder how many women have wound him up here. With the porch off the bedroom, it’s like a mini getaway attached to the rest of the home. It’s romantic.

“I know we said no talk of Sadie, but I’d like to start bringing her here. She can have one of the bedrooms upstairs, and the loft gives her extra space to have friends over. Honestly, I might need to get used to her in my space.” He pauses, twisting his lips. “I’m not good at sharing.”

“Might make it difficult to bring people home.” I chuckle, dismissing the edge to my voice. Sadie here. Other women here. He’s thinking of the future with her and without me.

Billy sets his mug on the wood planks of the deck and rocks forward in the chair he’s been sitting in. His elbows come to his thighs. He’s removed his blazer and rolled up his sleeves. More arm porn for me, but his tone turns serious.

“I don’t bring people here. My family. Clyde. Guy friends. Not women.” His glare is pointed as he looks at me. He stands abruptly and enters his room, leaving the porch door open for me to follow.

I set down my mug, follow him, and close the door behind me. The cool air leaves a chill in the room but so does his distance, standing to face a fireplace at the end of his bed. His back remains to me.

“You can’t let it go, can you?” he whispers. “My reputation.”

Stepping forward, tugging the quilt tighter around my shoulders, I pause near his back.

“I just want to understand. Not the rumors, but the why. Why so many women? Why an affair?”

“It was her, not me,” he says, his voice quiet and low. “Rachel. She had the affair, not me.”

My breath hitches, and I stare at his broad shoulders, the weight he’s carried allowing people to think it was him.

“Then why—”

The question cuts off as he spins to face me. “People believe what they want to believe, and it was just easier to let them. It was easier than admitting my wife had an affair on me…with another woman.”

My breath catches again, eyes widening in surprise.

“That’s right. Rachel Hollycock didn’t like cock, especially her own husband’s.”

“Billy,” I whisper. It can’t be true. They were high school sweethearts. They were the golden couple. People aspired to be them. Treated them like they were royalty.

“She experimented in college. I thought it was a phase. She thought it was a phase. Things were different twenty-five years ago.”

We’ve entered a new millennium. Being homosexual isn’t a stigma, but even as young as twenty-five years in the past, it had been.

“Rachel met her on an airplane on a trip to Florida. When she arrived, she called me to say she was never coming back. Found herself and her true love.” His head remains lower, his hands slipped into his pockets. “When we divorced, she paid me a settlement. The chick she fell in love with was loaded, and Rachel wanted it to remain a secret. I signed a fucking NDA to keep quiet.” He swipes a hand through his hair. “She’d been my best friend. I’d lost my virginity to her. I was willing to accept anything about her. I didn’t want to take the money, but the other woman insisted.” He exhales, looking to the side.

“So you lied to save face for her.”