“You, too. Get out.”
“Archibald!” Mother tries to assert her authority—the kind she enjoys because I permit it.
I walk past Reina and stand in front of my mother, looking down at her artfully made-up face. I know she’s had work done because the family accountants called to check whether she was permitted to exceed her allowance when she handed over her credit card to a surgeon in Los Angeles.
I keep my voice low. That’s the register it goes to when I’m past performance, when what’s underneath the management is right at the surface.
“You brought her here.” I glance at Reina for a beat and then back at my mother. “To my house. When I wasn’t present to open the damn door, while my wife is recovering.”
“Fox, we were just visiting. We…we…care about…you,” Reina sputters.
I look past my mother to my ex, who I hope is comprehending what a miscalculation she made in believing my mother’s story—that I am divorcing Lucy and that she has any kind of chance with me. “Did I ask you to come to visit?”
“Of course not, I?—“
“Then what are you doing in my house?”
My mother steps forward—her way of telling me she isn’t afraid of me. “I was concerned about the situation?—“
“The situation.” Cold moves through me—the temperature I run at when I’m done being charitable. “My wife was in a car accident. She has brain swelling. She has broken ribs. She is healing. That is not a situation, Mother. That is my wife.” I look at Reina again. “And you came here with her?—“
“Fox, we just came to check on Lucy, that’s all.”
Reina is trying to salvage this. She thinks I’m still the boy she remembers—and honestly, I can play him well enough even now—but I decided in the ICU, while I waited for my wife to open her eyes, that I will never again choose stoicism over honesty. No matter where it takes me…as long as I don’t lose Lucy.
“No, Reina. You didn’t.”
“I—“
“Reina.” I look at her directly. “I know exactly why you’re here. My mother told you we’d make the perfect couple, or some version of that story.”
“Fox, maybe we should go inside and talk.” Reina smiles when she says it.
“And why the fuck would I do that?”
She glances at Lucy, who looks tired, and I know she needs to go upstairs to rest.
I need to close this down.
“We know how much you love Reina,” Mother blurts out. “We know what you did to that man.”
Lucy’s drowsy eyes sharpen at that.
“Luce, sweetheart, Reina cheated on me when we were dating, which was years ago,” I tell my wife, keeping my tone light, like old news.
“She cheated on you?” Lucy shakes her head.
“With a country music star,” I add.
Lucy considers this. “Well, if he was talented, that’s somewhat understandable, isn’t it?”
There she is. My Lucy. The one with the sense of humor.
“I found them together,” I continue.
All three women make a sound.
“Like, actually?” Lucy puts a hand to her chest.
