"Is this because of the clothes Mom got me?" Faith asked. "You would've been in her room if you weren't mad at me. I don't even like what Mom picked out! I was just trying it on to see if it would work with the other stuff I have, but you were so mad, and now you're sleeping here, and it's all my fault! DidImake you two break up?"
"I am not breaking up with Violet," I promised.
But that was the wrong thing to say. Her arms crossed again, and Faith huffed like she really wanted to growl. "You should. We can find another place to live, and I'll make sure your next girlfriend is a good one."
"No, we're not moving, and I'm not breaking up with her," I said. "I'm going to talk to her, and I'll make it clear that I know what happened, and we'll go from there. She probably has a very good reason."
"Or she's going to treat you like crap the same way Mom does," Faith told me. "You're the best man in this whole house, and if she can't see that then she's just stupid. Never mind about Cy! Will you tell him, Dad? It's not right, what they're doing. It's going to break his heart, and when you realize it, you'll see just how much better you can do than a woman who'll sleep around on you."
"Hold up," I begged her. "I will find out what's going on tomorrow, and - "
But a tap at the door proved that we had company. Looking up, I found Cy standing there in a pair of plaid pajama bottoms. The man yawned, dragging a hand down his face, and he looked like he'd been woken up a little too fast - same as me. He was also adorable like that, and I had to fight to keep my eyes from running down his body.
"Heard what happened," he said. "Ash is freaking." Then he looked at Faith. "He was using her shower so he didn't wake Luke. He stayed to talk to Violet for a bit, and figured the house was quiet, so he didn't want to put on clothes just to take them off when he got in bed. Nothing wrong, Faith."
"They had sex," she insisted.
Cy nodded as if he was considering that. His eyes jumped up to meet mine. All I could do was shrug, hoping he had some way of fixing this, because I couldn't think of one. Cy cleared his throat, ran a hand through his hair, and then pushed out a breath.
"I still love him."
"But that's not right," Faith said.
He just shrugged at her. "So? I know he and Violet have slept together in the past. I know he loves her as much as Luke does. I know that I love him as much as I love to breathe. I also know that whatever happened doesn't lessen what I have with him."
"But you broke up with that other guy because he cheated," she tried.
He nodded. "Yep, but it's different to me, though. See, Faith, when you love someone, you love them enough to forgive some things and not care about others. You love them enough to accept that old feelings don't always go away. Most of all, I love them both enough that I trust them, even if they make a mistake. Kinda the same way I love you even when you do bad things."
"Still not ok," Faith mumbled, shoving to her feet.
"And you still have school tomorrow," I reminded her. "Go to bed, Faith. Cy and I need to talk, and then we need to decide how to handle this. I believe you, but I'm not going to make any decisions that I'd regret, and I do love Violet. A lot. I want to hear her side of things first, ok?"
"But you believe me?" she asked.
"I do," I promised. "That doesn't mean I'm going to break up with her, though."
"I hate her," she said. "And Ash too. If they loved y'all then they wouldn't have done that."
And she stormed across the hall, into her room, and slammed the door to prove her point. I just flopped back on the bed and groaned. Cy let out a heavy sigh, came the rest of the way in, and closed the door behind him. Just to be sure, he locked it, then moved to sit beside me.
"At least turn so you're on the bed the right way," he said, patting my hip.
I did, and he stretched out beside me. "What are we going to do about this?" I asked.
"We're going to muddle through, tell her we're talking it out, and deal with this mess until your custody is settled," he told me. "We're going to tell her that we love them, that there's no mistake too big to fix, and that the idea of cheating is as wrong as the idea of gay men going to hell." He rolled onto his back and groaned. "And in the worst case, we'll set you up in another house, you can break up with her but work for me, and we'll make it through."
"I don't want to leave," I told him. "Can't I just tell her what's really going on?"
"No, you can't," he grumbled. "That is the one thing youcannotdo, Luke, because there's not enough time to get her on board with this before she'll sit in front of a judge and decide which parent she feels safest with. They will ask her opinion, and she's young enough to not think about the long-term consequences of her tantrums."
"But if she thinks Violet's cheating on me, will it be any better?" I asked.
"Might be if you're trying to work through it," he offered. "In all honesty, there's no good answer. You don't want to teach her that it's ok to be walked on. You can't tell her you're in a complicated relationship. Luke, I have no idea what to tell you. You're her dad, and you know her better than I do. Understanding how people think only helps so much. This? It's a fucking mess."
"And they're both probably freaking out," I reminded him. "Were they really..." I looked at the door.
Cy didn't need me to finish. "Yeah, they were. He was in the shower when she came upstairs. It happened, they were careful, and he was partially dressed. Unfortunately, Faith was right there. He didn't have a chance to shut the door before she saw Violet yank up the covers. She was wearing a nightgown and cleaning up, but he'd tossed her panties, and she was making sure Faith didn't see anything. A natural reaction, you know? But it spoke volumes, and your daughter isn't a fool."
