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Melissa remained quiet, never a good sign. Chris closed the lid of his laptop. “What is it?”
She came over and leaned on the table, her long, black hair tied in a high ponytail. “Something’s wrong with you—I can tell. Is there someone else?”
“Someone else?”
She rolled her eyes. “Another woman.”
He held back a laugh. Out of all the things he had on his mind, other women weren’t even at the bottom of the list. “God no. You know I’m fine with stopping that whole open relationship nonsense.” He’d only ever used it for Anthony, and no—he refused to include the men Jay had forced him to sleep with as part of the open relationship agreement.
Melissa watched him closely before letting out a sigh of relief. “Well, I’ve also been thinking we should put a pin in the whole open relationship thing.”
“For real?”
“Well, I only wanted to give it a try because so many people were doing that, and Brenda said it worked great for her and Bill’s marriage. You were at work all day while I...” She shook her head. “Nope, sorry, I’m not blaming this on you.”
“No one’s to blame, although maybe you shouldn’t have listened to Brenda. I never liked her.”
She patted his hand. “I know, babe. But if there isn’t another woman I need to kill, why do you look so distracted lately? Feels like something’s eating at you.”
Either his acting wasn’t what it used to be, or Melissa was getting better at seeing through it. He opened his mouth to blame it on work, but after the night at the cabin, he had vowed to try letting less lies into his life.
“Yes, I’m going through something.” His palms itched as he nervously weighed each word. “It has nothing to do with you or the kids, but I need a few days to sort things out. Then I’ll be my old self again. Promise.”
Melissa seemed paler than she had a minute ago. Chris couldn’t blame her since he rarely showed any sort of weakness in front of her. It was much simpler putting on a mask than taking it off.
“Well, what is it? Maybe I can help.”
He shook his head. “I can’t go into that now, but it’s almost over.”
“Is it something to do with the guys? You’ve been seeing them a lot more lately.”
She was poking too close to the truth, and Chris’s skin became warmer. “You wanted me to see more of them.”
“Well, yeah, because you missed them, and you know I love them. But still.”
He hated feeling torn between his loyalty to Melissa and his loyalty to his friends, but it wasn’t anyone’s fault but his own. He would need to bring back balance into his life because the thought of hurting either side was unbearable.
He forced a smile. “It’s really not a big deal. I’m going to sort everything out, then you and I will be going on vacation.”
He could tell by the spark in her eyes that he had said the right thing. Melissa raised a warning finger. “You better not be pulling my leg, Chris Roberts.”
“I’d never! And the water’s boiling.”
“What? Oh, crap.” She hurried to the stove to check on the pasta.
“Daddy!” Nicky rushed into the kitchen holding one of his favorite toys, a plastic soldier with a mean face and steroid-like biceps. “Dylan broke Joe’s arm!”
“I didn’t!” Dylan ran into the kitchen a second later. “It fell off!”
“Nah ah!” Nicky put on his notorious I’m-about-to-cry-so-brace-yourself face.
Chris covered his mouth in shock. “Joe’s arm! Oh no. Give it to me quickly; we can still save it.”
Temporarily too excited to cry, Nicky handed Chris the toy alongside the muscular arm. The twins climbed the chairs on both sides of Chris, and even Melissa came to watch.
Chris pretended to wipe sweat from his brow. “It’s going to be tough, but we might be able to save Joe if we work together. Are you with me?”
“Yes!”
