Family Dynamics (Pam of Babylon Book Five) by Suzanne Jenkins Read Free Book Online Page A

for the potting soil,” she said, a lie. “Can we sit here for a bit? I want to ask a question.” She could see he was angry and her request unwelcome. But he’d been mad at her for weeks. Another hour wouldn’t be difficult to take.
    “What? What now?” he asked. He turned to look at her, and she tried to arrange her features so she’d be moderately attractive to him.
    “I know you have someone else, Frank. I’m not stupid. I can see you’re miserable with me. So why are we doing this? You don’t have to get defensive because I found out. Just admit it, and let’s try to deal with it, because this shit, whatever it is we are doing, has to stop. The kids are starting to notice, and it’s taking its toll on my job.” She didn’t add, “Your salary can’t support two households.” His rigid posture slowly seemed to relax; she could almost see him decompress. Finally, he took his hand off the shift stick and sat back in his seat, looking out his side window.
    “What do you want me to say?” he asked.
    She thought about it for a minute before she answered. What indeed? “Why not tell me what you want? Neither of us can go on like this much longer without doing some real damage,” she said.
    “I don’t know what I want,” he said, afraid to admit that it was to be with someone else. But his determination not to get caught and his defensiveness that resulted from being in the wrong were starting to dissipate. She could feel it.
    “Do you want to talk about her? I’m beyond anger if that what you’re worried about,” she said, which was not exactly true. But she would pretend if it would get the truth out, and Frank would love to rub her nose in it—“it” being a slightly younger, prettier, smarter, nicer version of Carolyn. He turned his head to look at her. They had been high school sweethearts, both virginal, gawky teens who discovered they were comfortable with each other as they hadn’t been with anyone else. He could relax around Carolyn, forgetting the things about himself that made being with girls torturous. She didn’t seem to care that he was so skinny his mother thought there was something wrong with him. He was a mediocre eastern New York student to her Cobble Hill honor roll. Being with her elevated his status at school, although her friends wondered what the attraction was for her.
    All of that was forgotten now; his new girlfriend, June Brooks, didn’t know about the skinny, awkward boy with the bad skin and bad grades. Frank Fitzsimmons was successful, handsome, and fit. June didn’t care that he was married because Frank told her it was a rocky union, headed for divorce. He didn’t tell June much about Carolyn because there wasn’t much negative to tell, outside of her slightly chubby, soft body that he’d one time loved with all of his heart.
    He’d almost fainted the first time he saw June naked. She was in fabulous shape for a woman her age; she wasn’t a young girl like Carolyn thought, but in her late forties. She’d never had children, so her belly was flat and taut. But she worked out like a maniac, and it showed. Her legs were amazing—long and lean and as hard as rocks. She liked to sit on him backwards when they were screwing around, and he came just looking at the muscles in her thighs flexing, his penis looking bigger next to her lean ass. It was a coincidence that later that day he would watch his wife undress and snicker out loud when he saw the back of her thighs. It was all he could do not to say “Yuk” out loud. The snicker was bad enough; he could see he’d hurt her, and all that did was make him angrier. He exhaled a deep breath in the car.
    “I’m in love with another woman,” he said flat out. “She’s in her late forties, so she’s no kid. I’m sorry I hurt you. I want a divorce.” He looked right at her face. “There. That’s the truth.” She’d asked for it. She didn’t realize the pain hearing the words “I want a divorce”