I should’ve been here.”

They get the gifts out of the trunk. On the way back to the table Brody says, “What do you think of Byron?”

Milo says, “It had to happen, right?”

“I guess. But she just showed up with him, out of the blue. It sucks.”

“It’s been tough on you.”

Brody nods.

Milo sees tears glistening in Brody’s eyes. He says, “She’ll never marry him.”

“Why not?”

“Is his last name really Zass?”

“I doubt he’d make that up,” Brody says.

“Lexi Zass?”

“What about it?”

“Say it quickly.”

“What, “Lexi Zass?”

Milo smiles. “Sounds a lot like Lexi’s ass, don’t you think?”

Brody thinks about it and chuckles. “Good one.” Then he says, “Milo?”

“Yeah?”

“Work on your marriage, okay? You don’t want to wind up like me.”

“You should bring someone next time.”

“Fat chance.”

Milo barely gets in his chair when Jake enters the room and says, “Looks like a party! Sorry I got tied up, but I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”

Over the next half hour Milo and Brody stare holes through Jake and Lemon, but neither can tell the two are even remotely interested in each other.

At one point Byron Zass says, “Milo, tell me something about Lexi I should know.”

“She’s faithful.”

“Who isn’t?” Jake says, looking at Faith.

“Who, indeed?” Faith says, returning the look.

Milo and Brody look at Lemon, but her expression gives up nothing. She says, “There’s your answer, Byron. I suppose you’ll never find a more faithful group of friends.”

“Good to know,” Byron says, showing Brody a winner’s smirk. This, and the way Lexi blushes, tells everyone he and Lexi were seeing each other before she and Brody separated.

As for Jake and Lemon? Cool customers, these two. So cool Milo notices neither have said a word about Faith winning the lottery.

Then Jake does.

“I have a question for my lovely wife,” he says. When she looks at him he asks, “Did you happen to buy a lottery ticket Thursday?”

She looks embarrassed, but says, “What if I did?”

“Did you play your favorite numbers?”

She frowns.

Jake says, “Ladies and gentlemen, if my wife played the numbers 11, 22, 33, 44, 55, with the powerball 17, as she always does, she just won $165 million dollars!”

They all look at Faith, but she doesn’t see them.

She’s already fainted.

8.

“YOU SAW HIM?” Faith says. “You saw Jake fucking Lemon? In our home?”

“Yeah. And it’s been going on a long time.”

They’re at Starbucks. Faith’s been here forty-five minutes, reading an electronic book, same as she does every Saturday morning while Jake hits the gym. He’ll meet up with her at nine-thirty, give or take.

Creatures of habit, these two.

If it were Monday, she could just come to Milo’s office. He’s her attorney, after all. But it’s Saturday, and the office is closed, so this is the best they could do.

Milo told her straight away about Lemon and Jake and said he could have filmed them if he hadn’t left his phone at his mom’s house.

At first, Faith refused to believe it. She cited the fact that Lemon and Jake barely acknowledge each other whenever they’re in the same room. Then realized that piece of information was quite telling in its own right. Then she blew up and nearly made a scene.

After crying nonstop in the bathroom for fifteen minutes, Faith finally comes out and says, “I would’ve shot them both.”

“I couldn’t. All roads would lead back to me.”

“I’m not going to share my money with that bastard.”

“You won’t have to.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve found a killer-for-hire.”

She lowers her voice to a whisper. “A hit man?”

“Hit woman, to be precise.”

Faith regards him as she would a bug. “What would you know about locating a hit woman?”

“One of my clients knows a guy.”

“That sounds sketchy. Who’s your client?”

“I can’t say.”

“This sounds like one of those situations where you wind up in a car with a hidden camera recording your conversation.”

“Are you sure there wasn’t a hidden camera recording you in Cincinnati?”

“You’ve lost me.”

“Eight weeks ago? Hotel bar in Cincinnati? Men’s room?”

Her face flushes.