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“Cheers,” I said, and we all tapped our glasses together and lounged on the deck chairs and stuffed our faces with tacos and talked about books and Arrowbridge gossip and nothing at all.
I, of course, had to vent my Honor frustrations. My friends had heard it all before, but they listened to me bitch because they were the two best friends that anyone could have.
“It’s just so obvious. I’m considering telling Mark. He doesn’t seem to be able to see it,” I said, going for my third taco.
“Don’t say anything,” Joy said, shaking her head and squeezing lime juice onto her taco. “You shouldn’t get involved with your boss’s love life. That is just a recipe for disaster. Please back me up on this.” The last comment was directed at Sydney, who was busy trying to shove an entire taco into her mouth in one go and failing.
“Don’t do it,” Sydney said and then took a more reasonable bite.
“So, what am I going to do when he shows up and she’s wearing a wedding dress and has somehow gotten his signature on a wedding license and is going to marry him at gunpoint?”
Both of them stared at me. “You’ve really thought about this, haven’t you?” Joy said.
“I mean, she’s been escalating in the past few weeks. I think she’s going to use this summer to try and lock things down.”
I shivered, imagining her showing up again and again. Was she going to offer to drive the kids to camp with Mark?
“I’m afraid she’s going to kidnap him and take him to Vegas,” I said, but they both laughed. “What? These are real concerns.”
Joy and Sydney shared a look. “I think you’re reading too much into this,” Sydney said. “Do you really think Mark is that clueless?”
“I mean, judging on how he’s been ignoring her behavior up until now, yes?” I said.
“Maybe he does see it, and he’s trying to figure out how to address it. She’s his employee. Things could get weird for him, legally, if he doesn’t handle it the right way,” Joy said. “Have you ever considered that?”
Honestly, I hadn’t. I should have.
“Okay, fine,” I said. “It’s still shady as fuck.”
“Yes, it is,” Sydney said. “But it’s not your problem to solve, Layne.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I know you think I’m going above and beyond my paygrade, but I care about what happens to this family. I love those kids and I won’t let some gold-digging hussy become their stepmom.”
Joy started laughing. “Did you just call her a hussy?”
“It was a kinder word than what I wanted to call her,” I said.
Sydney snorted. “Mark is smart. He’ll figure it out.”
I sincerely hoped so.
Chapter Four
We hungout until it got late, and I slumped into bed, completely exhausted.
My alarm the next morning came way too early, and I had to make the girls breakfast and supervise them until it was time to go over to their mom’s house for the week. I’d be with them during the day, but Sadie got done with work in the early evening so she could be with Riley and Zoey, make them dinner and spend the evenings with them. I took that time to get ahead on cleaning and organizing the house and just doing my own shit.
It would have been ideal, if not for the fact that I had to keep seeing Honor. She kept randomly popping out of Mark’s office for whatever reason. I was organizing the fridge and making a list to go shopping for the week when she pushed beside me to get some water from the fridge. She couldn’t just fill up her water bottle from the sink like a normal person.
“Excuse me,” I said, but she ignored me. “You’re a really rude person, you know.”
I turned to face her as she filled a glass with water and sipped it.
“You don’t know anything about me,” she said.
“I know you’re trying to be wife number two. It’s not going to work,” I said.
She drained the rest of her water and set the glass in the sink. “Like I said, you know nothing about me.”
