Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 141251 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 706(@200wpm)___ 565(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141251 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 706(@200wpm)___ 565(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
Steam fills the bathroom.
I have no idea what time it is, but we’ve just made love for hours, and now we’re sitting in a deep, hot bath together. It’s like we don’t want to go to sleep because our night will be over. He lies back and I’m lying on top of him, my weary head on his chest. He rubs his face back and forth across my forehead as he holds me close.
I feel closer to him than I should.
“How did you lose your virginity?” I smile to myself.
“Oh God, don’t remind me of that balls up.” He tips the hot water over my shoulders. “Literally.”
I giggle.
“Janika Merris.”
I smile against his skin, already knowing I’m going to like this story.
“She was older than me. She wanted me badly.” He hesitates. “She offered me a head job at our school dance.”
“What?” I giggle as I look up at him in surprise. “How old were you?”
“Sixteen.”
I shake my head before I put it back down on his warm, strong chest.
“She sucked my dick at the back of the school hall.”
I chuckle as I imagine the scene he’s setting.
“And then she had sex with me as my two friends watched on.”
I sit up in shock. “What?” My mouth falls open. “Your friends watched you lose your virginity?”
He smiles and pulls me back to his chest. “Yep, and then she had sex with them, too. We all lost our virginity on the same night to the same girl.”
I burst out laughing. “Oh my God. That’s the worst virginity story ever. She’s such a slut.”
“Appalling.” He winces. “Funnily enough…” His voice trails off.
“Funnily enough, what?”
“I’ve never told anyone that story before.”
“Good. You shouldn’t.” I laugh.
I can feel him smile above me, and he kisses my forehead, tightening his arms around me.
“Do you still see those friends?” I ask.
“They’re still my two best friends. Sebastian and Spencer. We see each other all the time.”
“Well, I suppose you do have a special bond now.”
He chuckles. “Yeah, it’s a funny story that we often discuss when drunk
We let the silence linger for a moment longer.
“Jules, can I ask you something?”
He softly kisses me on the temple. “What?”
“Why the skits?” He stays silent.
“When you invite me here on these nights, why do you want me to dress up and not be here as myself?”
He pauses for a moment before he eventually answers.
“Because the beautiful woman who lives in my house and cares for my children is too good for me.”
I listen in silence.
“I couldn’t fuck her the way that I fuck you.”
I frown against his skin, weighted down by his fingertips as they trail across my back.
“Why couldn’t you fuck her like you fuck me?” I whisper.
“Because she’s the kind of girl you fall in love with, and I’m not wired to love. I’d only let her down.”
My eyes tear up. Good God, he is broken.
The two of us become lost in our own thoughts and I know I need to lighten the mood. “That girl who lives in your house is frigid and would never fuck your friends anyway.” I look up at him.
He smiles and kisses me softly.
“You should stay away from her.” I smile against his lips.
“I intend to, don’t worry. She’s the devil in disguise.”
I giggle, and we kiss again.
And just for tonight, all is right in my world.
It’s now Friday, and Julian is due home at any moment. He’s taken the afternoon off to come with me to the meeting at the school. I’m looking forward to what this teacher is going to say to us both. Hopefully it’s not as bad as I’m imagining.
I put some things away in Sammy’s room, and I walk down the hall and glance into Julian’s bedroom, frowning when I see something out of place.
There’s a book, upside down, left open on his bedside table. I walk in and pick it up.
When Children Grieve.
For adults, to help children deal with death.
My eyes instantly fill with tears and I sit on his bed with the book in my hand.
Sadness engulfs me. I wish a book like this never had to be written. I wish nobody ever needed it. How do you ever teach your children to live without their mother?
I sit for a moment with tears in my eyes.
They’ve been through so much. I imagine them at the funeral, and then at the wake. Willow would have been ten, Sammy only three. He probably doesn’t even remember her. I get a vision of them all dressed up, of Samuel in a little suit in his fathers’ arms. Julian would have had to organize the funeral.
Was she buried or cremated? Where is her grave?
Has the house been silent and sad ever since?
I hear his car come up the drive. I carefully place the book back on his bedside table and run down the stairs to meet him.