Melanie Vargas 03 Cover-Up by Michele Martinez

Author:Michele Martinez [Martinez, Michele]
Format: epub
Published: 2010-06-23T20:13:50.026000+00:00

“Let’s go home,” she said, sliding her hands up his muscular thighs.

Just then, Dan’s phone buzzed in his jacket pocket. He pulled it out and held it up to read the display, which glowed a vibrant blue green in the romantically lit room. Melanie glanced at it, absorbing without intending to.

“Hold on, I have to take this,” he said, and despite the dim light, she saw his face fl ush red.

The number had come up as diane cell. It took a minute for Melanie to get her mind around what her eyes had just seen. If his ex - wife’s cell - phone number was registering that way on his caller ID, it must be programmed into his phone. Yet Dan had assured her he never had contact with Diane.

“What’s up? Any news?” Dan said. She couldn’t help noticing that his tone betrayed no surprise at the call. To the contrary, he sounded as if he’d been expecting it.

“Aw, jeez, I am so sorry . . . God, I loved that guy. We knew it was coming, but that doesn’t make it easier . . . I can’t right now, I’m at a wedding right . . . Yeah, yeah, with Melanie,” Dan said, glancing up at her as he spoke her name.

Seeing the stunned expression on Melanie’s face brought Dan up short.

“Listen, Diane, I’m gonna have to call you back . . . No, I really have to go. Tell your mom to count on me for a pallbearer, okay? Bye.”

He hung up and thrust the phone back into his pocket. Within seconds, it started vibrating again insistently, but he didn’t answer.

“Your phone’s ringing,” Melanie said hollowly.

“It can wait. You look upset.”

She shook her head, at a loss for words. Upset? Melanie felt like she’d been kicked in the stomach. She felt like somebody had taken the world and tilted it sideways until she didn’t know where she was. Not to be the only woman in Dan’s life? Then she didn’t recognize herself.

“That was my ex - wife,” Dan said.

“I figured. I thought you said you never talked to her.” Her voice came out lower than normal, quiet, unlike herself.

“I just . . . well, I hadn’t, not for a long time. But come to fi nd out, her dad was dying of cancer. She just called, uh, just now, actually, to tell me he passed. I think I told you once, Seamus was like a father to me growing up because my old man didn’t give two shits. Seamus really stepped up and did right by me. So I been going by the last couple of nights, to pay my respects.”

“The sick friend you were visiting in the hospital was your ex wife’s father?” When I couldn’t get you on the phone? When you didn’t return my calls? When I didn’t know where you were?

Dan was watching Melanie’s face intently. “Yeah. Uh - huh.”

“When you visited, she was there, too?”

“Sure. Yeah, of course. Not only Diane, but her whole family.

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