Hiding in the Spotlight

by Karen Booth

  “What?” Alex smoothed her hand over his shoulder. “I thought it’d be fun.”

  Tyler seemed skeptical. “This isn’t what I normally have.”

  “Right. It’s a treat,” Alex chirped.

  “But I don’t want a milkshake. It’s not the same,” Tyler pled.

  I should never try to treat Tyler to anything without plenty of advance warning. “You love milkshakes.”

  “Not after school. It’s not the same.”

  “I’ll get you something else in a minute, buddy.” Alex slid the glass out of Tyler’s reach and crouched between them. “I have something I want to tell you guys.” Her throat felt dry, her heart uneasy. “Daddy came back from his trip.”

  Page whipped around in his seat. “Dad’s back? Where was he? Can I see him?”

  “He’s coming over tonight so he can spend some time with you both. He can tell you about this trip.”

  “Does this mean we’re leaving Uncle David’s house?” Tyler asked. “I want to go home.”

  Alex cleared her throat as she watched the expectant look on Page’s face. “We’re going to live here until they’re done filming at our house. I think Daddy’s going to be staying in a hotel.” She decided information was best given in small doses. This admission would have Page making assumptions, but Alex wasn’t ready to launch into a discussion of the divorce. “And we’ll just see how it goes.”

  “I don’t understand,” Page said. “Why doesn’t Dad stay here with us?”

  Alex’s stomach churned. Page’s ability to ask every question she didn’t feel like answering was uncanny. “Um, your dad and I need some time to work out a few things.”

  David came into the kitchen from the side door, keys jingling in his hand, sunglasses atop his head. “Hey guys. How was school?”

  “Guess what?” Page asked. “Some girls at school asked me about Double Damage today. They’re all talking about that movie with your song in it.”

  “Cute girls?” David asked.

  “Yeah.” Page blushed. “Sorta. We can talk about it later.”

  “Got it.” David placed his hand flat on Alex’s upper back.

  She tensed and David dropped his arm, seeming surprised. Sorry. I’m a wreck.

  Page looked at Alex, much of the color draining from his face as he spoke. “Mom, are you and Dad going to get divorced?”

  She struggled to keep it together, feeling her heart pound against the wall of her chest. “Your dad and I have a lot to talk about.” She swallowed. “But, I don’t want you and Tyler to worry about that. Let’s try and have fun with Daddy tonight.”

  “I just saw him. He’ll be here at five-thirty,” David interjected. “You two should finish your homework.”

  ****

  By five-fifteen, Alex’s pulse was like a runaway freight train, barreling through her with no regard for the toll it was taking on her body. She’d been hiding out in her room, failing at an attempt to read American Wife while trying to pull herself together, not wanting the boys to see her nervousness. She rubbed her forehead and picked up her cell phone for the fiftieth time. Glenn hadn’t bothered to return her call about tonight. Fuck. She tossed it onto the bed.

  Lisa had been in a meeting when she called her. David had been on a phone call when she’d gone to talk to him. Panic was settling in her bones. She longed for somebody to talk her off the proverbial ledge—dropping to her death on a sidewalk sounded like more fun than seeing Glenn again.

  There was a tap at her door and David pushed it open a few inches.

  “Hey.” Alex took a few bounding steps and pulled him into the room, closing the door. She snaked her arms around his waist. “Tell me he isn’t here.” She pressed herself into him, craving closeness, David as her security blanket.

  “Not yet.” He smoothed her hair. “I thought we weren’t supposed to do this.”

  “What? Be alone together?” She looked up into his eyes. “We aren’t. We’re going to have to go out there in a minute. You’re just helping me calm down.”

  “Are you really that nervous about the boys seeing Glenn?”

  She closed her eyes, collecting her thoughts like they were marbles wobbling at the top of a slope, bound to roll away. “This is such a weird feeling. Page has figured this out. The boys are totally going to be stuck in the middle. The divorce is the right thing to do, but it’s going to hurt them. A lot of it is my fault.” She swallowed and kept her eyes shut, afraid that air might make them sting and tears would follow. “Their whole world is about to change. Again.”

