The Temporary Wife - By Jeannie Moon Page 0,55

say anything bad about Jason, especially in front of Molly. Kevin didn’t really care about that. His protective older brother side came out full force.

She hated this. Kevin and Jason had been close friends growing up, almost as close as she and Grace, but when the breakup came and she turned up pregnant, it all went to hell. Jason was a nerd, but he was an athletic nerd who played hockey well enough to be recruited by some pretty big schools. Her brother, however, was a first-class baseball player all the way, and physically he made Jason look puny.

Kevin had wanted to beat Jason to a pulp when he let his father go on unchecked about her pregnancy scare. Jason never said a word, never took responsibility, just let his father rage on about how the baby could be anybody’s. Her brother had never forgiven his friend. The two of them hadn’t talked since, and Kevin tried to talk Meg out of marrying Jason right until he walked her down the aisle. No, nothing was going to be easy.

Meg wanted to forgive him, and she’d started to when they were on their honeymoon. Unfortunately, those few days of closeness were gone. Back in the real world, she was just the girl he screwed in secret.

Or wanted to screw in secret. Meg wasn’t letting that happen again.

She’d gotten a text from him a half an hour ago that said he was on the way, and she ordered his dinner figuring he’d be there in time to eat, but now that was looking doubtful. Nothing new. Once again, he’d let her down.

But she wished he’d get there just so her brother wouldn’t have any ammunition. He may have been pissed at Jason, but he was taking his anger out on her, and she was getting sick of it. Another crack and she’d rip his head off. Her brother might be a big, tough jock, but he was no match for Meg when her temper flared.

But then she looked around the table and sighed. As angry as she was at her brother’s crappy attitude, Meg wasn’t going to ruin her mother’s birthday, so she plastered a smile on her face when their food arrived and pretended like nothing was wrong.

Molly leaned over her spaghetti and gave a big sniff. “This smells so good,” she said. “Is Uncle Jason coming?”

“He should be here soon.” She hoped he’d get there soon.

“He promised me last night. I told him it was ’portant,” Molly said.

“He promised me, too. I’m guessing something happened at work. Do you need the spaghetti cut, or the meatball?”

“Nope, I know how to use a knife and fork, but I never cut spaghetti.”

She attacked her dinner, and Meg swallowed hard, not noticing that her brother, sister, and mother were all staring at her, all of them drawing their own conclusions, and all of them hating Jason even more than they did before. The problem Meg had was that her feelings were the opposite.

“You can’t keep going like this. Just end it.” Caroline asked. “Or would that make things worse?”

“I’m thinking worse.” Because then she wouldn’t just be fighting Molly’s grandparents, she’d be fighting with Jason, the man who petitioned to be Molly’s adoptive father, the man Molly would miss incredibly. She couldn’t do that to the child. She just lost her parents; right now she needed stability.

But then an ugly thought niggled in her brain. What would it do to her in a year or two if they divorced? One set of parents dead, another divorced? The child was going to need therapy for years, and as a teacher Meg should have seen it. She should have known better.

She should have thought about this. Quick fixes were never good in the long run, and now Molly might pay the price.

***

Jason tossed his keys to the valet as he stepped out of his car in the Matteo’s parking lot. He was forty-five minutes late for Mrs. Rossi’s birthday dinner, and he knew Meg was going to be furious. Scratch that—she was going to be upset. She didn’t get mad, but if he did something stupid or inconsiderate, she looked at him like a just-kicked puppy.

The last few weeks had been a roller coaster. Between his fuckup with the benefit, Harper being a bitch, and Meg’s ex getting her to see everything their marriage was missing, Meg had been through the wringer. He’d been trying to make it up to her a little at a