Temptation

Chapter 14

"Move out of my way David!" Kevin barks as he approaches me.

"Kevin! Stop!" Angelica cries.

"What's going on?" Emma appears by my side as we all watch Kevin with his eyes locked on me. His target. Locked and ready to fire.

"Daddy???" Izzy comes running down the stairs from her bedroom as she sees David holding Kevin back. Tears flow down her face as she begins to sob, terrified of what she was seeing and it was all my fault. I brought this to my doorstep, quite literally.

"Emma, take her upstairs. Get her away." I bark as Emma takes my daughter by the hand reassuring her that everything was okay as they began walking back up the stairs.

I walk out from the door to confront Kevin. I had to own up to my actions now. There was nowhere to hide.

"Is he off his meds again?" David asks Angelica as he pushes Kevin back down towards her.

Meds? Keep going David.

"Yes, he is Daddy! He's accusing me of cheating on him with Mr Romano. How ridiculous is that?"

David turned to me. "I'm so sorry about this, Joe. The boy is no damn good for you Angelica. Your mother warned you about people like him."

I watch as Kevin retreats, tears now streaming down his face. "I am on my meds! I know what I saw, Angelica!"

"Get him away from this house now, Angelica! There's children in here for Christ sake!"

I feel my wife's arm cling on to my arm as she came back down the stairs beside me. "What's going on?" She whispered.

I looked at her and shrugged my shoulders. Guilt consuming me as I looked into her green eyes.

"Joe, Emma. I am so sorry about this. I will sort this out. Please accept my apology."

I shake my head and wave his apology away. "It's not you who should be apologising Dave." I pointed to Kevin as I watched Angelica walk him away. "It's that nutcase who should be apologising."

He let out a huff. "He's not right for her. But when do teenage girls ever listen to what's best for them?"

Emma smiled. "Well we have all that fun to come with Izzy, I'm sure!" Trying to lighten the mood.

"Try and enjoy your evening and forget about this. I'll sort it." With that David waves towards us as he headed down towards his house. I watched as Angelica ushered a still sobbing Kevin back into their house. Hoping and preying that this would all be pushed aside without any further implications.

                                      ~~~

"Well that was weird!" Emma said as she closed the door behind us, my hands were visibly shaking but I couldn't let her see that. This was a close call all because of my stupidity.

"The kid clearly isn't well." I say shaking my head as I walk into the kitchen, grabbing two wine glasses and the bottle of red sitting on the side.

"How are the kids?" I ask as I hand my wife her glass of wine.

"Shaken up. I think you should go up and talk to them. Help calm them down a little."

I know she's right but I'm the reason this all happened. I can't face my children just yet.

"Shit, your car!" Emma shrieked. Didn't you say it's in the middle of the road?"

"It's okay, I was probably over reacting when I said in the middle. I tried to park it up before it cut out, I managed to get it into a space, it's just sticking out a bit. I'll go and sort it out in a bit. I don't fancy walking out the house right now." I widen my eyes and gesture towards Angelica's house.

Emma nods and takes a gulp of wine. "So much for celebrating tonight, hey?"

"Nothing is ever straight forward with us, Em. Never has been, never will be."

                                       ~~~

The rest of the evening thankfully was non-eventful, I managed to go and pick my car back up without being spotted by Kevin. I did scurry past the house very quickly in fear of getting into another altercation. Emma hadn't really pressed me on the accusations he was throwing around. God bless his medication otherwise I'm not sure how I would have gotten away with it.

Guilt still consumed me as I stand at our bedroom window hoping to catch a glimpse of Angelica, to see if she was okay and to see if Kevin was still in the house.

He caught us red handed, even though he is on medication there is no way in hell he could be talked into believing he was seeing things. Surely?

"You okay, honey?"

I'm startled by Emma's hand on my shoulder. I turn my body around and fall into her waiting embrace. "Yeah, just a little shook up still."

"I don't blame you. What a nutcase! Why would he accuse you of something like that? You were only walking home! I'm going to talk to David tomorrow."

"When did you two become such close friends anyway?"

Emma pulls back from the hug. Her eyes searching for an answer.

Have I just really turned this back on to her? After what I've done to her today.

"We're not close, he just saw I needed help with the car. I told you, it's been a pain all week."

It's true, she did tell me that but it still doesn't explain the late night drives and the sneaking around.

"I know. I'm sorry. It's been a long night."

"It's okay, we'll get to the bottom of this. Don't worry." She rubs my arm in the caring, loving, protective way she always has. "Let's go to sleep."

I smile and kiss her on the forehead. "Yeah, let's get to bed. Don't worry about your car, I'll take it to the garage tomorrow."

As we lay snuggled up together, I can still feel Angelica's skin on me, her smell still consumes my nostrils as sleep begins to find me. Laying here with my wife in my arms but the thought of another woman in my mind.

***

Well, Joe certainly got away with that one!

Anyone secretly pleased they haven't been found out?