were wide and frightened. She started to reach out to touch Clint’s arm, then let her hand fall back before she’d finished the gesture.
She looked at Nathaniel. “You’re telling the truth, aren’t you?”
“I swear to you: it was a hell of a lap dance, but it wasn’t that good a lap dance.”
She started to cry softly, and managed to say, “Why would Elise tell me that what I remembered had only been part of it? Why would she want me to think that we’d . . . That’d I’d been so drunk that I . . .” She put her hands over her face and just cried.
The elegant Elise from the kitchen had been the bride’s “friend.” She’d been creepy in the kitchen, apparently she was always creepy.
Clint put his arm around her thin shoulders, and he looked too massive for her, as if the weight of his hand should crush her. “Elise’s the one who told me that the stripper you’d fucked was here. I’m sorry, Crystal, I shouldn’t have believed that evil bitch.”
Crystal snuggled against him, still crying.
“Why would she lie?” Clint asked to no one in particular.
“Look at it this way,” Nathaniel said. “I was living with Anita when I was hired for your bride’s party. If she found out I was doing customers she wouldn’t forgive that. I wouldn’t risk her being that angry at me, not for anyone.”
Clint looked at me, then at Nathaniel. “Blake does have a reputation. I guess you wouldn’t want her mad at you.”
“Good to know,” I said, “but why would Elise want Crystal to think she cheated on you? Why would she want to start a fight here?”
“Some women like to stir the shit, Anita,” Zerbrowski said. “Elise’s always been one of those.”
“Have you known her long?” I asked.
“Long enough to know that Nathaniel isn’t the first guy she’s propositioned, but he may be one of the few who turned her down.”
“She’s beautiful,” I said.
“In that cold, wicked witch of the north sort of way,” he said.
“Yeah, she’s not my type either,” I said.
Crystal said, “She tortured me with the thought that I cheated on you. Why would she hate me like that?”
Clint went very still, and had a strange look on his face. Crystal couldn’t see it, probably just as well. I wondered if Clint was one of the men that Elise had propositioned. Somehow I wasn’t sure he’d turned her down, but it was so not my problem.
Zerbrowski had caught it, because he said, “Elise’s always been mean, even to her friends.”
“People like that don’t have friends, just victims they hang around with,” I said.
Zerbrowski nodded. “True.”
Clint and Crystal made up, and she walked away with her husband, relieved, with the tears still drying on her face. Micah walked onto the deck and joined us.
“I thought me joining the group might confuse things,” he said, and took my hand on the opposite side from Nathaniel.
“If you’d stepped into Clint at the wrong time, the fight would have been on,” Zerbrowski said.
I kissed Micah. “I like that you only ride to the rescue when you’re needed.”
He smiled. “You were all doing fine.”
“What was Matthew upset about?” I asked.
“The other boys were teasing him for being in dance instead of T-ball, or martial arts.”
“What’d you tell him?”
“I made sure the little girls heard our discussion. Most of them are in dance and there aren’t enough boys in any dance school, as I’ve learned from Nathaniel and Jason and all the others going to class.”
Nathaniel grinned. “You’ve got the girls wanting to dance with Matthew.”
Micah nodded happily. He turned to Zerbrowski. “Your Kaitlin is how old?”
“Ten.”
“She’s quite taken with Matthew, and sad that he’s too short to partner her.”
“When we take Kaitlin to the ballet she always comes out asking, ‘Where are the boys for me to dance with?’”
“They’re playing little league, or taking martial arts,” Micah said.
People were drifting past us with plates loaded with food. “Time to finally eat some of the food you’ve been making,” I said.
“We’ve got boys here,” Nathaniel said.
“They won’t dance with the girls,” Zerbrowski said.
“Bet they will,” Nathaniel said.
“What’s the bet?” Zerbrowski asked.
“If I can get a boy besides Matthew to dance with one of the little girls, you do the rest of the dishes after the party.”
Zerbrowski studied his face. “And if I win?”
“I do the dishes.”
“You were going to help do the dishes anyway,” Zerbrowski said.
Nathaniel shrugged. “It’s what I could think of, and dishes are the one chore I don’t like.”
Zerbrowski grinned. “Okay, you’re on.” He held his hand out and they shook on it. It was a bet.
Zerbrowski and Katie had rented tables and awnings for the yard. They were on the opposite side from the area they’d left open for the kids to play, and where the swing set was. The size of the yard had been one of their main deciding factors in buying the house, and today showed why.
There was a kid’s table just like at family reunions when I was little. Matthew was sitting between two little girls, one blonde and curly, the other with brown hair done in braided pigtails. He was chatting happily. The blonde was answering him back; pigtails seemed quieter, just listening. It was weird to have a kid to keep track of at an event like this; hell, it was weird not to be solo. I’d been part of a “couple” for years, but rarely felt welcome to bring my multiple people to ordinary get-togethers like today.
Micah leaned in from his seat beside me, and asked, “What are you thinking about so hard?”
I smiled at him. “It’s just weird to have someone sitting at the kid’s table that’s mine, ours, to keep track of.”
“Weird bad, or weird good?” he asked.
I poked a fork into the food on my plate, trying to think the question through rather than just answering it. “Good, I think.”
Nathaniel leaned in from the other side of me, resting his cheek against my hair for a second, before he said, “I love having Matthew here, and he’s really enjoying the other kids.”
I agreed that was true. I tensed a little, waiting for him to push on the whole baby thing. He’d made no bones about the fact that he wanted us to have kids. He’d volunteered to give up his job and be a full-time stay- at-home dad.
The woman with the brown pigtails who had been part of the group in the kitchen sat down in an empty spot across the table from us. I tried not to tense up. “I’m sorry about earlier, I didn’t realize you had a kid. What’s his name? Our Becky and he are getting along really well.”
“It’s okay,” Nathaniel said.
“His name’s Matthew,” Micah said.
I waited for one of them to explain that he wasn’t “ours,” while I worked through the whole idea of this strange woman having seen my sweetie naked and nearly having sex with another stranger. I was okay with Nathaniel’s job most of the time, but every once in a while it got beyond my comfort zone, and I was left not sure how to feel, or act, or . . . It was just one of those weird moments.
“I’m Jamie, Jamie Appleton, my husband Kevin is around here somewhere.” She looked up as if trying to spot him, and finally found him on the deck with Zerbrowski and a knot of other men talking and laughing. She
