Chapter 14: The Dentist's Wife

At seven the next morning Shelby's car stopped behind the Honda across the street.

I watched from my porch with a mug of decaf and Biscuit leaning on my shin.

Shelby got out in her scrubs.

Travis got out of the Honda in yesterday's quarter-zip, unshaven, with his phone in his hand.

I could hear every word.

The whole street could.

"Whose is it?" Travis said.

"Travis, keep your voice down."

"Whose?"

"Please. Get in the car and I'll tell you."

"You told my mother it was mine!"

"I told Althea it was yours," Shelby said. "I didn't say it to your mother."

"You said it to me. You said it in July."

"I thought it was."

"You thought."

Across the road a man in a bathrobe stepped out to get his newspaper and stopped.

Two doors down, a woman with a stroller slowed to a crawl.

Travis stepped up to Shelby and held out his hand.

"Give me your phone."

"No."

"Give it."

He took it out of her fingers.

She was taller than he was, and she let him.

I think she was too tired to fight over it.

He thumbed through her messages, and I saw his face change as he read.

"Your boss?" he said. "The dentist?"

"It's not what you think."

"He's married!"

"I know he's married."

"Oh, you know. You know a lot."

He pressed a button and held the phone out flat in front of him.

It rang four times.

Then a woman's voice said, "Hello? This is his phone."

Travis blinked.

"Who's this?" he said.

Keep reading free with an account. Start He Bet I'd Still Drive Them to the Airport, So I Did from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.