  “When are you two going to tell them?”

  “I think we should do it now. I called Glenn so we could talk about it, but he never called me back. I hate feeling like this. I don’t like keeping things from them.” She didn’t like hiding David from them either, but their relationship had to remain a secret, at least for a little longer.

  “It’ll be okay.” He traced his fingers down her spine. “I promise.”

  She opened her eyes and shifted her gaze to meet his. He smiled his trademark off-kilter grin, one corner of his lips rising higher than the other. His chestnut brown eyes glimmered, warming her from within. She had once thought she felt this way about Glenn. Now she knew it wasn’t the same ballpark. She tingled when David walked into the room and felt like the air had been knocked out of her when he left.

  “Try not to worry so much.” He kissed her on top of her head. “Glenn was in a great mood after the meeting. Just talk to him when he gets here. I’m sure everything will be fine.”

  David ducked out of the room and Alex went into her bathroom to rake through her hair with her fingers. She found both boys in the living room, Page focused on his phone and Tyler flipping through a stack of trading cards. There was no time to say anything to them before the doorbell rang and Page sprang out of his chair and ran for the door. Tyler followed.

  She heard their voices and had to stay away. The soundtrack of their reunion, echoing from the front hallway, tore her up inside. Daddy, where were you? Daddy, I missed you.

  It had been so easy to hate Glenn while was he away. Things were black and white then, at least in her mind. He had left, he was the bad guy, and she was their rock. Now she had to share Tyler and Page again, except it would no longer be in the context of us, a family; now it was Mom and Dad, separate, two different realities.

  She thought about the day she found the condoms in Page’s bedside table. I had wished Glenn were here to help with the boys. Guess I got my wish.

  Glenn and Tyler came into the room, limbs tangled and interlocked like a two-headed monster with one cute head and one that had had a few too many late nights. Tyler hung on Glenn’s arm, his sandy brown hair swishing across his eyes, a smile wide across his face. Page followed behind them and although he was trying to play it cool, he smiled. Glenn looked much better than he had that morning. Perhaps it was the lens—the eyes of her boys. The circumstances under which their dad had left made no difference to them now. They only cared that he was back.

  “Alex.” Glenn stood still while Tyler held his hand and swung his arm back and forth. “I was thinking you and I should talk in private for a minute.”

  She swallowed and smiled at Page. “Yes.” She looked up to see David striding into the room. She instantly felt his pull. It was more than a tug at the heartstrings now, much more.

  “I’ll hang out with the ruffians,” David said.

  Glenn and Alex stepped into the kitchen, standing for a moment in silence. His steely gray-blue eyes worked their way into hers, leaving her feeling as if she was transparent, as if Glenn could read every thought in her head without effort. For better or worse, he knew her better than anyone did. The betrayal washed over her, the years together crumpled into a ball and tossed into a fire. The boys were the only evidence anything happy had ever happened between them.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t call you back. I moved into a condo and I get lousy cell reception.”

  “A condo?”<
br />
  Glenn put his hands in his pockets. “Yeah, I called Cindy Larson and she had a client who was looking to sublet while he’s out of the country. Guess I got lucky.”

  “Well, we need to tell the boys.”

  “About the divorce?” He cleaned under his fingernail with one of his keys. “Let’s sit on it for a while.”

  “Page knows. The sooner we do it, the sooner everybody can get used to the idea.”

  “Why does everything have to be a rush? You know, I have a lot to deal with right now with the band. I’d like my time with the boys to be fun. I’m not ready to talk about shit like seeing them every other weekend.” He rubbed his neck and his signature cologne wafted toward her, causing her stomach to lurch.

  “Maybe you should have thought of that before you left.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Can we please put an end to this? I did both of us a favor. Our marriage has been over for a long time. We needed time apart for clarity. I don’t know about you, but I have a much better perspective on what happened after having some time to myself.”

