AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Fifty-one
Dani hears the front door slamand holds her breath, bracing herself for her husband’s rage. She doesn’t know what Nick and Maggie said to each other, but she knows it wasn’t good. “Boys, go on upstairs,” she says to her sons, trying to usher them from the kitchen before Nick appears.
“I want to play with Neptune,” Tyler says.
“Not now, honey. Please, boys, go upstairs.” Her arms reach for their shoulders, trying to steer them away from the island counter. “Tyler, Ben. Go on now.”
“You heard your mother,” Nick says from the doorway, his voice calm, his face void of expression. “Get moving.”
Tyler glances warily from his father to his mother. “You come, too,” he tells her.
“It’s okay, possum,” Dani assures her son. “You go get yourselves ready for bed and I’ll be up real soon to tuck y’all in.”
“Race you,” Ben says, pushing past his brother into the hall.
Dani hears her sons’ footsteps on the stairs, followed by Ben’s cry of “I win!” and Tyler’s “No fair. You cheated!”
“So,” Nick says. “You going to tell me what that was all about?”
Dani shrugs. “Just what Maggie said. You know, she heard we were thinkin’ of movin’.”
“Thinking,” Nick corrects. “Moving.”
Dani nods.
“Say it.”
“Nick…”
“Say it!”
Dani feels her throat go dry. “Thinking. Moving.”
“There. That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
“No.”
“Just takes a little effort. Right?”
“Right.”
“So, I’m going to ask you again, and this time you’re going to make a realeffortto tell me the truth. What was that all about?”
“I already told you. She heard we were movin’…moving.”
“Nothing else?”
“No, nothin’…nothing.”
“You didn’t tell her that I hit you?”
“What? No!”
“Then where did she get that idea, I wonder?”
“She saw my bruises and she was concerned….”
“You told her I was responsible?”
