I decide it’s probably best to not comment on that. Instead, I nod toward the fridge. “What can I get you to drink? A beer?”
“Yeah, thanks,” he says, taking his plate and sitting beside his wife.
The moment his ass hits the stool, Beth glares at him, but he ignores it, leans close, and presses his lips to hers. “Quit bitching,” he mutters. “And I’ll take you out for breakfast at the place you like in the morning.”
“The one with the apple fritter pancakes?”
He nods. “If that’s what you want, then that’s what you’ll get.”
I’m watching them.
But I’m also watching Joey.
Seeing the softness in her face, the lightness in her smile, and…the longing in her eyes.
It’s all empty.
How are you going to make it better for her?
I can’t look away from those green eyes, from that naked longing, from…
What it calls to inside me.
I want that. I want togiveher that. I want?—
Panic slices through me.
Fuck. I can’t do this.
I fuckingcan’t.
“Son?” John calls and I jerk, my gaze tearing free of Joey. I glance over at him and he flicks up his brows. “You going to get me that beer?”
No. I’m going to get the fuck out of here, do everything in my power to take Joey and me back to how things were before.
It’s all empty.
How are you going to make it better for her?
Those words slap hard across my consciousness, hard enough that I’m able to shove the panic down.
I inhale. Exhale.
Then I nod.
Turn to Beth.
“Would you like a beer too or something else to drink?”
THIRTEEN
Joey
“He seems nice, honey,”Beth says as we sit on my back deck.
Not long before, John kissed me on the top of the head, Beth on the lips, then slipped out to the RV, ready to consume his nightly dose of all things sports.
And Damon…well, he only left about ten minutes ago.