  Alex clenched her fists, wishing Glenn were eight inches shorter and fifty pounds lighter so she could clock him and do some damage. “If only I’d had a few months by the pool drinking margaritas. I could have all kinds of clarity by now.”

  He shook his head and exhaled in the most condescending way Alex could imagine. “You need to let go of the bitterness. It’s not attractive.”

  “We need to tell the boys.”

  “And I’m not ready to do that.”

  “I’ll tell them to call you with their questions, because I’m not lying to them anymore.” It hit her in a flash when he rolled his eyes. I could be spending time with David and I’m standing here arguing with a gorilla. She tried to see a single redeeming quality in him, but he was nothing more than the guy with whom she owned an over-mortgaged house. As angry as she was, proving her point wouldn’t get her any closer to what she wanted—Glenn out of her face. “Where are you taking the boys tonight?”

  “I was going to take them to the arcade and out for chili dogs or pizza.”

  She nodded slowly, unsteady about Glenn taking the boys from her. He could screw her over so quickly. “Just have them home by eight.”

  “Home?” He cocked an eyebrow.

  “Here,” she huffed. “Eight o’clock. It’s a school night.”

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  David stood in the foyer with his arms folded across his chest as Glenn walked out the door with the boys. He had an odd feeling when the door closed—as if he’d let part of himself walk away. “He’s bringing them back at eight?”

  “That’s what I told Glenn. We’ll see if he was paying attention.” Alex leaned into him and settled her head against his chest. “Something tells me he’ll be late just to piss me off.”

  He circled his arms around her, smiling to himself. She hadn’t hesitated to get close to him the minute they were alone. “Are you feeling okay with any of this?”

  “Not really. Luckily, I have you to take my mind off things.” She rubbed his back and slipped her hand underneath his shirt. “Mmm. You’re so warm.” She pressed into him and he felt the familiar tug in his stomach.

  He took her hand. “Let’s get out of the foyer. Knowing my luck, Glenn is coming back any minute for his sunglasses.” He led her through the living room.

  Alex hurried ahead of him as they started down the hall to the bedrooms. “Come on.” Her eyes flashed as she glanced back over her shoulder, a look of young abandon, making him double his pace. She began unbuttoning his shirt when they got to his room, kissing him deeply. She finished his shirt before he knew it, whipped off her top, unhooked her bra, and went for the button on his jeans.

  “Wow. You are really impatient.” He looked down. Zip.

  She pushed his pants to the floor. “We’re on the clock.” She sneaked her hand down the front of his boxer briefs, molding her hand around him, before she quickly had him naked. The heel of her hand pressed into him as she kneaded. She peppered his chest with kisses.

  He groaned and closed his eyes for a moment. “I’m not complaining.”

  David caressed the underside of her breasts then slid his hands down the smooth skin of her stomach. He unhitched the button of her jeans and slowly unzipped them, savoring every impatient flicker in her eyes as she watched. He kissed her tenderly and slipped his hands along the gentle curve of her hips, nudging the last of her clothes to the floor.

  Alex grabbed his hands, tilting her head to the side so her hair swung in a cascade over her shoulder, and pedaled backward to the bed. She turned and threw back the covers, giving him the ultimate view of her ass as she climbed on to the mattress. She flipped to her back and stretched her arms, locking her fingers far above her head in invitation. David’s blood rushed through his body to keep up with the sensations Alex created.

  He spread out alongside her, cupping her velvety breast. She arched her back in response, moving closer as he leaned down and kissed her shoulder, inhaling her honey-sweet scent. He kissed his way down her chest to her other breast, teasing her with his tongue.

  Alex moaned. “You’re being too gentle with me.” Her voice was a grumbling purr.

  “It’s called foreplay.” He moved to her other breast with his mouth, his hand skimming down her hip and pulling her closer.

  “I know what it’s called. It’s just—” She clamped her leg around him and bucked her pelvis into his. “I want you. Now.”

  He stopped kissing her and studied her face. Sometimes it seemed as though she was pulling herself apart at the seams, a ball of unsettled kinetic energy, not to be contained, possibly never satisfied.

