Patrick
“So… did you wax?” I ask casually as I merge onto the highway.
Lore snaps her head toward me. “Patrick!”
“What?” I shrug, eyes still on the road. “Just curious.”
She looks genuinelyshocked, eyebrows raised so high they’re practically touching the sun visor. “What happened to‘what happens between a man and wife is private’?”
I bite back a grin. “Yeah, well, that was before I went eighteen months without seeing you naked.”
Her mouth falls open. Actually, falls open. “I cannot believe you just said that.”
“Why?” I ask feigning innocence. “It’s a fair assessment.”
She laughs and I can’t help but smile at the way her eyes light up.
“So,” she says, settling back in her seat, “where’d you tell your parents you were going?”
I tap the steering wheel with two fingers. “Told them I was going fishing at Barry’s cabin.”
Her head whips toward me. “Isn’t that risky? What if they show up?”
I shake my head confidently. “Told them I needed privacy. And you know, we’ve been working on the whole boundaries thing.”
She smiles, slow and amused. “Good. They needed that. How’re your siblings?”
“Harvey’s coming home,” I say, unable to keep the humor out of my voice.
“Wow, that’s amazing,” she says, meaning it.
I nod. “Get this, he followed Lauren to Seattle because she told him she was pregnant.”
Lore gasps, immediately hooked. “What?!”
“Oh, it gets better,” I say, savoring it. “She told him it was his but refused to let him do a DNA test.”
Lore sucks in a dramatic breath. “It’s not his, is it?”
“Nope,” I say, popping thep. “She couldn’t really stop him once the kid was born. And guess what?”
“It’snothis,” Lore declares, already knowing.
I nod. “Uh-huh. But she still wanted him to sign the birth certificate.”
Lore’s jaw drops. “Hedidn’t, right?”
“Thankfully,” I say with a sigh, “he had that much sense. Anyway, he went to Vegas to drink his troubles away-”
She snorts. “Of course he did.”
“-and he said he’s coming home once the divorce is filed.”
Lore leans back in her seat, exhaling a sympathetic sigh. “Poor Harvey.”
“Yeah,” I agree quietly. “He deserves better.”
We fall into a stretch of quiet, until Lore breaks it with a soft, eager:
