Rainshadow Road (Friday Harbor #2)(13)

“It’s so humiliating,” Zoë had confessed to Lucy, “having your husband leave you for another man. It makes you feel like you’ve let down your entire gender. Like I was the one who finally sent him over to the other team.”

Lucy reflected that a feeling of shame was often a result of being cheated on. Even though it wasn’t fair, you couldn’t help but take it as a sign that you were lacking something.

“What is it?” Justine asked with a frown as she opened the back door to let Lucy in. As usual, Justine was dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt, her hair pulled up in a swingy ponytail. “You look terrible. Here, come to the kitchen.”

“I’m all wet,” Lucy said. “I’ll mess up the floors.”

“Take off your shoes and come in.”

“I’m sorry. I should have called first.” Lucy slipped out of her mud-caked sneakers.

“No problem, we’re not busy.”

Lucy followed her into the big, warm kitchen. The walls were covered in wallpaper printed with cheerful clusters of cherries. The air was filled with good smells: flour, hot butter, melting chocolate. Zoë was taking a muffin pan from the oven, her hair drawn to the top of her head in a knot of golden curls. She looked like an old-fashioned pinup girl, her figure curvy and small-waisted, her cheeks pink from the heat of the oven.

Zoë smiled. “Lucy. Want to be a taste tester? I just tried a new recipe for chocolate ricotta muffins.”

Lucy shook her head dumbly. Somehow the cozy warmth of the kitchen was making her feel even worse. She raised a hand to her throat to soothe away a sharp twinge of misery.

Justine stared at her in concern. “What is it, Luce?”

“Something really bad,” Lucy managed to say. “Something awful.”

“You and Kevin had a fight?”

“No.” Lucy drew in a shivering breath. “He dumped me.”

She was immediately guided to a chair by the table. Zoë gave her a wad of paper napkins to blot her wet hair and blow her nose, while Justine poured a shot of whiskey. As Lucy took a sip of smooth liquid fire, Justine poured another shot in a new glass.

“For heaven’s sake, Justine, she hasn’t even finished the first one,” Zoë said.

“This isn’t for Lucy, it’s for me.”

Zoë smiled, shook her head, and brought a plate piled with muffins. She took the chair on Lucy’s other side. “Have one,” she said. “There’s hardly any problem that a warm muffin can’t help.”

“No, thank you, I can’t eat anything.”

“It’s chocolate,” Zoë said, as if that gave it medicinal value.

With an unsteady sigh, Lucy took a muffin and broke it open, letting its damp heat filter through her fingers.

“So what’s the deal with Kevin?” Justine asked, biting into a muffin.

“He’s been cheating on me,” Lucy said dully. “He just told me about it.”

“That jerk,” Zoë said in astonishment. “That slime, that … that…”

“I believe ‘dickwad’ is the word you’re looking for,” Justine said.

“I wish I could say I was surprised,” Zoë said. “But Kevin’s always seemed to me like the kind of guy who might cheat.”

“Why do you say that?” Justine asked.

“He’s a looker, for one thing.”

“Just because he’s handsome—” Justine began, but Zoë interrupted.

“No, not that kind of looker. I mean he looks at women. I always catch him looking at my chest.”

“Everyone looks at your chest, Zoë. People can’t help it.”

Zoë pointedly ignored her cousin as she continued. “Kevin’s not built for a sustained relationship. He’s like one of those car-chasing dogs. The dog doesn’t really want the car. It’s the chasing part he likes.”

“So who did he cheat on you with?” Justine asked Lucy.

“My sister, Alice.”

The cousins gave her identical wide-eyed stares.

“I can’t believe it,” Zoë said. “Are you sure Kevin’s telling the truth?”

“Why would he lie about something like that?” Justine asked.

Zoë gave Lucy a concerned glance. “Have you called Alice to ask her about it?”

“What if she says it’s true?” Lucy asked miserably.

“Then let her have it. Tell her she’s a turbo slut, and she deserves to rot in hell.”

Lucy lifted her glass of whiskey and drained it. “I hate confrontation.”

“Let me call her,” Justine offered. “I love confrontation.”

“What are you going to do for tonight?” Zoë asked Lucy gently. “Do you need a place to stay?”

“I don’t know. I guess I do. Kevin wants me to move out as soon as possible. Alice’s coming to live with him.”

Justine nearly choked. “She’s moving from Seattle? Into your house? My God, this is heinous.”

Lucy took a bite of her muffin, the soft tang of ricotta blending perfectly with the dark complexity of the chocolate. “I’ll have to leave the island,” she said. “I couldn’t handle running into them all the time.”