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Neither of them noticed the man in the baseball hat and
sunglasses watching them from the deck of the neighboring
restaurant.
Kevin felt dizzy as he watched Erin and the gray-haired man kiss,
seeing the way Erin flirted with him. He saw her lean down and
smile at the little girl. Watched as she tousled the hair of the little
boy. Noticed the gray-haired man pat her on her butt when the
children’s attention was elsewhere. And Erin—his wife—was
playing along. Liking it. Encouraging it. Cheating on him with her
new family, as if Kevin and their marriage had never existed at all.
They got on their bikes and started pedaling, heading around the
side of the building, away from Kevin. Erin rode beside the grayhaired
man. She was wearing shorts and sandals, showing skin,
looking sexy for someone else.
Kevin followed them. Her hair was blond and long and flowing…
but then he blinked, and it was short and brown again. Pretending
she wasn’t Erin and riding bikes with her new family and kissing
another man and smiling and smiling, without a care in the world.
It wasn’t real, he told himself. It was nothing but a dream. A
nightmare. Docked boats wobbled in their slips as they passed.
He rounded the corner. They were riding and he was on foot, but
they were moving slowly to allow the little girl to keep up. He
was closing the distance and he was near enough to hear Erin
laugh, sounding happy. He reached for the Glock in his waistband
and pulled it out, then slid it beneath his shirt, keeping it pressed
against his skin. He took off the baseball hat and used it to hide
the gun from the people around him.
His thoughts ricocheted like pachinko balls, bouncing fast, left and
right, downward, downward. Erin lying and cheating and
plotting and scheming. Running away to find a lover. Talking and
laughing behind his back. Whispering to the gray-haired man,
saying dirty things, the man’s hands on her breasts, her breaths
coming hard. Pretending she wasn’t married, ignoring all he’d