Their kids were splashing in the pool, floodlights illuminating the idyllic scene.
“What happened?” Milly chased after me, trying to calm me down. With her hand wrapped around my arm, she tugged me to a stop.
“Take your hand off me. I’ve been manhandled enough today. Take the kids for ice cream. I need Mike. When you come back, we’ll talk.”
“Bexley, I don’t think I should leave you here. I don’t think Mike will like that.”
“Go, Milly. I need this. Just go.” I pushed a strand of hair out of my eye, careful not to drop my wine, and yanked free from her grasp.
I didn’t wait for an answer before I stomped toward the pool. “Hey, Darcy! Hey, little buddy,” I said, smiling at their son. “Mom’s gonna take you for a treat. Go dry off!”
A trail ofhooraysand dripping water followed them into the house.
“Bexley?” Mike looked up from his phone at me, one eyebrow raised.
“Put the phone down. We have to talk.”
“Huh-uh. Not doing this.” He stared me down and started to stand.
“Guess who showed up at my house today?” Without pausing, I spat out, “Aston—that’s right. So, sit down. We’re going to talk for once.”
“I didn’t have anything to do with that,” he said, raising his hands in surrender before he sat back down.
I set the wine box on the table next to him, then crossed my arms over my chest as I towered over him. “When he showed up at my door, I asked if you gave him my address, and he said you did. Told me about his innocence, his divorce, made a move on me, and then hightailed it out of there to rescue his kids from his wife. His ex, or whatever she is.”
Mike shook his head. “I didn’t give him your address, but that’s easy enough to google, Bex. I didn’t have anything to do with this, so what do you want from me?”
“I want you to give me the SparkNotes on the last ten years.”
Mike let out a frustrated sigh. “No can do.”
“You can and you will.” I tipped the nozzle of the box into one of the plastic glasses out by the pool and took a healthy swig of wine.
“Stop standing over me and bossing me around, Bexley. I told you after Milly and I got married, when you woke up hanging over the toilet, barf stuck in your hair, your pregnant belly hitting the floor, that I was never getting in the middle of you and Aston.”
When he tried to stand again, animosity surged through my veins. Furious, I pushed him back into the lounge chair.
“Listen to me, Mike. I need to know what the hell is going on. Is the guy a criminal? Is Aston, the only man I’ve ever loved, a criminal? Was he happy with this wife? Is he happy now? Why would he show up at my house like that? Didn’t he think Seth might be there?”
Mike shook his head at that.
“So, you told him we split? The rule didn’t work both ways? Milly respected his silence and confidence, but you betrayed mine?”
He shook his head again, and I felt like tossing his stubborn ass in the pool.
Slamming the end of his chair with my foot, I jostled him. “Wake up and answer me!”
“You have to calm down, Bex. Sit down.”
Closing my eyes, I counted to ten in my head. When that didn’t calm me down, I took another gulp of wine, letting the alcohol coat my soul. Like a wet noodle, I flopped into the chair next to Mike.
“Breathe,” he told me, and I did.
In and out, in and out, my lungs gasped for fresh air.
Finally seeming convinced that I’d calmed down, Mike said, “I never wanted to have this conversation, understand me?”
I nodded, leaning forward in the chair. With sweat dripping down the back of my neck and my hair a frizzy mess, I waited for him to elaborate.
