“Go take the trash out. I’ll meet you upstairs.”

I was already settled into bed by the time Paxton came up, waiting for him to put in the password for my email. I decided at that moment that had to change. The girls were about to start school. There was no reason for me not to have access to my own email.

“You don’t want to sit outside?” Paxton asked while plopping his ass right on my leg.

“Ouch. No, I want to lay in bed. My back hurts.”

“You okay?” He questioned as his body laid over top of me to get the link from my email.

“Yes, fine. I’m tired tonight.”

“Tired or emotionally drained?”

I lifted the covers for Paxton, agreeing with that statement. “For sure.”

“Hey, guys. How’s it going?” Nick suddenly said, appearing on the screen. Good thing we weren’t naked. Geesh.

“Gabby, Gabby! Hey girl,” Mi waved from across the room again.

“Get out, Mi!” Nick yelled.

I laughed and leaned in. “Hi, Mi. Thank you for spending the afternoon with the girls. They haven’t stopped talking about it.”

“I’ll call you tomorrow. Nick doesn’t let me hear any of this. He thinks it's violating some HIPPA law or something,” Mi teased, more sarcastic than not. I just wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be funny because Nick broke all sorts of HIPPA laws when he handed me over to Lane. Then again, it could have been because she was a doctor. She knew those laws.

Nick ushered her out again with an annoyed tone. “Mi, you do this every time. You tell me you won’t come in, and every time you do.”

“I’m going, I’m going. See ya, Gabby, and it was my pleasure. Best company ever.”

Nick waited for Mi to close the door and began, shaking his head back and forth in frustration. Paxton and I exchanged glances with hidden smiles.

“How was your last talk? Did you talk about everything?”

“Yes, we’re good. Let’s keep going. Let’s hear the next one,” Paxton coaxed.

I knew at that very moment he was hiding something. No more doubts. There was something he wasn’t telling me.

“You’re good with that, Gabby?” Nick asked totally overstepping Paxton, but in a nice way. Sort of.

I looked to Paxton first, trying to read his face, and I knew as soon as I saw it, he would have done whatever I wanted him to do.

“Is that what you want, Gabriella? Do you want to move on, or do you want to talk about it with Nick here? I’ll do whatever you want.”

I smiled, leaned into him a little more, and turned to Nick. “We’re good. You can go.”

Nick nodded and started tapping keys, causing the screen to go black. “Okay, we all know that it’s Lane’s voice you’re going to be hearing. The beginning has been clipped just like before. I didn’t do that, and I can’t control it. Lane did it. I’m going to sign off, but I’m a text message away. Just remember, talk about it, Paxton is learning a lot of this for the first time, too, Gabby. Keep that in mind. Unlike you, it’s his own fault, but nonetheless, they're things he didn’t know, too. Like what you’re about to hear. Got it?”

“Yes, thanks, Nick,” I said with a nod.

Paxton didn’t say a word to Nick. He stared at the black screen and waited to hear my relaxed voice.

I took a deep breath and waited with him, anticipation and edgy nerves.

“Lay down. I’ll rub your back while we listen,” Paxton coaxed from my side.

I gave him a strange look, feeling a little awkward about the reversed roles. “I said I was fine.”

“Lay down,” Paxton ordered while ripping my pillows from behind my back. He tossed one to the side and slid the laptop over.

Of course I obliged, coming to my knees and then my stomach. I felt his large hands before I heard my sleepy voice from the computer. His thumbs dug into my shoulders and I moaned, feeling sore spots I didn’t know were sore.

“Did you ever meet Tatiana, Gabriella?”

“Yes, she came to our house once, not long after Ophelia was born.”

“But never before? You didn’t meet her before that day?”

“Not technically. I watched her, but that’s it. I didn’t know she was his wife. Paxton didn’t wear a ring.”

“Go on.”

“I was in the middle of the boulders when I saw her. It was the same day that I ran into you on the beach. That day.”

“Just keep going, Gabby. So it was about three weeks after you met Paxton for the first time?”

Questions that I couldn’t answer took the place of Paxton’s massaging hands, and my eyes opened. “What’s he mean by that? He sounds like he doesn’t want you to talk about something. What is it?”

“Shhh, I don’t know, babe. Right below my left shoulder blade,” I said while my body jolted below his, coaxing him to keep rubbing.

“She was on the beach with a baby, maybe six months old or so. The baby played in the sand while she talked on a cellphone. I thought it would be rude if I just popped out, so I stood there and listened.”

“What did you hear, Gabby. Who was she talking to?” Lane questioned.

“I—I’m not sure. A man. She told him she was trying, and promised this would be her last trip there, she promised to tell him before she left.”

“Tell who, Gabriella?”

“I don’t know. My attention was mostly on the baby. She was the cutest baby I’d ever seen. Fuzzy white hair stood straight up on top of her little head. Her hair would no doubt be as pretty and shiny as her mother’s someday.”

“When did you see her again?”

“Later that day. I followed her, wondering where she had come from and where she was headed.”

“And where did you see her?”

Paxton’s hands stopped again, but only briefly when he heard the tone in my voice. Even I could hear the sadness.

“She went to Paxton’s house.”

“Why does that make you sad, Gabby?”

“I didn’t know he had a wife and a baby. I thought he liked me, but he didn’t, he only used me. He didn’t treat me like he did her.”

“What do you mean?”

“I watched them through the bushes the entire night. I heard every word they said to each other, and I knew he would never love me. It was silly for me to think a man like Paxton would ever love someone like me.”

“Why do you say it like that, you’re very special, Gabby,” Lane interrupted.

“But I’m just a slut. I could never look like her. She was beautiful, and the gene pool passed down to that little baby. My, God.”

“Tell me what you heard, Gabby.”

“I got closer than I normally did, because I couldn’t hear them. I hated the way he moved behind her and kissed her neck while she was on the phone—again. She was on the phone a lot. She gave him a dirty look and pushed his arm away. The baby, too, telling him to stop with a dirty look, telling him about some busy schedule she had to figure out.

“Paxton backed off and played with his baby, letting her crawl in the fresh cut grass until she hung up. Before she finally hung up, she applied more lipstick and complained about them trying to kill her, I just didn’t know who them was. Paxton threatened to kill her if she didn’t get off the phone and pay attention to him, kissing on her and telling her how much he missed her.

“Tatiana shoved him away again, this time because of her fresh red lips. They argued about supper next. Paxton had an entire meal planned out, but she wanted to go out, telling him that the new neighbor, Tricia, gave her a number to a sitter. Paxton got mad, telling her they weren’t taking her to a sitter, and that he bought steaks, and her favorite wine.

“The gorgeous blonde told him she wanted a Greek salad with a huge smile, and then a laugh. Neither was directed toward Paxton. It was for whoever her thumbs were busy texting.

“Paxton told her how beautiful she was, and that she didn’t need salads, but again, she shot him down, but he did win. They stayed in, and I stayed close, watching the family life that I would never have. The one Tatiana lived with the man I wanted, the house, and the beautiful baby.