quite as wide. There’s love and affection mixed in with the anger and resentment, and it will take time to undo all the months of not connecting with her husband to get back on solid ground. But for the first time in a long time, she’d like to get there. For the first time since their son went missing, their marriage feels like a priority.
For today, anyway. There’s no predicting how she’ll feel once she figures out what happened to McKenzie.
As she makes her way through the bar, she sees Ginny, the server Sal’s been sleeping with. While the thought doesn’t exactly thrill Marin, her friend is entitled to do whatever he wants, with whomever he wants. Ginny is balancing a tray full of beers on one arm, and her face darkens when she sees Marin. They’re within a foot of each other, and up close she realizes the server is much younger than she originally thought. Marin had her pegged as mid-thirties, but now she’s guessing she’s closer to mid-twenties. Ugh. Seriously, Sal?
She forces herself to smile. “Sal around?”
“Office. He said to send you back when you got here.” Ginny jerks her head in the direction of the back room, then continues on her way.
Whatever just happened in the baseball game, the crowded bar cheers its approval. Marin passes a man who offers his palm for a high-five. She smacks it and keeps moving.
She pushes through to the back of the bar, where a door leads to a long hallway. The bathrooms are on the left, and the kitchen and Sal’s small office are on the right. If it can even be called an office. It’s barely big enough for a desk and two chairs.
Sal looks up when she knocks.
“Hey,” he says. “Shut the door. I can’t hear myself think with that noise.”
She does as he asks, and the volume from the main bar is cut in half. He gestures for her to sit, giving her the once-over as she sinks into the chair opposite him.
“Missed me already, huh? I don’t usually see you twice in one week. Hell, I don’t usually see you twice in one month these days.”
Sal seems edgy, and it takes her a few seconds to recognize that he’s nervous. And then it takes her another few seconds to remember why. He doesn’t know that she’s here to talk about McKenzie and Julian. She and her best friend slept together a few days ago, and he’s no doubt bracing for Marin to start telling him what a gigantic mistake they made, and that it can never happen again. He’ll be half-right.
“Before I say anything else, I want you to know that I don’t regret it.” She speaks gently, and Sal’s eyes widen in surprise.
“I don’t either,” he says.
“But it can’t happen again.” She smiles to soften her words. “I’m married, Sal, to someone else. You’re my best friend. And right now, I don’t want either of those things to change.”
“So then you and Derek are working it out?” Sal’s voice is tight.
“For now,” she says.
He nods, crisply, just once. She hates that she’s the one making his face do the thing it’s doing right now, the thing it always does when something is painful for him to hear. He’s trying to hide it, but his body is tense, his hands pressed on the desk like he’s doing his best to keep them from punching something.
“Derek and I have been together for twenty years,” she says, as if Sal doesn’t already know this. “We’ve both made huge mistakes.”
“And I’ve known you longer,” Sal says. “But if this is what you want, then I understand. I wasn’t expecting anything more.”
“Did you want something more?”
“Would it matter?” A short silence falls between them. After a few seconds, he waves a hand. “Don’t worry about it. I get it. We’re good, Mar. Though it’s not so much fun being dumped for the same guy. Twice.”
They both know he wasn’t dumped. In college, or now. But she lets him have the final word on it, because it’s the least she can do.
“So is that it?” He cocks his head to the side. “You could have told me this over the phone, by the way. I wouldn’t have been offended.”
“Actually, that’s not the only reason I’m here.” Marin leans forward, lowering her voice even though they’re inside the office and there’s no way anyone can hear them with all the bar noise. “I need you to confirm that you did get