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finished that for the semester,” Tracy said. “I’ve already taken all of my finals. Summer break started Friday. Hunter is my friend and he needs me. Besides, I haven’t seen Cameron since the wedding that you two didn’t have. I think it’s time for your new wife and me to get to know each other.” Vowing to call the next day with her travel arrangements, she hung up.
    Joshua gazed at Cameron, who was wordlessly looking up at him. “Tracy is coming home.”
    Without a word, Cameron stood up and went into the bathroom. When he tried to follow, she closed the door.
    “Is that a clue that you aren’t happy about this?” he asked through the door.
    “I’m tired,” she called out to him. “I have a headache.”
    He could hear the water splashing when she climbed into the tub. “Does Tracy coming home have any impact on your headache?”
    “No.”
    Joshua tried the doorknob to discover it was unlocked. He went in to find Cameron in the tub. “You just lied to me.”
    “No, I didn’t.” She closed her eyes and sank down into the water until it was up to her chin.
    He pointed a finger of accusation at her. “There, you did it again. When you lie to me your voice goes up two octaves. What’s your problem with Tracy?”
    “The real question is what’s Tracy’s problem with me?”
    Joshua closed the toilet lid and sat on the seat. “Tracy doesn’t have a problem with you.”
    She opened her eyes to glare at him. “Now who’s lying?”
    “I’m not lying.”
    She narrowed her eyes into greenish-brown slits. “Look me in the eyes and tell me that Tracy and J. J. don’t have any problem with me—with us.”
    Joshua leaned forward. Resting his elbows on his knees, he gazed into her eyes. “Tracy and J. J. have no problem with you or us.”
    “You’re looking me in the eyes.”
    “That’s what you told me to do.”
    “Which proves you’re lying.” She sank down into the hot water.
    “How does that prove I’m lying?”
    “If you were telling the truth, you’d be looking at my breasts,” she said. “A naked woman is lying right in front of you and you’re looking into my eyes instead of at my breasts. Why? Because you want to convince me that you’re telling the truth. If you were telling me the truth, it wouldn’t be so important for you to cover up your lie by looking me in the eye. So you would be relaxed and stare at my breasts at will. Instead, you were focusing on my eyes. That tells me that you’re lying.”
    “I’ve been looking at your breasts for months,” Joshua said. “Maybe I decided to look into your eyes for once.”
    “I guess this means the honeymoon is officially over.”
    “What makes you think Tracy and J. J. disapprove of you …” he asked, “besides my looking into your gorgeous eyes instead of at your sexy breasts?”
    “Josh, I live in this house.” Cameron picked up the wet sponge and wrung the water out of it. “I hear your side of  the conversations you have with your kids. Tracy and J. J. objected to you marrying me—” She threw up her hand to point a finger at him when he started to object. “Don’t you lie to me again. I’ve heard them. Everything was fine until we got  married, and suddenly—”
    Caught, Joshua sat back in his seat on the toilet and crossed one leg over the other. In silence, they eyed each other until she backed down by closing her eyes and dropping down into the water. Under the water, she rubbed her scalp with her fingertips before sitting back up.
    “What do you want me to say?” Joshua asked her while she pressed the excess water from her hair.
    She dropped back against the end of the tub. “There’s nothing you can say,” she said with a miserable tone. “I guess—”
    “They’re problem is not you.” Joshua startled her by sitting forward and leaning his elbows on his knees. “Do you want me to tell you what their problem with us is?”
    “What?”
    “That we didn’t have a wedding,” he said.