I tried to hold in my tears in order to answer him without sounding like a blubbering idiot.

“I think that I don’t know what to think,” I said, doing an awful job at not choking on my cries. “I think that we haven’t found any answers to either prove or disprove anything, and that there are now three unexplainable coincidences. I just don’t know what to think or do.”

“I’m sorry, Lisette,” Rob said. “I know this must be difficult for you to even think about.”

“Difficult? It’s so much worse than difficult. Rob, I feel like I’m being ripped apart.”

I launched into more sobbing and Rob reached across the seat to pull me toward himself and hold me. I put my face against his shoulder as he rubbed my back and held me tightly.

“It’ll be okay,” he said.

“How?” I mumbled against his shirt. “Tell me how we are going to end this and make sure that it’s okay.”

“I don’t know,” he said. “I just know that you’re strong and that somehow you’ll find a way to get through it. You always do.”

I lifted my head up at his remark and our faces were so close that they touched.

“I don’t feel strong right now,” I said. When I opened my lips to let the words out, I could feel his breath against my mouth.

“Neither do I,” he said.

Before either of us could stop it, a sudden rush of heat came over us both. Rob and I had never really had enough time together, not even close to as much time together as I had with Michael and Adam. Maybe that was part of the reason that I couldn’t resist him now, or maybe it was because I was too upset over the possibility that everything I wanted in my life was wrapped up in one person that I now might not be able to have, or maybe it was just simply the fact that he thought I was strong when I felt so weak.

Neither of us were strong right this moment.

Neither of us were strong enough to stop the emotions that poured forth between us. Rob didn’t hesitate to put his mouth on mine.

And then mine was the first tongue to push against the other.

We both knew we shouldn’t be doing it, but we did it anyway.

The soft push of our lips together and the encircling movement of our tongues, made it impossible to stop once the line had already been crossed, and the agreement broken. Technically I wasn’t involved in the agreement, but that didn’t make it any less wrong for me.

My agreement was much more binding because my agreement with Michael was an unspoken one.

Nevertheless, the electricity surging between us brought me back into his arms. Rob pulled me over toward his seat and lifted me onto his lap as if I were nothing but a feather, and I adored the way his hands gripped my hips as I straddled him. The car was cramped but I didn’t care. All we needed was enough space for our bodies to be together. And the closer the car brought us, the more my heart soared for him.

Damn it, how in the world was I going to live without my boys?

My thighs straddled either side of his hips and as I kissed him, my hands reached down to undo his pants. His cock was already engorged against his zipper, and my panties started growing damp at the warm feel of him when I finally wrapped my fingers around his girth. While Rob ran his hands up beneath my shirt, I stroked him softly. Deftly. Sliding his precum up and down his length as he readied himself for me. I felt him quickly pull my pants down around my knees. The furious heat between us grew as our teeth clattered with our kisses. And while I hadn’t had time to find an actual outfit for our little escapade, I found that my worn-out leggings worked well in our favor.

Since they were so quick and easy to slide down.

There was a brief moment where we could have stopped and not gone through with it, but neither of us wanted that. And so, with a swift movement, and with Rob’s hands guiding my hips; I sat down onto him and moaned as he pushed into my body. We moved together and I thought of nothing. I only thought of how good this felt and how much I needed to release myself and everything that was cluttering my mind, giving all the free reign to my body to take control and shut my brain off for a little while. I think that Rob knew I needed it too. He moved so slowly and intentionally inside of me that it was skillfully tantalizing. And when the climactic moment came, it was in a perfect unison that caused us both to tremble in pleasurable shockwaves that teased at our bodies even more. For a minute or two afterward, I stayed on Rob’s lap and laid against his chest with my head on his shoulder and his head resting against the top of my forehead. We breathed and sighed, and he ran his hands through my messy ponytail, which now looked like the most exquisite example of sexed-up hair that had ever existed. When I lifted my head, and then lifted my body back over to my seat, we both quietly put ourselves back together. Before he started to drive again, Rob reached over to hold my hand.

“We can’t tell them about this,” I said. “If we did, all it would do ishurt them both.”

“I know,” he said. “And I agree. But I’m worried about you.”

“Why?” I asked.

I figured that he meant that he was worried about the situation with Michael and how upset I was. But instead, he meant something entirely different.

“I’m worried about the fact that you seem to be keeping so many secrets right now. I’m worried that it’s going to start to eat away at you.”

I was worried about that too, but there really wasn’t much of a choice. I would make sure that this was the last secret that I kept from Michael. And I knew that Rob wouldn’t tell it either. We held hands the rest of the ride back and it was nice. When we pulled up to the cabin, I started to get nervous.

“What are the chances that Adam didn’t say anything?” I asked.

“Honestly? Probably slim to none,” Rob said. “But Lisette, just like I said before. We don’t know anything for sure yet. And you’re right; even though there is a considerable number of unexplainable coincidences that are rightfully unsettling, it is still much more likely that they are just coincidences than it is that you Michael actually have the same father. It would have been a huge undertaking for someone to hide that for all the years of your childhood and well into your adulthood—for both of you.”

That made me feel a little bit better. I still had a feeling that the whole thing would amount to absolutely nothing and then I would end up feeling foolish for even having worried about it; not unlike when I was worried that I was pregnant. Even if Adam hadn’t told Michael anything yet, I would tell him and then Michael and I would be able to have a level-headed and rational discussion about it, which would probably end in both of us realizing how absurd this whole thing was and having another night of making love outside beneath the stars.

“I wonder what kind of story Adam concocted as an excuse for where we were,” I said after Rob and I had gotten out of the car.

“No idea, but knowing Adam, I’m sure it was something elaborate,” he said. “We should probably just go along with whatever it is so that we don’t need to fess up to lying about more things that we have to.”

I nodded my head in agreement. I knew exactly what he was referring to.

Just before we got to the door, Rob turned around in front of me and faced me before I could reach for the door handle.

“Do you think we’ll ever do that again?” he asked. “The part in the car.”

“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “What do you think?”

“I think that I want to,” he said.

Then he turned back around and moved out of the way so that I could open the door. As soon as I walked in, I was met with a look on Michael’s face that I didn’t want to see—pain.

25

Very quickly after Rob and I stepped foot into the cabin, all hell broke loose.

“Adam, what did you do?” I asked as I walked in and saw him sitting at the kitchen table.

“I told Michael the truth,” he said.

“How could you have told him the truth, when we don’t even know exactly what the truth is?” Rob asked.

“Whose side are you on?” Adam shouted at him.

“I’m not on anyone’s side,” Rob answered. “I just don’t feel the need to cause more chaos for no reason. Lisette has already been through enough for god sake, she doesn’t need to be put through more.”

Rob glanced over at me for a moment, and when he did, I got the immediate feeling that both Adam and Michael picked up on something about the way that Rob looked at me.

This was all getting ready to implode.