  “Alex, I want you, too. You know that. But I want to make love to you. We have time.”

  She stuck out her lower lip. “I don’t want it to be like that either, but I’m just, I don’t know.” She rounded her head as if she was working out a kink in her neck. “I’m all frustrated right now.”

  He saw now what she was getting at. This beautiful jumble of complicated, unresolved emotion wanted him to ravage her—make her forget everything, blow her mind into oblivion if only for a few minutes. As much as he wanted to make her problems better, maybe even go away, he didn’t like feeling like this. He’d waited a lifetime to do these things with her.

  He didn’t dare say a thing, though. He’d come too far to mess it up with a knee-jerk reaction to one thing she’d said. If she wanted to use him for sex, he could live with it. For now.

  “Then let me help you relax.” He sat up in the bed and tried to ignore his raging hard-on. “Roll onto your stomach.”

  She smiled softly. “Mmm. That sounds promising.”

  He nearly told her to get her mind out of the gutter but thought better of that, too. He smoothed his hands across her back and worked his way up to her shoulders, rubbing and rolling his thumbs over the knots in her neck. “Alex, honey, you need to loosen up.”

  “That’s what I was trying to do in the first place,” she mumbled into the bed.

  He leaned down and whispered softly in her ear. “Just close your eyes and let me do the driving. I promise you’ll be relaxed when I’m finished.”

  She smiled, he kissed her on the cheek, and then he went to work.

  An hour later, Alex lay next to him with the most blissed-out look he’d seen on a woman’s face. He had to admit; he’d impressed even himself.

  “I don’t know what to say, Mr. Callahan.” Alex curled into him and kissed his chest. “I’ve never felt better.” She rubbed her foot along the top of his calf and played with his belly button, but he was so exhausted her touch was merely a pleasant sensation, not enough to get him going again.

  “I’m glad I could be of service.” Being used for sex wasn’t the worst thing that happened today.

  Alex circled a fingertip in his chest hair. “I wish we could stay in bed together like this, forever.”

  David felt his throat grow tight. With Glen
n back, it was hard to imagine how this would all play out the way he wanted it to. Alex was everything he’d ever wanted, but the band was his life’s work. In a long line of universal truths, that was the most damning.

  He looked at her and she grinned. She was right there, they loved each other, but she wasn’t really his. Sneaking around and hiding was no way to be in love. He patted her on the back and rolled out of bed to go to the bathroom.

  “Where are you going?” She swished her hand across his spot on the bed. “I’m not finished with you.”

  “We both need to get dressed. Glenn’s supposed to be back with the boys soon.”

  “He’s always late. You know that. He has to make an entrance.”

  David flushed the toilet and washed his hands. He stepped back into his room and fished a pair of pajama pants out of his dresser drawer.

  Alex remained on her side, watching him, an up-to-no-good smile on her face. “I hate seeing you put clothes on. I wish you were naked all the time.”

  He grinned and shook his head, threading his arms into a clean, black T-shirt. He went to the bed and set his knee on the mattress, leaning down and pecking her on the nose. “Time to get dressed, Sleeping Beauty.”

  The muffled sound of voices came from the hall, most notably Tyler’s frantic speaking pace when he was excited.

  Alex’s eyes flew open. “They’re back. I forgot Page has a key.” She leapt out of bed, grabbed her clothes, and dashed into the bathroom.

  David threw back the duvet and plucked Alex’s underwear from the floor and tossed them to her. “Get dressed. I’ll get them to the other side of the house. Pretend like you were in your room.”

  He hurried out into the hall and silently closed the door behind him. He rushed to the living room. Glenn was sitting on the couch looking at his phone. Tyler hung on him and Page rambled on about a guitar he wanted.

  “You’re back,” David said. “How was it guys?”

  “It was so fun,” Tyler said. “We went to the arcade and then Daddy took us out for chili dogs and I ate two and my stomach feels a little funny but then we had ice cream too.”