Page 25 of Crying in the Rain
“Yeah.” Kris smiled ruefully. “In conclusion, I screwed up my marriage and threw away my job, and he just carried on as usual.”
“Wait—” Ade held up a finger. “It’s not Jack Malton, is it?”
Kris somehow kept his groan to himself. He felt like such an idiot. Of course Ade would know Jack. They worked in rival radio stations a couple of blocks apart, although Jack was a show host, not a producer.
“I’m going to assume by your silence, and the fact that you look like you want a black hole to suddenly appear and swallow you whole, that’s a yes.”
Kris nodded. He couldn’t even meet Ade’s eyes.
“I can see why you fell for him. He can be very charming. And very…controlling.”
Kris glanced up. Ade smiled gently.
“I’m sorry you went through that.”
“Don’t be.” Kris didn’t want sympathy. He didn’t deserve it.
“Just remember, we all make mistakes,” Ade added cheerfully. “Now…” He glanced around the bar. “How do I summon your admirer?”
“Who?”
“The bartender.”
“Oh!” Kris laughed and blushed. “She flirts with everyone.”
“Uh-huh. If you say so,” Ade teased. “Ooh, there she is!” He waved and caught her eye. “Same again?” he asked Kris.
“Just a Coke, please. I’m a lightweight.”
The bartender arrived for Ade’s order. Kris listened to their interchange, feeling vindicated when she proved his point by flirting with Ade, although all traces of smugness were wiped out when Ade turned back and dazzled him with the most incrediblesmile. Kris’s heart leapt back onto its spring. He wanted this, more than anything, and he wanted to make sure Ade knew that.
“I hope telling you this doesn’t scare you off…”
“Nothing has so far,” Ade said.
“I know we’ve only known each other for two days, but I think I’ve fallen for you already.”
10: Bar
Ade
Ade internally cheered, a hint of self-belief creeping around the edges of his obliterated self-confidence. He didn’t sayI feel the samebecause he wasn’t sure he did yet. Nor did he run away, but he was going to keep the conversation focused on Kris a while longer. Or Kris and Shaunna, at least. After ten years with Fergus, it was far too easy to fall into the trap of believing all relationships, however well they started out, eventually turned sour, yet here was Kris saying his and Shaunna’s marriage had ended but they were still friends. The best of friends. Ade felt a twinge of jealousy, which he took as a good sign that he did indeed feel the same as Kris, but it was also ridiculous. He pushed it to the back of his mind and moved on.
“Tell me more about Krissi. How old is she?”
“Twenty-two. Twenty-three a week on Sunday, actually.”
“Oh!”Twenty-two?! How?Ade was glad he’d kept his exclamations of surprise mostly to himself. It didn’t compute, and the best he could come up with for why Kris had a stepdaughter of that age was that Shaunna was older.But he was there at Krissi’s birth. A teenage boy in a relationship with a grown woman?Judging by the way Kris was watching him, arms folded and a smirk on his face, essentially sayingI’ll give you a minute, Ade was way off the mark, on some aspects anyway.
“You were fifteen?” he asked, adding as a distractor, “My maths is appalling.”
“No, that’s right,” Kris confirmed.
“And Shaunna?”
“Was also fifteen. I’d have told you if you’d asked.”
“Wow!” Ade couldn’t get his head around it. “At that age, I couldn’t even manage a part-time job on top of school, or work the washing machine or…well, anything! How did you cope? I mean, you went to drama college. How did that work?”
