Almost Perfect (Fool's Gold #2)(66)

“I was asleep,” Ethan protested.

“With Pia in your bed.”

“Still.”

Josh grabbed a towel and wiped his face. “Sorry to tell you this, but Liz pretty much gets a pass. She left town because you threw her under the bus and then you were in bed with another woman when she came back to tell you about the baby. There’s no way you’re the good guy.”

“She kept my kid from me. Nothing excuses that.” No matter what, Ethan had lost something unrecoverable.

“I’m not saying it’s an excuse. I’m saying you’re not blameless.”

“Maybe.” He didn’t want to think about that. “Everything would have been different if she’d stuck around. Woken me up. Hit me with something.”

“That’s not her way.”

“You know this how?” Ethan asked.

“She left. She was hurt and she went quietly. You might not want to admit it, but from what I can see, she did a hell of a job with her kid.”

“I know.” He had no complaints about Liz as a mother to his son.

“Maybe she’s not the one you’re mad at,” Josh guessed.

Ethan’s legs ached, his muscles shook slightly with the effort of his workout. He pushed harder, not wanting to hear his friend’s words, let alone think about them. Then the machine beeped, indicating his thirty-minute program had ended. He slowed reluctantly.

“Sure Liz didn’t tell you when she first found out,” Josh continued. “But the real tough one is that she came back.”

Ethan stepped off the machine and grabbed his towel. “Thanks for the update.”

Josh ignored that. “Rayanne kept the truth from you. She was your wife. You should have been able to trust her more than anyone. You did trust her.”

Ethan started to turn on his friend only to remember that Josh had also been betrayed by a woman. Big time. Maybe he knew what he was talking about.

“She felt threatened,” Ethan admitted, reaching for his water. “She was pregnant when we got married.”

“I figured,” Josh told him.

Ethan raised his eyebrows.

“Come on,” Josh said, spraying down the handles of the machine and wiping them off, then handing the disinfectant to Ethan. “She was never your type. I couldn’t figure out how you two got together at all.”

“I came up for air and she was there,” Ethan detailed. “I’d been working hard, learning the business, starting with the windmills. I hadn’t had much time to date. One day Rayanne walked into the office and I was interested.”

He didn’t bother saying it wouldn’t have lasted. Bad enough to admit that to Liz. For reasons he couldn’t explain, he’d wanted her to know the truth. But no one else needed the information. Despite the circumstances, Rayanne had been his wife. She deserved his loyalty.

“She was only a few months along when Liz showed up,” he recounted. “I was out of town. I’m sure the news frightened her. I’d talked about Liz some, so she had a clue about how serious things had been. Or maybe she would have imagined the worst regardless. Plus knowing I already had a son might have scared her into thinking I wouldn’t care as much about our baby.”

At least that was his assumption. He’d only been able to look at things from his perspective. Rayanne wasn’t around to ask.

He wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt. Wanted to believe the best of her, but the bottom line was, she’d kept her secret until the very end. Even when they’d both known she was dying, she hadn’t told him about Tyler. That was a tough thing to forgive.

“You’re still pissed,” Josh pointed out.

“Sometimes.”

“Does it ever occur to you that because you can’t get things right with Rayanne that you’re taking out all of it on Liz?”

Ethan stared at his friend. “What are you talking about?”

Josh shrugged. “I’m just saying that sure, Liz has some blame in all this, but so do you and so does Rayanne. Only Rayanne’s not here. Being mad at the dead never plays well, even to ourselves. So what are you left with? Liz.”

Ethan finished his bottle of water and tossed the empty container into the recycling bin, then dropped his towel across his shoulder and headed for the locker room. Josh fell into step beside him.

They walked downstairs and pushed through the swinging door. His friend’s words made sense, which fried his ass.

“When did you get all insightful?” he asked.

“I have no idea,” Josh admitted.

“I don’t like it.”

“Me, either. Makes me feel like a girl. Don’t tell anyone.”

SATURDAY DAWNED AS HOT AS THE rest of the week had been. By ten, it was close to eighty-five degrees. The air conditioning in the old house was questionable at best, which meant it was on the repair list. But so far, the subcontractor hadn’t shown up. Something Liz would discuss with Ethan the next time she saw him. In the meantime, she had three kids to deal with.

Melissa and Abby were arguing about who got to use the phone next, with Abby pointing out Melissa could just as easily use her cell phone, while Tyler resented the limit on his computer game time.

“Dad would let me play longer,” he whined as she reached for the controller.