“Oh, yes,” Jessa said, rolling her eyes. “I’ve met Maria at a couple events. She’s a first-rate snob.”
I pulled my knees to my chest. “She’s not happy about this.”
“About what—you and David?” Jessa asked. “She told you that?”
“She came by David’s place last night to say she deserves a real chance with him. She even brought up wanting an engagement ring, and I—”
Jessa burst out laughing.
“What?” I frowned. “I worry he might still have feelings for her.”
“Don’t,” she said and waved a hand. “David called me Friday to say he’d met someone. I could hear in his voice how happy he was. Maria never even came up—whatever they had, it’s totally inconsequential. It has never crossed his mind to propose, trust me.”
I curbed a triumphant smile. That was enough to put my mind at ease for now. “How about you?” I asked. “Are you seeing anyone?”
“I have a few prospects,” she said, smiling. “No one I’m ready to introduce around, though.”
“Right. Is it hard dating with a kid?”
“Yes,” she mused. “But I make it work. Anyway, Alex is more fun than any guy I’ve ever gone out with.”
We watched Alex steal the ball from his uncle. “Seems like it,” I said.
“Little boys,” she said, shaking her head at them. “They get along so well that sometimes I forget they aren’t the same age.”
She asked me about my family. I told her about my parents and was surprised to hear that she’d read one of my mom’s novels. As she talked about what she was currently reading, I glanced over at David because I couldn’t resist. Squatting down, he wiped something from Alex’s face with the same care he used when he handled anything he loved, then ruffled Alex’s hair. It was a sweet scene. But it didn’t inspire the maternal instinct in me that I knew it should, and a tiny knot of warning formed in my stomach.
David’s dad, Gerard, called the family to the picnic table. David served me a hamburger exactly how I liked it, and I thanked him with a soft smile. As I took my first bite, I noticed Gerard staring at my left hand. I wiped it on a napkin quickly and put it in my lap. His gaze shifted to my arm.
“What on earth happened to your elbow?” he asked.
David’s body stiffened in the same moment that his head turned. Having lived a life with the bruising abilities of a peach, I already knew what I’d find, so I didn’t bother to look.
“How did I miss these?” David mumbled, taking my elbow gently and lifting my arm. He inspected the marks as I felt myself reddening. “Jesus, baby.”
My color only deepened at the endearment that would give us away, and my eyes dropped to the table. Still, I felt everyone watching as he tenderly stroked my back and examined the bruises.
I grasped for an explanation, but he cut in. “Mom, Dad. You know that for a long time, I’ve been looking for . . . something more. I’ve been unwilling to settle for a woman who wasn’t ‘the one.’”
“Honey,” his mom said softly.
“I’ve found her in Olivia,” he said.
A blanket of silence fell over the table as his parents stared at us. My nerves buzzed as my heart thumped with David’s doting words. I grasped his thigh under the table as we waited.
“Honey,” Judy said again, “I’m confused. I thought Olivia was married.”
“I am. I’m sorry. I know this is uncomfortable,” I said. “My husband and I have decided to separate.” David’s leg tensed under my hand at my word choice. I closed my eyes, afraid of what I’d see in theirs as I told the truth. “Divorce, I mean. We’re getting a divorce.”
When I peeked at the table again, Judy looked between the two of us with round eyes. “Because of David?”
“I’ve come to realize that things weren’t right with my husband,” I said, “but I wouldn’t have come to that conclusion without David’s help. David is . . .” I let the sentence trail as I turned to him. He looked back at me, and I didn’t finish because I knew he could see all the things he was to me.
Gerard’s voice cut angrily into our moment. “What does that have to do with the bruises, Olivia?” He fixed a stern, dark stare on me. It was a look I’d experienced before—from his son, the time Mark Alvarez had been the one to leave marks on my arm. I tried not to cower down in my seat, unsure of what had caused Gerard’s shift in mood. Was he concerned, too? Or angry with me?
David went to speak, but I squeezed his leg and shook my head. I wanted them to know the entire truth, and for them to hear it from me. David’s hand moved to my lower back as I began to quake slightly.
“I’m sorry, this is embarrassing,” I said, swiping the back of my hand over my forehead. “David and I . . . I mean, I—I was unfaithful. I told my husband about the affair, and we tried to move on from it. I couldn’t. Not while I felt this way about David. More details came out last night, and my husband got upset and interrupted our evening—”
