“Sad, I suppose. Relieved, maybe. It’s always nice to know someone loved you. My main concern right now is that you know that I am one hundred percent in love with you. What’s in the past doesn’t really matter anymore.” He squeezed her hand and said, “We are both right where we want to be, in love with you.”
Summer smiled at him and replied, “Well, then you wouldn’t be opposed to taking me home and making love to me?”
She giggled when he floored the accelerator on the last couple of miles between them and the turnoff to the house.
* * * *
Ace took a seat at the kitchen table while Patrick settled his son in front of the television with a children’s movie and a sippy cup. The tall, blond-haired man made a cup of coffee and joined Ace, looking like he’d been through a hell of a day as he rolled up the cuffs on his dress shirt.
“Ace, I feel like I have to apologize.”
“Why?”
“Because I may have exacerbated the situation unintentionally.”
“How so?”
“Elizabeth and I have had a rocky relationship from the start. You probably know that I dated Rosemary Garner, well, when she was unmarried, that is. My wife knew about that. During an argument, she threw it in my face that I hadn’t been enough man for Rosemary, which was why she’d needed two men. I revealed to her that I’d discovered her little cache of love poems she’d written about Ethan Grant when they were in high school. He was a few years older and never even knew who she was. It was juvenile of me, but that woman can…” He looked even more exhausted as he ran his fingers through his hair. “Push and push. She got religion a few years ago, and instead of getting better she only got worse. I’d hoped the baby would help her stay busy and out of trouble.”
Ace said, “I think she was motivated by jealousy for not having what she’d wanted, and guilt over having an affair. Those emotions fueled her moral outrage at what she deemed illicit behavior in others to cover what was going on in her life.”
Patrick nodded affirmatively. “We had a terrible fight one night, and she accused me of still loving Rosemary. I was pushed to my limit and I told her I did. I do still love Rosemary. I’d never interfere with her relationship or do anything to make her unhappy, but the life she has is my ideal now. She’s found men who obviously make her very happy, and I wished for the same thing. Elizabeth went ballistic. This was about the time she started spending more time on the Internet.”
“When she started blogging.”
“Yeah. That’s why I feel at least partially responsible.”
“We found e-mails from Leroy Paggs that date back to the same timeframe.”
Patrick shook his head in disbelief. “What will happen to her?”
Ace shrugged. “From what you and I heard and Kemp told me, they are pointing the finger at each other. Paggs is probably writing a full confession as we speak in hopes of getting a judge to go easy on him on the arson, breaking and entering, and assault charges leveled against him right now.”
“What do I do about my boy?”
“Let me do a little digging for you and see what I can come up with.”
“Do you need any information from me?”
Ace smiled sheepishly and replied, “No, Patrick. We already know pretty much everything there is to know about you and Elizabeth. Probably more than you want to know.”
Patrick chuckled and said, “Fair enough. Thanks for being straightforward about it.”
“Nothing I learned or will learn will see the light of day, as it pertains to you or your son. We’ll do our best to help you retain custody.” Gesturing to the laptop lying on the table between them, Ace added, “All we did was use her access to the blog and shut it down. She never posted from the same place twice and led us on a wild-goose chase all over town. After talking to one of her Bible study members we discovered they took turns hosting it each week. She was posting from a different Wi-Fi address each time. She would tell them she needed to arrive a little early and then would connect to their router and get on the internet under the guise of research for their study topics. What she was really doing was posting the blog updates.”
“Did she think no one would ever catch up to her?”
Wryly, Ace said, “Well, she led us on a merry chase, that’s for sure.”
* * * *
Kemp pressed Summer back against the wall of the shower and kissed her hungrily. This was their first opportunity to be alone together, and he intended to take full advantage of it. He’d return the favor to Ace later that evening.
“My goodness, Kemp. You’re so big and hard,” Summer said with suggestive emphasis and closed her soft hand around the base of his cock. “I love it.” Kemp growled and thrust within her grasp and plundered her mouth with renewed enthusiasm. She broke the kiss and in a silky voice added, “I’ll love it even more when you fuck me with it.”