Page 74 of Mr. Infuriating

“And don’t worry,” I told her. “Hewillcollect.”

“I will gladly pay up.”

My little brother’s dimple was on full display when he replied, “It’s a date.”

Before I could correct him that, no, it wasn’t a date; there would be no date between him and Gretchen—ever, the little shit brought the lid to his mouth, and walked out the door, still wearing a grin.

I made a point of looking at the garage where Derrick had disappeared to, before murmuring, “Can we talk more once he leaves?”

“Yeah, of course.”

But as I joined my brother outside, I couldn’t help but wonder, what hadn’t Gretchen told me?

“Everything okay?” Derrick asked when I met him at the back of the truck and put the tailgate down.

“Yeah, she just said something cryptic, and I’m trying to figure out what it meant.”

“What’d she say?”

“That there was something she hadn’t told me.”

“Uh oh. You don’t think she’s still married, do you?”

“No,” I blurted out, then paused. “I mean, I don’t think so. That’s been the whole premise behind why she didn’t want the cupboards—she got divorced and can’t afford them. Plus, her ex wanted them, not her.”

“Yeah, and even Laura said she was divorced.”

We lifted the first cabinet, and my little brother asked, “What do you think it is?”

“For the life of me, I don’t have any idea.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Gretchen

I felt a little better about my parenting skills when I finished mopping the kitchen, put Jake’s clothes in the dryer, and after emptying the robot vacuum, let it go through the rest of the house.

At least the floors would be clean when my toddler half-crawled, half-walked around on them this week, and he’d have clean clothes to wear to daycare.

I could work on grading essays after I put him to bed.

Now that my mom guilt was somewhat assuaged, I only had the Gabe guilt.

I don’t have anything to feel guilty about, I reminded myself for the fiftieth time.I don’t owe him anything.

Yet, I couldn’t help but feel after what we shared this weekend, I kind of did. Even though we weren’t going to be dating anymore, I at least owed him honesty.

Not that I’d been dishonest.

I mean, you kind of were, my conscience whispered.Omitting the truth is no better than lying.

“There’s a lot of things I didn’t tell him. It doesn’t mean I was hiding it from him,” I grumbled out loud. “There was no need to tell him about Jake before now.”

Once Derrick left, I’d tell Gabe I had a son, and he’d agree we shouldn’t see each other.

Easy peasy.

Except, why did that sound so unappealing?

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