Page 102 of The Moment You Know

He decided to shift the conversation a little. “Let’s talk about Paige’s book.”

Her face twisted and for a second, she looked genuinely ugly. “That goddamn book,” she practically snarled.

“It must have really irritated the shit out of you when she went ahead and mailed me a copy of it after you told her I wasn’t interested in reading the advance copy she offered me.”

“Yeah, it did.”

“So, what did you do with the book after you intercepted it?”

“I read it, then threw it in the trash.”

Neither her answer, nor her lack of remorse was surprising. He was digesting the fact Ashley knew all the details of Paige’s story before he did, when he felt his blood run cold as he remembered what his mom had said about Paige’s book: that David was in it, along with ‘personal stuff’ about their marriage.

Sex stuff.

David didn’t know what ‘sex stuff’ entailed, but Ashley did, because she’d read it.

“Why did you read it?” he asked flatly.

“She wanted you to read it, so I wanted to see why.”

“And did you see why?”

Ashley looked at him for a long moment before nodding.

Jesus, he really hated her. He hated her for what she’d been doing and he hated her for having knowledge that he didn’t even have yet. And that she’d had this knowledge for seven months.

“So, after finding out why she wanted me to read it, you decided to keep that to yourself and not give it to me to read.”

“I couldn’t. You’d have wondered why she didn’t tell you about it in the first place, you would’ve tried to get in touch with her, and then you would’ve found out I blocked her—”

“Yeah, I can connect the dots. All roads lead back to you blocking her and you needing to continually cover your ass.” He was almost vibrating with rage and his skin felt like it was on fire. “Paige said she wrote a note to me in the book. Did you read that, too?”

She blinked. “Yes.”

He took a deep breath. “Well, since I didn’t get a chance to read it, why don’t you tell me what it said? So I can know, too.”

“David, I read it months ago. I can’t remember all of it—”

“Then tell me what you do remember.”

She appeared to be thinking. “It said that she knew you didn’t want to read the book—” at that, Ashley looked away from David’s aggravated expression, “—but that she hoped someday you’d change your mind. And then she wished you all the best,” she finished.

“That’s it?”

“That’s all I can remember.”

David knew there was more and figured she’d deliberately left it out, which further pissed him off; even if it was by omission, she was still lying to him.

Ashley reached over to touch him. “Look, baby, I know you’re pissed—”

“Don’t fucking touch me,” he snapped almost slapping her hand away. “And I’m not pissed. I passed pissed a while ago.”

There was a knock at the door, a normal, mundane sound in the midst of their ugly argument that was sort of the equivalent of a bucket of cold water being thrown on them. Without a word, David got up and went to the front door and opened it to find the Domino’s delivery guy standing there with a large cardboard box. After paying for what was, indeed, a sausage and pepperoni pizza, then giving the guy a tip, David returned to the kitchen. As he was setting the pizza on the counter he heard an incoming text and quickly checked his phone to see he’d gotten two from Evan.

DICK: Everett can cover for me, but now I owe him one. Which means you owe me one. Saturdays are big tip days, not to mention, that’s when the most attractive people come in.

DICK: So, what am I going to be helping you with?

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