Page 138 of Bottle Shock
“Elyse! Just—will you wait!” I yell, breathless. “Please—just let me explain!”
She stops abruptly and then whips around to face me, her eyes narrowed, lips thin with anger.
“How long?” she demands. “How long have you been lying to me?”
Her anger is so charged it feels like it presses the air out of my lungs. My hands shake. My mouth is dry. I try to swallow, but it sticks like sand.
“A month,” I say, voice barely above a whisper.
She lets out a breath—sharp, like it cut her on the way out.
“A month,” she repeats. “I don’t understand. Help me understand why two of the most important people in my life have been LYING to my face!” Her voice grows louder, sharper, echoing across the vineyard. “How could you do that? How could either of you do that?”
I flinch. “Elyse, it wasn’t like that—we?—”
She steps closer. “Do you know how I found out?” Her lip curls. “Hmm? Do you want to take awild fucking guess? Kathleen. Kathleen Fucking Meyers. She waltzed right up to me like she was doing me some kind of favor. Do you have any idea how humiliating that was? How stupid I felt? ”
Fuck.
Of course it was Kathleen.
She must’ve heard that woman call me Lily’s stepdaughter and then went from there.
“Hey!” A deep voice sounds behind me. In seconds, I feel Gavin’s warmth at my back.
Elyse’s attention snaps to him, eyes blazing. “You don’t get to speak right now. This is between me and Scottie.”
“Like hell,” Gavin fires back, stepping closer, putting his body just slightly in front of mine. “I”m not going to let you stand there and scream at my wife. You will not speak to her that way, understood?.”
“My God.” Elyse throws her hands up. “My wife.This is insane. Am I living in the twilight zone?”
“If you’d stop screaming for two seconds and let us explain—” Gavin bites out, jaw tight.
“Okay, fine,” she snaps. “ Do it. Explain.”
I drag in a shaky breath. “My insurance lapsed and Gavin was nice enough to help me by marrying so I would have coverage. We kept it a secret because we did it for the insurance.”
Her face shifts—relief hitting fast.
“Oh.” She laughs weakly. “Okay. Okay, so it was just—business. God. Okay. For a second I thought…”
I drop my gaze from hers without realizing it and Gavin clears his throat.
“Oh my God.”
“Elyse—” I start.
“No.” She backs up. Hands shaking. “No, no, no. So itisreal. You’retogether.What is this then? Marriage-with-benefits? Is that the term?” Her voice splinters. “Soyou’re just—what—sleeping together? Are you his convenient little booty call?”
I physically flinch. Because we have a line, and she just crossed it.
Gavin’s arm comes around me instantly, protective. “Enough.”
My body leans into his touch instinctively, my heart beating too fast in my chest.
She laughs—wild, hurt, spiraling. “If it’s not just insurance, then what is it? Because right now it looks like free insulin with a side of sex and?—”
“I’m in love with her.”
