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“I had sex with Micah.”
Dani’s mouthful of chicken salad shoots out, landing with a plop in her water glass.
Her lovely amber eyes are wide and frozen. She opens her lips but nothing comes out.
I wince. “Please don’t hate me.”
She just stares without blinking.
Panic sets in. “Oh shit, are you choking?” I jump out of my chair and dash to the other side of the table, frantically trying to cobble together half forgotten first aid knowledge.
She fends off my efforts to smack her on the back and manages to squeak out a word. “What?”
At least she’s not choking. No, she’s just gaping at me like I’m a serial killer. “I said I had sex with Micah.”
“What?” she repeats.
I think I’ve broken her. I’ve broken my best friend.
Now miserable, I plop back into my chair. “I know. It caught me by surprise too. I’ve been agonizing over how to tell you. You can yell at me. Call me a slut. I can take it.”
Her eyes bug out. “Tess, why in the hell would I call you a slut?”
“Just seemed like a possibility. Micah is sort of your brother, after all.”
“Give me a break. Micah’s a grown man. He knows what he’s doing.” She picks up her water glass, makes a face at the chicken salad tumor at the bottom of the glass, and sets it aside. Then she folds her hands on the table and attempts to remove the look of horror from her face. “Sorry, I’m sure you don’t need the added drama. It’s just that I wasn’t expecting to hear this kind of news today.”
“I know you weren’t.”
“Actually, I wasn’t expecting to hear this kind of news ever.”
“I know that too.”
“Now that I think about it, I would have been less surprised to see crocodiles fall from the sky.”
“I get the picture, Dani. Here, take my water. You look like you need a drink.”
She accepts the glass. “Probably need something a little bit stiffer than this, but thanks.”
I watch as she takes dainty sips, like she’s trying to stall for time and absorb this revelation.
The least I can do is explain. “The night with Micah was just supposed to happen once, never to be mentioned again. But after the second night I’m not sure what to think.”
She lowers the glass. “So you had sex with Micahtwice?”
“Yes. Well, not exactly. I mean, it was a lot more than twice. Honestly, I didn’t count how many times we technically did it.”
“I see,” she says.
She looks like she’d rathernotsee.
But someone else sees. And he’s received an earful.
Gage Silvestro, man of the shadows, stands at the threshold of the kitchen. He leans against the wall and gives the impression he’s been there for a minute or two. While Gage is famous for his inscrutable poker face, I would guess that he still looks the opposite of surprised right now.
“Did you know?” I ask. “Did Micah tell you?”
Dani whirls around and sees her husband. “Youknew? I can’t believe Micah told you and you didn’t tell me.”
