“I know why Dana’s upset,” she said, shrugging her shoulders as if it was no big deal.

Edward waited patiently for her to tell him, but after a long moment it seemed she wasn't going to spill. He put his hands in his pants pocket to keep himself from strangling her. “Well?”

She seemed to come out of a trance. “Oh, her ex is coming today to see the kids. He’s here for the week.”

“I thought she didn’t like him,” Edward said. He felt his stomach twist, dreading her next words.

“No, she doesn’t. They’re on friendly terms for the kids. Sort of,” she said.

“I don’t understand what the problem is. Surely she’s seen him since the divorce.”

Amy rolled her eyes as if it was painfully obvious what was wrong. “This is the first time they’ve seen each other since that ass**le proposed to his girlfriend, and he’s bringing her on this visit. He promised not to. Dana wanted him to focus on his kids, but his little girlfriend put her foot down. Apparently she’s intimidated by Dana and doesn’t trust Jeff around her.”

“Oh.”

“Oh?” She laughed darkly. “This is also the first time they’ve seen each other since it came out that he had cheated on her for three years. How would you like that shoved in your face?”
Edward ground his teeth. “That ass**le. I thought it was just a rumor.”

“Nope,” Amy said making the word pop. “Little girlfriend decided to jump on Dana’s fame and announced to the world last week that not only had they had an affair, but she screwed Jeff in every room in their house.”

His jaw was painfully tight now. “Bitch,” he muttered.

“Yup, Deana has tried to convince her to have one of her many suitors come to the house today so she wouldn’t be alone. You know, someone to help take the edge off what they’re going to do to her. But she refused.”

His head snapped back in her direction. “What do you mean many suitors? Deana said she isn’t seeing anyone.”

She rolled her eyes again. “I’m talking about the single guys that ask her out every day. Even Jake asked her out yesterday when he came by.”

“Jake did?” He was surprised that his friend would ask Dana out, especially since Jake knew how Edward felt about her.

“I feel so bad for her. She wanted to keep busy during his stay, but now she has nothing to do for two days.”

“He’s not staying with her is he?” he almost growled out.

She laughed. “No, even if Jeff came alone he wouldn’t be allowed to stay there.”

“Good,” he mumbled.

Amy studied him for a long moment and then smiled. “You really like her!”

“She’s a good friend. I don’t want to see her hurt, and I definitely don’t want to see those kids hurt.” He really liked her kids. They were well behaved and funny as hell. It surprised him more than anything since he was never really into kids. Now he looked forward to seeing Cole and Elizabeth every day. It melted his heart every time they called him Uncle Edward.

“What time is he coming by?” he asked.

“I believe six.”

Edward looked at his watch. It was half past five. “I have to go. Don’t call me for the rest of the night unless it’s an emergency.” He took off without another word.

**********

“Mommy, Daddy is here!” Elizabeth yelled.

Dana tore her eyes from the mirror to look at her daughter. “Okay, sweetie, let Aunt Deana open the door.”

Elizabeth bounced up and down. “Daddy really came this time!” she said before she ran towards the living room.

Dana took one last look in the mirror and sighed. Thank God she hadn't cried. Not that she was upset that he was here or with her. But when she got pissed she cried a river. No matter what she wasn’t going to let him get to her. They were going to talk this over like adults and then she was kicking his fat ass out of her house. That made her smile.

She made her way towards her large living room, trying to paste a smile on her face when she heard her kids crying. “What the hell?” she mumbled softly as she walked into the room.

Elizabeth and Cole sat on the couch, sobbing. Instead of consoling their kids Jeff was comforting her. She wasn’t even crying. She just looked put out. Dana walked over to the kids and pulled them into a hug. She kissed them both on the head. “What’s wrong guys?”

“Daddy….Daddy said he’s not spending the week with us. He said…said….” Elizabeth broke down into louder sobs.

Deana stepped towards the kids. “Come on, guys, let’s go to the kitchen and have some juice.”

“I don’t want juice!” Cole cried.

“It’s okay, little man, mommy will take care of this,” she promised. She moved to the side and allowed Deana to comfort them. They remained fixed on the couch, refusing to leave the room, probably afraid their father would run like hell the second they did. She couldn’t blame them, he did have a history.

She folded her arms over her chest and focused on Jeff. He looked pissed, but not over his kids. It was over this woman. She forced herself to remain calm. “Jeff, what is going on? This is your scheduled visitation week.”

“I know but something important came up,” he said.

“You came all the way to California to tell your kids you weren’t going to spend time with them?” she asked, feeling really confused. A phone call or e-mail would have been a hell of a lot cheaper and would have hurt a lot less for the kids.

“Yeah, well and for our honeymoon. We eloped yesterday!” he said cheerfully.

Dana’s eyes went to their left hands, sure enough they were each wearing matching gold bands. “Why the rush?” she asked, trying to sound normal and not pissed that he was pulling this crap on her kids.

Jeff looked guilty. “Well, I had this week already planned for vacation and Bea wanted to come out and shop and stuff. So she-I mean we thought we should get married and make this our honeymoon.”

Elizabeth cried louder. “Jeff, this is your court ordered visitation. You aren’t even supposed to have her around the kids. You only have a week with them, the Judge said it was important that you make this week about just you and them, no interference.” She remained calm.

“Don’t be such a bitch,” Bea snapped. “He’s allowed to get married.”

Dana snapped her attention to Bea in an instant. “Watch your mouth in front of my kids.”

Bea rolled her eyes. She placed her head on Jeff’s shoulders and batted her eyes. “Jeff, are you going to let her talk to me that way?”

He swallowed loudly and nodded. “Show my wife some respect,” Jeff said firmly.

Dana was flabbergasted. He chose this woman over his own kids. It was more than obvious. What wasn’t obvious was why. The woman was fatter than Jeff and she looked cheap. All of her clothes were too tight and she was literally hanging out of them. She must be good in bed or stroke his ego. That was the only thing Dana could come up with because it certainly wasn’t her winning personality that held Jeff.

“Jeff, do not try fronting to me for her benefit. We both know I’ll tear you down to size,” she said harshly. Jeff flinched and then slowly nodded. He knew she wouldn’t play any games when it came to her kids.

“Mommy?” Cole said.

She looked back to see him sitting in Deana’s lap. “Make him be with us, peese!”

“Jeff, you need to tell them. I want to go! We have reservations,” Bea said coldly.

She ran her hand through her hair. This was beyond frustrating. There was no way her kids were going to bed without crying themselves to sleep tonight. Tomorrow would be even harder.

“Jeff-” She was cut off by the sound of the doorbell chiming. She sighed heavily, hoping whoever it was would be easily sent away. “Excuse me,” she said. Jeff and Bea took that as an invitation to sit down on the love seat.

She yanked the door open to find Edward standing in the doorway with flowers, two teddy bears and a large box of chocolate. She was slightly confused. He stepped inside and kissed her cheek. Make that she was pretty sure she was delusional. She heard Jeff and Bea gasp the very second his lips connected with her cheek.