Page 32 of Take Me Back
I drop my fork with a clank on the plate. “No. Never. You and I took vows. We made promises. We may not have done a hell of a good job honoring and cherishing, but I would never disrespect you or our marriage that way. Never. And the fact that you think I could pisses me off.”
It’s probably not the right way to keep the lines of communication open, but I need her to understand how serious I am.
“Okay. Okay. I get it. I just ... you took me by surprise there. I thought maybe ...”
“Why? Why would you think that? Honestly, the fact that you even raised it as an issue makes me wonder if you’ve got something you need to confess.”
Kat’s eyes bulge.
Good. She better fucking look shocked, otherwise there would be some businessman turning up missing and never to be found again when we got back home.
“Are you seriously accusing me of ... I can’t even say it. Are you really going there?” Her voice rises, and the man seated at the table behind us glances over in our direction.
“If I were, your reaction is all I need to know that you wouldn’t.”
Instead of picking up her fork, Kat reaches for her cocktail and takes a long drink. When she lowers it back to the table, her voice is quieter. “No. I wouldn’t.”
There’s no room for reading anything into her response. I believe her. With my resources, I could easily keep tabs on everyone she comes in contact with on a daily basis, but I don’t. Why? Because I trust my wife. Even if there’s a barrier between us, it’s one we created, not one caused by someone else.
She drains her drink and signals for Eduardo. And then she orders another.
Fuck it.I ask for another beer too.
We finish our dinner making small talk, and not speaking another meaningful word.
One step forward, two steps back.
Chapter 14
Kat
The island is pitch black when we leave the restaurant to return to our room. Living in Houston, you forget what it’s like to see true darkness. The moon is a thin crescent and provides almost no light. Clouds sweep across the sky, covering stars before letting them wink into the blackness again.
Dane, who I swear had to be a Boy Scout in another life, fishes a small flashlight out of his pocket and turns it on. A bright white beam illuminates the wooden path in front of us—and thethingon it.
I scream and jump back three feet rather than moving forward.
At first, I think it might just be the fact that I downed four cocktails like my life depended on it because I couldn’t get the picture of some woman with her arms wrapped around my husband out of my head, butno.There’s definitely something moving.
I scream again when it comes closer.
“Jesus fucking Christ, Kat. What?”
The flashlight beam bounces before it zeroes in on the creature.
I grip Dane’s shoulder, two seconds from climbing up on his back. “What the hell is that? I almost stepped on it.” I suck in a breath, letting the words trail off as my heart hammers.
“The crab?”
A crab?More like a blue-shelled monster the diameter of a salad plate with one big claw waving above his head.
The creature scuttles off the path and out of the light. Dane shifts the flashlight beam to follow it, and I hide behind his back and peek over.Oh God.The crab isn’t alone. I scoot back another step, almost losing my balance when I see at least a dozen more of those monsters creeping their way across the sand toward a pile of fallen coconuts.
“They’re harmless. Just don’t step on one. You might get pinched.”
Harmless?Clearly, we have different definitions of the word.
“Did you see that claw? I’d lose a toe. Or a limb.” I could be exaggerating in my fairly inebriated state, but I don’t care.
