Page 159 of Holidating
“Itwasdumb,” Zara agrees. “This dude looked like an accountant.”
“Real estate investor,” Damien mumbles, picturing Cam’s Hollywood-smug face. He’s all cheekbones and dark gold hair. The kind of guy who always gets the girl whether he deserves her or not.
“Yeah, he looked expensive,” Zara says. “But now he’s expensive with a big black eye. I hope he doesn’t sue you.”
“He won’t,” Benito chimes in. “Because then he’d have to explain it to his wife.”
“Good point.” Alec helps himself to a piece of cake. “But you could still tell the wife. Are you close to this girl?”
Damien shakes his head. “Not that close.”
“Although he’d like to be,” Zara says.
He gives his sister a grumpy look. “Don’t make assumptions.”
“Comeon. I know you. The whole reason this bothers you so much is that the guy doesn’t deserve her.”
He closes his weary eyes and sighs. “No, he doesn’t. But that doesn’t mean I want to tell her that she’s probably married to a serial cheater. He had all the moves.”We’ll have to go to your place because my younger sister is staying with me. Damien had felt sick listening to it. The guy probably doesn’t even have a younger sister.
“If it was my marriage, I’d want to know,” Alec says.
“Like anyone would ever marry you,” somebody mumbles.
“Honey, I bet shedoesknow,” their mother says. “Even if she hasn’t admitted it to herself yet, on some level she knows who she married.”
That shuts all of them up for a second, because their mother has a lot of experience with bad marriages.
But Damien isn’t sure if this applies to Nicolette. If it were any other woman, he might agree. But she’s the most open, trusting person he’s ever met. She expects the best of people.
Plus—and this thought makes his stomach churn—she bought a pregnancy book that time in Burlington. What if she’s pregnant? Hell, she might already have a child.
He puts his elbows on the table and sighs. “What if she didn’t even believe me?”
“Wouldn’t there be a security video?” Zara asks.
“Savage,” says Benito, high-fiving his twin.
“There’s probably some footage,” Alec agrees. “What it shows depends where he and the woman were standing. We can check tomorrow.”
Damien buries his head in his hands. God, this is getting so convoluted. Even if there is footage, what is he supposed to do?
Here are some pictures of your cheating husband that I captured off my brother’s security system. Sorry I gave him a black eye. After you call a divorce lawyer, want to have dinner?
He looks up suddenly. “There’s no way I can tell her this. It’s too self-serving. I don’t know anything about their marriage. They might even have a baby.”
Zara winces. And then her eyes dart over to the corner of the room, where her own toddler is sleeping in a Pack’n Play. “I guess you can’t be the one to tell her,” she says sadly.
“I don’t see how I can,” he agrees.
But then she adds something under her breath that he doesn’t quite catch. It sounds like “Although maybe someone else could.”
CHAPTER 12
ON THE RADIO: “BLUE CHRISTMAS” BY ELVIS PRESLEY
“Why this song?” Damien grumbles to himself as he sets Zara’s dining table. “Isn’t it a little early for Christmas tunes?”
“It’s Thanksgiving,” one of his brothers replies, as if that makes it okay.
