Everyone but Blue. He snapped his fingers. “I know this one. My kids say it all the time. Nunya. As in ‘nunya bidness.’ As in keep your nose out of it.”
I pointed at him. “Exactly. I think my marriage has hadjust about enough help from certain people in this family, and I will be taking it from here.” I glanced around the room. “Now where’s Jules?” It was seven a.m. on a Saturday, and I knew she liked to sleep in. “Is she staying in my old room?”
Dad rubbed the back of his neck. “No. Willow’s in there.” But he said nothing else.
I threw up my hands. “Well, where is she? She’s obviously not staying in here right now.”
Ford’s chuckle came out wrong.
Bowen found the ceiling extremely interesting all of a sudden.
“Dad?” Did Jules have a boyfriend? Had she moved in with him?
Chill the freak out!
Ashton shrugged. “She’s staying with Theo. He had a spare room since James moved back in with your parents, and he needed the rent money.”
The relief of knowing she hadn’t shacked up with some Seddledowne loser only lasted a split second before the anger of learning she’d shacked up with Theo kicked in.
“Are you kid-ding me?” My voice cracked. “How long has my wife been living withTheo?”
Ford’s eyebrow cocked like he thought I’d lost it. “The entire time you’ve been gone, dimwit.”
“What?” I roared. I turned on Dad and Bowen. “You let me think she’s been living here this whole time.”
Bowen held his hands up by his head as if absolving himself from all wrongdoing. “It’s nunma.Idon’t get up in your love life, bro.”
That was probably wise. Fine, I’d let him slide.
“Dad?” I asked.
“She didn’t exactly give us a choice, son,” he said in the same tone he used to gentle a horse. “She knew if you foundout, you’d get on a plane and fly straight back here. She said if that happened, she’d leave.”
I sucked in a breath. She hated me so much that she’d adios if she knew I was coming? I knew I’d hurt her when I left, but she couldn’t see my side at all?
Holden’s brows raised. “I think if you’re wise, you’ll calm down before you go tearing into Theo or Jules.”
He was right, not that I’d tell him so. Losing my crap would only prove that I wasn’t husband material, and I didn’t need to incriminate myself any further.
“Where’s Cash?” I asked. He’d talk me down.
Ford leaned to look around me, searching for my best friend. Then he swore. “I didn’t even realize he’d snuck off. That little?—”
“Watch your language,” Gramps said, voice firm. “Don’t make me smack you on the back of the head like Granny.”
“He needs to get back here and help,” Ford snapped.
Bowen laughed. “He’s probably up at the house making out with Charlie again.”
“Making out?” Holden chuckled. “I think they’re doing way more than making out.”
“Stop,” Ashton ordered. “Stop right there.”
“Cash is a grown, married man.” I looked Ford right in his meddlesome eyes. “A smart man who makes his own choices.” I tapped my temple. “Especially when it comes to his marriage. And he doesn’t need your permission to do the hippity dippity with his wife. You gotta stop treating him like a teenager and let him live his own life.” I hoped he caught the double meaning.
I turned to walk over to hug James, who was so engrossed in either his work or his worries that he still hadn’t noticed I was here.
“Are you gonna let him talk to me like that?” I heard Ford say to my dad.
