Chapter 32
DEFENDING MYSELF
Those words of love they’d said to each other three days ago?
Yeah, she wasn’t feeling it so much when she opened the front door after the knock on Saturday night to a young woman in a short tan skirt that would expose her coochie if she bent just a little.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the red cotton shirt tied in a knot between her breasts, exposing her stomach and silver hoop in her belly added to it.
Let’s not forget to mention the bleached blonde hair in big waves falling past those eye-popping tits, or the layers of makeup making Kenzie wonder how long it took to be applied.
“Can I help you?”
“Is Nelson here?”
“No,” she said. He’d be back soon, as he’d only gone to get their dinner. Not that she was volunteering any of that.
“Who are you?” the woman asked.
She didn’t care for the once over.
Maybe she felt a little insecure in her cotton shorts and T-shirt stopping just above the drawstring that she had loose so that her shorts were hanging on her some.
It was about being comfortable, not impressing the man she was already married to and who professed he’d been in love with her for weeks.
“His wife,” she said firmly.
The woman laughed. “Yeah, right. Looks like you’re just my temporary replacement.”
“Can I tell my husband who stopped over to visit?” she asked.
“Lexi,” she said. “With an i.”
“Well, Lexi with an i, I will let my husband know you stopped over.”
“Stop pulling my leg,” Lexi said. “I was with Nelson two months ago. We’d been out a handful of times.”
She gulped. There was no way she was letting this woman get under her skin.
“When were you together?”
“I don’t remember the exact date. I’d have to go back and look, but he had some trip coming up. He had to go to Vegas, so the week before that.”
“How many times have you seen him since?” she asked.
Please say none, please say none.
“I just returned two weeks ago. I’ve been out of town for work. I don’t poach on other women.”
“Good to know,” she said.
Lexi leaned in. “Tell me, that man knows how to use his mouth, doesn’t he? His tongue. Oh, the places it touched me.”
She didn’t want to gag, but it was damn close.
“As I said, Nelson isn’t here.”
“Tell him I stopped by. He knows how to reach me.”
Lexi turned and strutted off the front porch.
For a woman who said she didn’t poach, she had to get those last few statements in there.
The jealousy and venom in Lexi’s eyes were as obvious as her boob job.
She couldn’t imagine the work Lexi did.
She shut the door and went to the couch to take a few deep breaths.
Kenzie knew crap like this might come up but hadn’t expected to have it so visible in her face. Nor in her home. What she was finally feeling like here.
And not this soon either.
It was bad enough she had to spend fifteen minutes convincing Bethany that she was married, even sending her a copy of the marriage certificate.
Her best friend was apologetic and said it was all her fault, as if Kenzie got herself trapped in some bride-for-sale auction.
When their call finally ended, she was positive she had convinced her friend that she was happy.
She really was.
Life was going great.
Until now.
Five more minutes passed, then the garage door opened, the kitchen door following.
She didn’t move from her spot. Nelson could come to her.
“Hey, sorry. They had a lot of people in line. Must be the night for pizza.” She didn’t try to stand up. “What’s wrong?”
“What makes you think something is wrong?”
“The fact your face is bright red. Are you sick?”
He set the pizza down and moved toward her, but her hand went up to stop him.
“You had a visitor.”
He frowned. “Who? It can’t be my mother, she would have stayed.”
Aileen had stopped over a few times while she was staying with Laken.
“Lexi.”
“Lexi who?” he asked.
He genuinely looked confused.
That didn’t make her feel any better.
“Blonde hair, caked-on makeup, knockers stopping right about here,” she said, putting her hands in front of her.
“Oh.”
“Yeah. Oh. She was looking for you.”
“What did she want?”
“I didn’t ask. By the way she was dressed, I’m sure I could guess. She asked who I was. I said I was your wife.”
His face flushed and that made it all the worse. Maybe Lexi was lying to her about when she’d seen Nelson last. Could be she didn’t want to ruin her chance of getting back with him.
“What did she say?”
“She thought I was joking. Made a point of telling me she was with you about two months ago.”
“Before you,” he said. “I swear.”
“She said the same thing when I asked. It was the week before we got married.”
Her voice was louder than she had planned it to be.
But she was hurt.
Disappointed.
Mad at herself.
He ran his hands through his hair. A sure sign he was getting worked up.
“Come on, Kenzie. You can’t blame me for something or someone I was with before we got married. Don’t do that. Don’t do it to us.”
He wasn’t wrong, but she couldn’t control her emotions.
“Nelson. It’s bad enough that you had to warn me that people were going to say that you take nothing seriously. You even admitted that you don’t have relationships. You told me you weren’t in one when I asked after we were married.”
“That wasn’t one. We dated maybe two weeks. I’m not positive.”
“She didn’t give an exact timeline, other than hinting at your sex life and where you excelled.”
“Fuck.”
“Watch your mouth,” she snapped.
His fist clenched, his jaw tightened, and he paced.
“If I want to swear in my house, I’m going to fucking swear,” he clapped back.
Who was this guy? He had never lost his patience like this.
Never yelled.
Never even snapped at her.
She probably had it coming since she did it first.
“Fine. You swear all you want, but don’t do it at me. It’s disrespectful on top of being rude.”
“Just because it’s evil to swear in your house doesn’t—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Don’t you even dare throw any of that in my face. I don’t believe the same as my parents and you know it. I choose not to swear because it’s not professional and I’m trying to make something better out of my life. Casually dropping crude words will make others look down on me.”
“No, they won’t. My mother can string swear words together better than us all.
West does it, so does Laken. Don’t do that.
If you don’t want to swear, that’s fine.
Don’t. I’m even trying to cut back, but when I’m ticked off and defending myself, I can say what I want in my frustration because I wasn’t swearing at you. ”
She stood up and moved toward the steps, away from him. She needed to cool down.
He grabbed her arm. “Let go of me,” she snarled.
His hands went up in the air. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. We have to talk this out. Fighting the right way is important communication too.”
“Did you read that in a book somewhere?” she asked.
“You’re being the childish one now,” he shouted.
“Fine. Go sulk. I can’t change what I did two and a half months ago.
Neither can you. We have to look at our relationship as a reset in our lives.
I’m not judging you for anything. The one damn thing you hate being done.
But you’re not adhering to the same rules. ”
She stormed past him and stomped up the stairs to their room, slamming the door and falling onto the mattress to cry.
She knew darn well she was being unrealistic. Maybe it wasn’t even the fact Lexi showed up; it was how the other woman looked.
Just another example of everything she wasn’t.