Chapter Seventeen Ellie
Stupid dumb lying liar.
Lies of omission were still lies.
I hated feeling like this.
Angry and uncertain. And just plain hurt.
Gary cheated on me, but I never cared. In fact, I was grateful when he had other women. It meant he’d leave me alone.
Not that he ever bothered me much for sex.
Sure, my ego had taken a beating, but I simply assumed it was due to our age difference or preferences in the bedroom. Whatever it was, I never missed sex with Gary.
But I would with Andres.
Goddamn him. Please don’t lie to me.
Andres promised we wouldn’t have that. He said no lies, no cheating. But this sure felt like a breach of promise to me.
Strange women calling my house to speak with my husband twice in a matter of hours?
Yeah. That was a big fucking no-no, too.
Andres stood there, looking deliciously rumpled from his day at work, and I wanted to dump the bowl of salad I’d just put together right over his big, dumb head.
He’d removed his jacket, loosened his tie, and the top four buttons on his shirt were undone, giving me a tantalizing view of the chest hair I loved to nuzzle.
Sonofabitch.
Why did he have to look so good?
I, on the other hand, looked exactly like I’d spent the last three hours traveling back to Manhattan from Long Island, wrangling Sammy into a bath, ordering then putting away a grocery delivery, and getting everything ready for a fresh pasta dinner with a cherry chocolate cake for dessert.
Not that he’d be getting any of my chocolate cherries for the foreseeable future.
“Ellie, I am going to need some context here,” his deep voice rumbled, and I snapped my attention back to him.
“You want context? I’ll give you context. What else about your life do I have to find out from my friends? And, well, are you cheating on me?”
“What?!”
“Adrik and Marat are your cousins? Like actual cousins? Some woman named Gabby keeps calling for you and apparently, she doesn’t need to leave her number because you have it already. Just how many secrets are you keeping from me?”
I said, inhaling roughly. I was on a roll now, and I couldn’t stop. even if it meant making an ass out of myself.
“Today I was with my friends, and they knew more about you than I did. Do you know how I felt? Can you even imagine? Anything else about your life I need to find out from my friends?”
Anger and jealousy were not emotions I enjoyed feeling, but suddenly I was overwhelmed by them. Thank goodness Sammy was preoccupied at the moment.
We’d never had a fight or argument in front of my son, and I really didn’t want to. Not about this.
“What are you talking about?” Andres asked, looking truly baffled.
Men were so dense sometimes.
I shook my head and tried for a calm I did not feel when I finally addressed him again.
“Adrik and Marat are your cousins? Like actual cousins? Some woman named Gabby keeps calling for you and apparently, she doesn’t need to leave her number because you have it already. Just how many secrets are you keeping from me?”
“Ellie, I’m so sorry,” he said, and I was stunned.
He was apologizing. To me. In my experience, men didn’t do that. But Andres wasn’t like anyone else I’d ever met. He was constantly surprising me.
I just didn’t know what that meant.
“Why are you apologizing? Is Gabby your girlfriend?” I asked, hating that my voice cracked.
Having a woman call for my husband twice in the last hour after I’d been feeling a little bad about him not telling me about his cousin status to his bosses, well, it just pushed me over the edge.
Things with Andres had been going well.
Or, at least, I thought they were going well. But maybe I was fooling myself. Maybe this was all a mistake.
“What? No! Gabby is not my girlfriend. I am not cheating on you. I would never cheat on you. Ellie, you are my wife,” he growled, sounding angry.
“I know. I was there when we got married,” I shouted, feeling horrible now for getting mad, and a little embarrassed.
“Ellie—”
“No, just let me finish. Look, I know you are doing everything you promised to help me not lose custody of Sammy to Gary, but I don’t really know anything about you,” I said, hating how weak I sounded.
“That’s not true. Don’t say that. Don’t ever say that,” Andres said, and goddamn myself for wanting to believe him.
“Ellie, Gabby is my mother’s best friend.”
“Your mother?”
“Yeah. Mom’s birthday is coming up next month, and Gabby asked to be in charge of the party. It’s her sixtieth,” he told me, and I stood there gaping like a moron.
How could I be so wrong?
I felt like a total piece of shit for being jealous of his mother’s best friend.
“Shit. I’m sorry,” I said, shaking my head.
“It’s not your fault. I should have told you. I didn’t mean to keep it a secret, it just slipped my mind,” he said, reaching for my hand.
I let him take it, needing the connection to ground me.
Shit. When did that happen? When did I start needing him?
“Come here,” he whispered, pulling me into an embrace, and I allowed it.
I pressed my forehead against his chest and stood there, letting him hold me in the kitchen while dinner simmered on the stove.
Like we were just a normal couple, making up after a misunderstanding.
I wish that was true.