“Is anyone going to answer my question?” I blurt out.
“Um, what was it again?” Daisy asks cautiously.
“Do you have to be a virgin to take a vow of celibacy and become a priest?” I demand.
“No,” she answers, taken aback by my urgency. “Just like you don’t have to be a virgin going into marriage, but you should at least be in a state of grace.” I’m still silent, so she goes on. “A man who hadbeen living an unchaste lifestyle could still enter the priesthood after receiving absolution in the sacrament of reconciliation.”
Rowan stands abruptly and shoves his chair under the table, making it scratch the floor. “Sorry, I think I need some fresh air.”
“I bet you do,” I remark.
He stops in his tracks and turns his eyes back to mine, and I shiver.It’s the same look he gave me before he walked out on me that first night.
“What’s his problem?” Landry asks Daisy, then drops his fork. “Is it his allergies? I hope he’s not coming down with something. What if he contaminated our food?”
Daisy smiles as she puts a hand over his and calmly reassures him that it’s obviously not the food or a stomach bug that upset Rowan.
“Then what is it?” Landry asks, still confused.
“I think he might be uncomfortable with the current topic of discussion,” she ventures. “Or the fact that we’ve started talking about him as if he isn’t still in the room.”
Rowan’s chest heaves as he continues staring back at me. “Nothing’s wrong. I’m fine,” he mumbles and returns to his seat.
Landry’s brows draw in closely as he mulls it over. “You’re not embarrassed because Daisy just outed you as a virgin in front of Claire, are you? You’ve never been toohonteto admit that before.”
“Oh, I can name at least one time he failed to disclose that particular bit of information,” I mutter quietly, and Daisy narrows her eyes at me.
“What are you implying?” she asks.
“Maybe you don’t know your brother as well as you think you do,” I retort a little too defensively, and Rowan sniffs beside me.
She rears back. “How can you say that when the two of you barely know one another at all?”
I bite my lip before I answer. “I’ve seen enough to know he’s not perfect.”
And I’ve seen just about every inch of him.
“Hold on, are we seriously fighting aboutwhether or not Rowan’s still a virgin?” Landry interposes, his voice taking on a sharper tone.
“No,” I say quickly. “It’s just …” I glance over at Rowan as I trail off, unsure of how much I should share.
I could be a Petty Betty and tell them exactly why I’m pissed, but then I’d have to admit that I threw myself at Rowan while I was still in my pre-divorced era. I’d also have to recount one of the lowest points in my life, when Rowan practically ran out of the room after I’d confided so much in him and he apparently couldn’t be bothered to share anything this important with me.
But as much as it stings each time he equates becoming physically intimate with me to committing an unforgivable sin, it likely stems from the fact that I was still legally married the first time it happened. So I can’t exactly hold that against him.
I sigh. “I’m sorry. Forget I said anything at all.”
“Wait a minute,” Landry begins again. “What if Rowan’s upset that we’re talking about this because hehasn’tbeen celibate? And Claire’s pissed because she didn’t know he was supposed to be waiting until marriage …”
I blink and look away as he continues, not even caring whether Daisy notices my nervous tick this time.
“But the only reason Claire even cares about this is because she and Rowan,” Landry pauses to gesture in both directions, “Were not celibatetogether.”
Daisy gasps, and my cheeks heat when Landry illustrates his point by intertwining his fingers. I glance over at Rowan again, but his eyes are still trained on the table.
“That’s not exactly it,” I mumble when I realize they’re waiting on me to answer.
Daisy lets out another shocked gasp. “So hedidask you out after our wedding? Have you been sneaking around together?”
