“Hetoldme he is. He’s miserable. He wants to be with me. He just has to work out the details.” Angela studied me for a long minute. “He works in Congress,” she said quietly. “That’s part of what makes it so tricky.”
I put on a sympathetic face, but my heart was doing a happy dance. I’d done it. I’d creaked open the vault of secrets. I’d moved from yoga class stranger to Friday night acquaintance. Now it was just a matter of time before we were actual friends and I could join forces with Dani and convince Angela to break off her affair.
“Wow,” I said. “That does make it more complicated.”
“I didn’t plan it. I didn’t know when we met that he was married.” She downed the remainder of her first drink and started on her second.
“I’ve been there,” I offered, even though I never had.
“Really?” Angela’s gaze locked with mine, like it was a life raft thrown to a drowning woman. “What happened?”
For a second I felt lousy lying to her. Then I looked at Rafe, standing like a statue against the far wall, doing his job. This was me just doingmyjob. I took a breath and worked out the story in my head.
“I met a guy when I first moved here. We went out a bunch of times before he happened to mention he was married. With kids. Of course by then I was really into him. I thought he’d leave her.”
Dani poked her friend. “See?”
Angela didn’t say anything.
“We were gonna keep it quiet until he told her he wanted a divorce, but then his wife found his phone, a second phone he used just for me. He never deleted any of my texts or voicemails, so...”
At that, her expression changed, and I wondered if Congressman Reynolds had a second phone he used just for her. Probably.
“What happened?”
“She told him if he didn’t break it off she’d kick him out but not divorce him, sue him for everything he had and he’d never see his kids again. She sent me a couple threatening messages, too. Told me she knew where I lived and she’d make me sorry I ever saw her husband’s dick.” I waited a beat. “He didn’t ever plan to leave her. I know that now.”
“Did you love him?” Angela asked.
“I thought I did, but I guess if I managed to get over him it wasn’t really love. I think there’s someone else out there who’s really meant to be with me.” I had to give Angela some hope. If she thought this guy was her soulmate, she’d never leave him. And I’d never get my money.
“See?” Dani said to Angela. “I told you. Find someone who’s single. There are plenty of them around.”
“Single guys are safer,” I agreed. “Wives who find out their husbands are cheating are no joke. You don’t want to end up in the middle of a messy divorce or the target of a scorned woman who owns a forty-five.” I wasn’t kidding about that part. I’d grown up in the sticks. I knew plenty about pissed-off women and the guns they could handle.
Angela went white. “I never thought about that.”
“Can you take the group at the other end?” Charlie asked loudly.
“Sure.” But before I did, I reached out and squeezed Angela’s hand. “I’m sorry. I know how hard it is to be the other woman. But honestly, I think Dani’s right. You’d be better off without him.”
She nodded, but I knew she wasn’t convinced. This was definitely going to take more than one happy hour conversation.
“Why does that guy by the door look familiar?” Dani asked. She’d spun around in a slow circle, surveying the bar, while Angela and I talked. Now she was staring at Rafe.
I froze. I’d never made up an explanation for him the way Grace suggested. Now that mistake was coming back to haunt me. “Ah, he’s one of the bouncers here.”
“Oh, that makes sense. I thought I’d seen him somewhere else, but I guess not.”
Angela glanced over. “Wow, he’s good-looking. Is he single? Dani needs a boyfriend.”
“I do not!”
“Well, you need to get laid. And that guy would be amazing in bed. Look at that bod.”
I suddenly noticed that the trash cans needed to be dumped. “I’m going out back,” I told Charlie, and grabbed the two closest cans I could find. I didn’t know why Remy or Angela or Dani talking about sleeping with Rafe made me so unsettled. It wasn’t likeIwas talking about sleeping with him.
But you want to, a little voice whispered as I flung open the dumpster behind the bar.
