Frayed Silk(42)

He waves me off. “It’s fine. The least I could do, really. But are you sure you’re okay?” He frowns.

I have no idea what I am, but I manage to say, “I’ll be all right.”

“Okay, tell Leo to call me, anytime. If he still even wants anything to do with me.”

After saying some kind of goodbye, I hop into my car. And sitting here with the door closed in the silence, everything finally starts to click into place.

All the changes in Leo these past months.

Since that party.

The change in his personality.

The distance.

The way he’d flinch or reject my advances, hell, even my touch.

The silence.

I bury my head in hands and let the tears fall.





“Leo, stop.” I giggle into his neck as he palms my ass underneath my yellow cocktail dress.

“No, let’s just go to a hotel and pretend we’re in college again while Clare has the kids.”

I kiss his throat, inhaling his scent and feeling my legs grow weak. “So we can lay in bed and fuck all night?” I whisper.

He groans. “God, I love hearing that word from your mouth, and yes. All night.” He kisses my neck, nipping my chin and finding my lips. “And morning,” he says into my mouth before dragging my bottom lip into his and sucking.

“What are you doing?” Our lips break apart at the sound of Greta’s voice from the doorway, but he doesn’t release me. She stands there, hands on her hips in a Disney Frozen costume and Santa hat, a curious smile on her face.

“Just showing Mommy some love. What are you doing?” Leo eyes her ensemble with a grin, releasing my ass and moving his hands up to my waist.

“Just getting ready for dinner. Can I borrow your red lip gloss, Mommy?”

“Sure.” I smile at her and give Leo a gentle push so he’ll release me. He grumbles low in his throat but lets me go.

I head into our en suite, grabbing it and bending down low in front of her to apply a little bit to her lips. At least if I do it, I know she’s not going to get it everywhere. Leo adjusts his black dress shirt while watching us through the mirror at my dressing table.

I rub and smack my lips together, making a kissy face. She copies, making me grin. “Perfect. Now, go start on your dinner, and we’ll be down in a minute to say good night before we have to leave.”

She gives me a huge smile, displaying the gap from her latest missing top tooth and hikes up her dress to skip out of the room.

I cap the gloss and return it to the bathroom. Leo walks in behind me, kissing up and down my exposed neck, thanks to doing my hair in a tight bun on top of my head earlier.

“We need to go.” I laugh and fix my mascara quickly before turning around in his arms.

He sighs dramatically. “All right.”

Placing a kiss on my forehead, he grabs my hand and tugs me back into our room.

“Hold up. I need my purse.” I run back to grab it. “Oh, and the present …”

“It’s already in the car,” he says, standing by the door.

I slip my feet into my nude pumps. We walk downstairs to say goodbye to the kids and Clare before making our way out to his car in the garage.

He opens the door for me, and I climb in, carefully gathering the puffy skirt of my dress into my lap. Leo gets in, and we back out onto the street before making the short drive over to the Fitzgerald’s home for their ninth wedding anniversary party. His warm hand finds mine between gear changes as I look out the window at the beautiful blur of homes.

Once there, I stare up at their huge house from the street as Leo helps me out of the car. The lion statues that sit either side of their porch are giant and look as though they’ve recently been cleaned because you can see every last detail.

“Don’t look too closely, Trey thinks one of them has a camera in its eye,” Leo whispers, linking my arm through his as we walk up to the looming double doors.

I draw in a breath. “Don’t be ridiculous. They wouldn’t.” I think about it for a second. “No, maybe they would.”

Leo chuckles, kissing my cheek and ringing the doorbell.

“Hello!” Fiona beams, opening the door wide and waving an arm to welcome us in. “You two look amazing.”

“It’s all her, I’m afraid,” Leo says, letting go of me and air kissing Fiona’s cheeks. I blush as Fiona winks at me and mouths, “Swoon.”

Leo and Dylan pat each other’s backs when he comes into the entryway. I give them their gift, and we exchange hugs and congratulations before the men walk off into the house, laughing loudly at something as they go.

Fiona closes the door, linking her arm through mine. My eyes roam over her tight black floor-length gown that shimmers under the light of the overhead chandelier. “You’re the one who looks amazing.” I pat her arm and glance down at her dress. “That has got to be the prettiest black dress that I ever did see.”

She laughs, the sound a tinkling echo in the large space as we walk between her spiraling staircases to the hallway behind. “Isn’t it? I almost died when I saw how much it cost, but I just had to have it and that was that.”

“Hey!” Lola grins when we walk into the kitchen, a champagne flute already in her hand. “You look hot!” She winks at me.