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“No, Avery, stop!” The catch in Jane’s urgent voice was clear, even over the music and the hissing pan.
Like in slow motion, he knew what was going to happen next.
“Finn!” Avery called. “I know he’s here. Nice try hiding his car in your garage,” he heard her say.
He turned off the music and the stove.
“There you are.” She appeared at the entrance to the kitchen. A mere wall separated it from the living room. “You son of a bitch!”
He knew this moment would come. It had been a long time coming, and he was almost glad. Only, he’d rather not be in nothing but his black boxer briefs for it.
“Your old pal, Joe, does renovations at the school, and he told me the other day that he saw your car in town. The way he said it, it sounded like you were driving into town. I thought it was weird because you usually just drop Max off and drive straight out.” Avery advanced into the kitchen.
Finn crossed his arms and watched her. His blue Rav4 was almost non-descript, and after Linda’s visit yesterday, Jane had parked her car in the street, and he parked his inside the garage.
“Then he saw you again in the middle of the week. For two years, no one’s seen you. Then all of a sudden, you’re touring Riviera View? Then Linda arrived at my parents’ now and thought it was really funny that she confused someone else’s car with yours yesterday. Then I remembered how the two of you arrived almost at the same time for dinner and left at almost the same time.” She pivoted on her heel toward Jane, who had stopped at the entrance. “And you … you were always after what’s mine.”
“What are you talking about?” Jane was the color of the wall next to her.
“I know you. Always have. You might fool him, but not me,” Avery sputtered.
Jane’s eyes were wide, her hair still wet from the shower she had taken before. She gripped the doorframe. She was in one of his T-shirts that reached her thighs, and he knew she had only a pair of panties under it, a pair that he had been planning to peel off her after lunch. She opened her mouth to respond, but no sound came.
“Leave her alone, Avery,” he said, unfolding his arms and taking a step forward. “She hasn’t taken anything that’s yours.”
“You’re sleeping with my husband!” Avery spat, still looking at Jane and ignoring him.
“I’m not your husband,” he said sternly, holding back from grabbing her and dragging her out of the house until she relaxed.
She pivoted toward him. “And you? You’re screwing her?”
“It’s not like that, Avery,” Jane said from her place at the entrance.
“It’s not? You want to tell me you’re not sleeping with her?” She was still talking to him.
“Oh, I definitely am,” he said. “But it’s not what you think. I knew her long before I knew you. We were friends and …” He held back before he spilled what they had said they wouldn’t reveal.
“You were sleeping together while we were married?” Avery’s voice rose to near-hysterics.
“What? No! Never!” Jane sounded desperate.
“Protesting too much, cousin?”
“Avery, shut up and listen for once in your life!” He took another step and stopped in front of her. “There was nothing between Jane and me while you and I were married. There was nothing until recently.”
“Jane?”
“I knew her as Jane, and she’ll always be Jane to me.”
“What, you’re in love with her or something?”
“Yes.”
Avery heaved a breath then turned her head to look at Jane. “You were always jealous of me.”
“That’s not true.” Jane’s voice came out hoarse, and she looked like the world had just exploded in her face for the second time.
He knew her guilt over wanting him while he had been married. His heart, which she had mended in the last month, piece by piece, broke into a million pieces all over again.
