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He chuckled a mad king’s chuckle. “Right. I should get some new shirts. I’m always so busy, I forget to do it.” He grinned up at her mother. “Mona, sit. I can pour my own wine.”
He patted the seat on the sofa next to him, and Mum sat there.
David put his arm on the back of the sofa, just behind her mother. Lia mentally murdered him with a railway spike through the head.
“Where’s Gogo?” she asked. He usually curled up with her mother when Lia wasn’t home.
“Had to put him outside,” her father said. “Wouldn’t stop barking at David. You know how strangers make him nervous.”
“August didn’t make him nervous,” Lia said. “He loved August from first sniff.”
“Who’s August?” David asked, grinning behind his wineglass.
“Lia’s boyfriend,” Mum said in a conspiratorial whisper.
“August and I broke up tonight.” David’s fault. She looked at him so he’d know that. So he’d know and be afraid of her. And if he wasn’t afraid yet, he would be soon.
“Oh, sweetheart. I’m so sorry,” her mother said.
“It’s fine.” It was not fine.
“Sorry, darling,” Daddy said. She appreciated that he’d managed to say that without smiling.
“Tough break, kid,” David said. “I’ve been there myself. Why don’t you have a drink with us? You’ll feel better.”
Then he dropped his arm around her mother’s shoulders.
Had it been any other man—any of her father’s friends or mother’s friends or even the bloody plumber—Lia would have let it go. But it was David.
Lia wasn’t about to let that go.
“Get your fucking hands off my mother.”
“Lia!” Mum said. David raised his hands in mock surrender. Only August was allowed to mock her.
And August was gone.
“Rough night,” David said to her mother. “She’s allowed to be in a bad mood.”
“I don’t think so.” Her mother glared at her. “Lia, let’s give the bad attitude a second thought, shall we?”
“This isn’t attitude, Mother. I have to tell you something.”
“You sure you don’t wanna go to bed, Lia?” David asked. “Rough night and everything?”
She saw it. A flash. A tiny spark of fear in his eyes. He’d been counting on her not telling her mother they’d slept together. He’d been banking on it. He’d been so certain that Lia was more noble than he was...
Well, he was wrong.
“David and I had sex when I was seventeen, Mum. That’s why he ran away from England. I told him to go after I found out he’d slept with you, too, the night after he had me.”
“What?” Her mother spun and faced David as her father came to his feet.
“That’s not true,” David said, almost sputtering in his fury. “You know it isn’t true. I would never...” He stood up and pointed at Lia. “She was obsessed with me. She told me so. I told her I wasn’t interested. She told me I had to leave the country or she’d tell you all I’d raped her.”
Her mother rose from the sofa and slapped him.
Slapped him. Just like that. One hard beautiful slap right across the cheek.
