When I get out of the bathroom, Jack is waiting outside. He’s typing something on his phone, and he brushes a strand of his shaggy dark hair out of his eyes. He’s got a five o’clock shadow on his face, and it suits him—I always liked the way he looked with a little stubble. When he sees me, he lifts his puppy dog brown eyes.
“Hey,” he says.
“Hey,” I say.
He shoves his phone into the pocket of his jeans. “Are you okay, Claire?”
I drop my eyes. “Yeah.”
He glances around. The Porta-John is behind the gas station convenience store, hidden from the view of the gas pumps. My minivan is nowhere in sight. Everyone is probably back in the car by now. Or maybe buying snacks for the trip.
“He was being a real jerk to you,” Jack says.
“Yeah,” I agree. Even though Lindsay shot me a sympathetic look, it’s good to hear somebody else say it out loud. Sometimes I wonder if I’m partially at fault for the way Noah behaves. But no. I didn’t provoke what he did in the car. He was being a jerk to me for no reason.
“I’m sorry you have to deal with that,” he says. “Noah didn’t used to be like that. He’s changed.”
I nod. Jack knows my husband almost as well as I do. After all, they lived together before I lived with him. When we were in our twenties, Noah didn’t have a friend closer than Jack. But in the last few years, they’ve grown apart. Hell, we’ve only had dinner with Jack and Michelle a dozen or so times since Emma was born.
“You don’t deserve to be treated that way,” he says.
My breath catches in my throat as he takes a step toward me. “Well, what can I do?”
He shakes his head. “I wish it could be different.”
“Me too.” My voice is shaking. “You have no idea.”
He takes another step toward me, and this time he lowers his lips onto mine. I melt into him, allowing him to press me against the jagged brick wall of the convenience store.
“Did you get the separate room?” he breathes in my ear.
“I sure did.”
“Perfect.” He grins at me, his eyes crinkling. “This is going to be a fantastic week. I’m going to make you forget all about him.”
And even though everyone is waiting for us back at the car, I let him kiss me again.
Chapter 7
CLAIRE
Now you think I’m a terrible person.
I think I’m a terrible person too. What kind of decent human being does something like this? Not only am I cheating on my husband, but I’m doing it with his best friend. It’s not just awful, it’s cartoon villainy awful.
The best I could say is neither of us meant it to happen. It was just one of those things.
It all started back in February. Jack runs his own contracting business, and we were having our kitchen redone. Jack, being one of our oldest friends, gave us the friends-and-family price. He was supposed to be done by the time my school’s winter break started, but he was still working by then. Both the kids were at a winter vacation camp, and I was stuck at home while the construction was ongoing.
I was just trying to be friendly—I swear. I would offer him some water or coffee. And then we would chat while he worked. I got to talking about me and Noah, and about how things had gotten so bad lately. I’d always thought Jack and Michelle had a storybook marriage, but he revealed that wasn’t the reality. He said she had become cold and distant lately, and she worked practically all the time. She made it very clear to him that work was her first priority. He was a distant second.
On the last day of winter break, Jack kissed me.
Nobody but Noah had touched me like that since I was twenty years old. And Noah himself hadn’t touched me like that in a long time. I had started to think I was dead inside, but that kiss showed me I was wrong.
I wasn’t dead. But Noah was killing me.
So for the last four months, we’ve been sneaking off together. Jack has flexible hours, so he can pop over at the end of the school day, when the kids are at their afterschool activities. His house is always empty since Michelle barely leaves the office. They’ve made it almost too easy for us.
I’m falling in love with Jack. And I think he feels the same way about me. But there’s nothing we can do about it. If I left Noah under these circumstances, it would be a horrible, messy divorce. I don’t want to do that to the kids. And if Jack left his divorce lawyer wife under any circumstances, she would destroy him.
So we live for these little moments we have together. And we know it can’t go on forever, so we’re just trying to enjoy it while it lasts.