Page 60 of Parentmoon

“You never know. Trouble seems to find you.” He steps up to me, pulling me closer to him.

“The only thing finding me is creepy crawling things with four legs and a tail.”

“More dragons today?”

“Only a beast on two feet.” I laugh, swiping my hands up his chest and around his neck.

“His name better not be Artie or Ira,” Dallas warns, a chuckle in his tone while something edgier lays beneath it.

“Nope.” I press up on my toes and right before I kiss him, I say, “His name is Dallas.” The kiss starts slow, but quickly turns hard and desperate before we break apart.

“Come inside,” he says, slipping his hand down my arm and hooking his pinky with mine.

“Nice hat, by the way.” Dallas is wearing a floppy hat with a large brim and a string hanging down his neck. Tugging it off his head, I place it on my own head. The large brim impairs my sight, so I tip my head back and smile at Dallas.

“Too cute.” He swipes at my nose and crosses the room toward the counter where an open beer sits. “Wine?”

“I need to sober up before dinner.”

“Did you drive drunk?” Dallas stares at me from the other side of the peninsula counter. I take a seat on a stool.

“No.” I shake my head, adamantly dismissing the action. “But I’m gonna need to start drying out before I head home.” We’re still days away from departing and it’s the first time I’ve mentioned leaving.

Dallas tips up his chin and purses his lips. “Have fun today?”

I explain Laria’s situation, assuming any information I share with Dallas will remain confidential.

“Did you want to save your marriage?” Dallas asks when I finish.

“Anything worth doing is done with love, and there was no love left between Craig and me.”

Dallas nods again.

“At one point, I did want my marriage to work. I’d made vows. I intended to honor them. For better or worse, right? But how worse do you let things get before you can’t take it anymore? Thresholds are defined differently for each of us, but I’d reached mine. Cheating on me was a hard limit. Doing it twice had been my shame.”

Dallas told me he didn’t give Katherine a second chance. She’d married someone else and wanted to take his child from him. There was no turning back from something like that and I sympathized with him. I’d given Craig too many outs. There wasn’t a defining moment to end the chances, just a subtle nudge one morning that said today is the day I’m done.

“That’s what’s been so difficult for me to understand about Michael and Keli. I know they love one another. I’ve never seen a couple complement one another as much as they do. What could have possibly happened to split them in two?” I sigh but continue, winding up the hamster wheel of my thoughts. “Michael would have worked hard to keep them together. It must be something big. Something irreparable. But what? And to be clear, I can’t imagine Keli doing anything either. I’m convinced she was just as devoted to Michael. For better or worse and they weren’t even married yet.”

Dallas opens his mouth. Then closes it. He stares at me a second and opens again, speaking this time. “Maybe it’s good that they quit before they were married.”

Tilting my head, I ask, “How can you say that?”

We stare at one another. Me aghast. Him focused back on me.

I wave out at him, drawing my hand up and down. “You don’t seem like a quitter. Like quitting something would ever be an option.” Then I remember Katherine, although I can’t say Dallas quit her if she refused his marriage proposal.

Dallas braces his hands on the countertop and looks to the side. “You’re right. I’m not a quitter, I’m a fighter, and I go after what I want.” He turns back, holding his gaze on me.

“Something had to have happened.” I exhale, frustration filling my tone and tension taking over the relaxation of my earlier massage.

“Darlin’, we aren’t always meant to have all the answers, and those questions are for Michael and Keli to discuss.”

Taking in his pose, his fishing shirt, the strength of his arms, sometimes, my perception of Dallas is so different from my first impression. Other times, he’s like any other guy.

“Did you need to get away from me today? Is that why you went fishing with Philip?”

Dallas’s brows lift. “No. I went because Philip asked me to go.”