August

With only December left to write, I’m almost ready to go back and start from the beginning. I really enjoyed the feedback from July, thank you to all who participated. If you would like to catch up before the pages go to manuscript, it’s not too late! The signup sheet is at the bottom of the excerpt.

Enjoy!

Even after a year of dating, Hunter had still felt like a perpetual secret, but that was long ago and mostly forgotten. They had spent the last decade blending future with family. Why would she be looking him up now?

Worse, why would she be keeping it a secret?

Nightmares of suspicion shook the bars of Hunter’s sleep for the next two nights, leaving him agitated by daylight as envy and insecurity set up camp in the halls of his brain. Hunter was in constant quiet rehearsal, forever attempting to string the right sequence of words together. He wanted to be ready to speak when he finally gathered the courage to open his mouth. Though when the time did arrive, Hunter could only surrender his thoughts to timidity while doing his best to ignore the bitter taste of betrayal that coated his tongue.

“You okay, or has part of you gone on holiday?” Caitlin asked, approaching her husband from behind and pressing her thumbs gently into the small of his back as her fingers kneaded the base of his neck. He was sitting in his favorite chair, clearly not reading the book in his lap.

Hunter took a look at the page number, then closed his book and tossed it on the coffee table. “I’ve been dreaming that you cheated on me,” he said, sheathing his hurt in an awkward smile. “For the last couple of nights now.”

“Cheating on you,” Caitlin laughed, “with what time?” She stepped in front of Hunter and sat beside him on the sofa, then removed her glasses and looked him in the eyes. “Don’t be silly. You know I’ve never cheated on anyone, and I sure wouldn’t cheat on you. You are everything to me. You’ve either been watching too much trashy TV or reading way too many tabloid headlines at Albertson’s.”

The inner coward was thick in Hunter’s throat. “You’re right,” he said.

Caitlin brushed her hands across his legs, kissed Hunter on the cheek, then left him behind. He was oddly comforted. Was he really that naive, or did Caitlin really have nothing to hide?

Hunter almost laughed out loud as he realized for the first time that there might be something more to what he saw. Perhaps she was even doing something for him. He had been miserable at the office without a hope of promotion. Garrett, he knew, was the hiring manager at one of the best accounting firms in the city, one that would likely pay a healthy percentage more in tangible take home and probably pay as much as double in appreciation.

Things at work had been growing increasingly difficult and Caitlin could probably nab him the new job with a simple phone call. Still, if that was her plan he certainly deserved to know.

Two weeks passed without incident and the initial episode wormed its way to the back of Hunter’s thoughts to settle in with the rest of life’s unfinished business.

“I need your phone,” Caitlin said as she plugged her pink LG into the charger and dropped Hunter’s in her purse. “Mine’s about to die.”

Hunter smiled at her usual routine. “Drive safe,” he said with a playful salute.

“I don’t know about that,” Caitlin laughed. “If Amy gives me any more attitude, I might just find a nice brick wall to plow into.”

It wasn’t until Hunter decided to order a half cheese, half pepperoni pizza about half an hour later, when the green demon returned to its nest. He flipped Caitlin’s phone open to search for the number to Mossimo’s, but his eyes instantly fell on the row of numbers two-thirds to the bottom. Numbers are second nature to Hunter and it took him all of a second to recognize Garret’s seven digits staring at him on the screen. He clicked view, heart thudding just loud enough to hear, and saw that Garrett’s number had been dialed the previous Friday morning, about five minutes after he had left the house…

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