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  Bess had no doubt all of those wishes were going to be true, but his mouth on hers prevented her from answering with anything but a groan. Nick’s tongue swept inside her mouth over and over, arousing her mercilessly.

  “You know what I love most off all?” she asked when he at last pulled away to let her breathe.

  His hands roamed her body, tugging at her panties. “What?”

  “Kissing you.”

  He stopped moving and looked into her eyes. Then he kissed her again with a soft brush of lip on lip that promised more. When she opened for him, he gave it. Nick made love to her mouth until her head spun.

  “Like that?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  He smiled and hooked his thumbs into her panties and eased them off her ass and down her thighs so she was bare. His hand moved between her legs and found her clit. She jumped a little when he rubbed it.

  “I know what else you like, too,” he said, and then, caught up in the intensity and ecstasy of their lovemaking, Bess forgot everything else.

  She was late leaving, which meant she was late getting to the house she’d shared with Andy for the past thirteen years. As she pulled into the driveway, Bess’s heart thundered in her ears. She had to forcibly uncurl her fingers from the steering wheel, and getting out of the car left her so light-headed she had to close her eyes lest she faint.

  “Mom!”

  She blinked and pasted on a smile as Robbie barreled out the front door. He was too old to hug her now, but he danced in front of her the way he had since toddlerhood, bursting with something important to tell her. “Hi, honey.”

  Robbie reached into the backseat to grab her suitcase without being asked, and that small gesture shot fierce pride through her. He slung the strap over his shoulder and followed her toward the front door. He’d grown even in the few short weeks she’d been gone, and Bess’s heart ached afresh for the dissolution of their family.

  “I’m pretty sure I aced all my finals,” Robbie was saying as she opened the front door.

  Inside, the house no longer even smelled familiar. Robbie dropped her suitcase on the floor by the door and Bess picked it up to set it by the stairs. Her son, still talking, was already heading down the long hall toward the kitchen, and Bess followed because she could think of no other place to go.

  Bags of chips and pretzels, hot dog and hamburger buns and jars of pickles and dips covered every inch of counter space. Bess sighed, but at least Andy had bought the food for Connor’s graduation party the next day. They planned to have it out back, by the pool, and had hired a disc jockey to come. The yard would be overflowing with friends and family, and with any luck, Bess wouldn’t have to talk to Andy at all.

  “Where’s your dad?”

  Robbie, waist-deep in the fridge, pulled out a long, wrapped submarine sandwich. He set it on the counter and took out a knife from the drawer. “Oh…working?”

  On a Friday night? Not likely. “How about your brother?”

  “Oh.” Robbie shrugged. “He’s out with Kent and Rick and those guys.”

  “Ah.” Bess tried not to feel stung that Connor hadn’t stayed home to hang out with her. “You don’t have any big plans for tonight?”

  Robbie held up the huge hunk of sandwich he’d cut for himself. “This and the entire first season of The X-Files. You up for it?”

  She hadn’t eaten since breakfast that morning and her mouth watered at the sight of thick slices of turkey and salami and the smell of the sub dressing. “Yeah. Cut me a piece.”

  She grabbed one of the bags of chips and tore it open, putting handfuls on their plates. She and Robbie ate in the den in front of Andy’s big-screen TV, polishing off half the huge sub and most of the bag of chips between them, along with a two-liter bottle of soda and a pint of ice cream. Robbie went to bed at midnight, with Andy and Connor still not home, and Bess puttered around the kitchen, cleaning up crumbs and scrubbing nonexistent dirt.

  The kitchen remodel had been Andy’s idea, though he’d said it was for her. When they’d added the in-ground pool in the back, Andy wanted sliding-glass doors to the backyard. That had meant ripping out most of the counter space along the rear wall. The project had snowballed, and now the kitchen gleamed with marble counters and every appliance anyone could possibly desire, plus a few Bess had never even used. She wouldn’t miss it, not any of it, and this more than anything else brought the tears.

  She swiped them away quickly enough when she heard the front door open and close, and the slow, steady footprints of someone coming down the hall. She braced herself to face her husband, but it was Connor who swerved into the kitchen and went immediately to the cupboard for a glass he filled with water from the sink.

  “Hey, honey,” Bess said.

  Connor gulped down water and wouldn’t look at her. “Hey, Mom.”

  “Are you all ready for tomorrow? It’s late.” She glanced at the clock. Connor hadn’t had a curfew for the past year or so, because he hadn’t needed to be told when to come home. Now it was after one in the morning.

  “It’s just a stupid ceremony. We don’t even really get our diplomas.” He set the glass in the sink and turned as if to go.

  “Connor.”

  He stopped in the doorway, finally, and looked at her. There was no mistaking his red eyes or too-careful gait for anything else. The question was, should she address it?

  “Did you have fun tonight?”

  He nodded.

  “Listen, Connor…”

  He held up a hand. “Mom, spare the lecture, okay? I just want to crash so I’m not dead tomorrow morning.”

  “What were you doing, out so late? I was worried.”

  Connor’s glance flickered. “I’m fine.”

  “I can see that.” She crossed her arms.

  “Why don’t you worry about Dad, if you want to worry about something? He’s not home, either.”

  “Your dad is an adult—”

  Connor snorted loudly, and with unmistakable derision. “Yeah. Sure.”

  “Go to bed, Connor,” Bess said sternly. “Sleep it off.”

  She waited until he’d left before she went into the den to make herself a bed on the couch, but though she waited up for what seemed like forever, she didn’t hear Andy come home.

  Whatever Connor had been doing the night before, he was up and in the shower when Bess finally trudged up the stairs to her bedroom so she could sneak into her own shower before either of the boys found her on the couch. They knew she and Andy were separating, but she hadn’t told them it was going to be permanent. She didn’t want to ruin Connor’s party…or their summer.

  Andy, with damp hair and a towel around his waist, stood shaving in front of the mirror. He looked over at her when she came halfway through the door and stopped as though she were stuck. Then he looked back to the mirror.

  “Sleep well?”

  Bess glanced over her shoulder at the bed, which didn’t look as though it had been slept in at all. “Fine.”

  Andy wiped his face clean of foam and splashed himself with cologne. Bess edged past him and rummaged for a clean towel. She took her time because though she’d been naked in front of Andy hundreds of times, she didn’t want to get naked in front of him now. Thankfully, he left before she had to. Maybe he didn’t want her to be naked in front of him, either.

  The graduation ceremony was longer than it had to be, but years of attending school plays and concerts had prepared Bess for that. Robbie sat between her and Andy, and instead of sighing over yet another speech, Bess soaked in every moment. It would probably be one of the last times they ever spend together like this. As a family.

  Nobody else seemed to notice that Bess felt out of place in her own backyard. Unbeknownst to her, Andy had hired a caterer to come in to cook the hot dogs and burgers and do all the serving and cleaning up. Bess tried to assume he’d been trying to be thoughtful, but without the usual tasks of fetching food and washing dishes, she wasn’t sure what to do with herself