“Kyle?” Dan barked when Kyle didn’t say anything. “Just what the hell do you mean threatening my wife and shouting at her? What the Sam Hill is going on here anyway?” He sounded a little bewildered at the end.
“Dan, I’ll lay it out for you…here it is,” Kyle said coolly. “I picked up on the phone downstairs when Peggy and Denise didn’t know about it and I heard your wife offering to find some stud at your country club to service Peggy so she can get back at me for that Goddamned mistake I made last Valentine’s Day.”
“What?” Dan said weakly, trying to take in what Kyle was telling him.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought, Dan,” Kyle told him bitterly. “Imagine listening to your mother-in-law suggesting she would be glad to pimp her own daughter to the men at your country club…can you imagine that? What a fucked up thing to do.”
“Now, I don’t think there’s a call to talk like that, Kyle,” Dan said slowly. “Pimping out her daughter is a harsh thing to accuse my wife of doing, man.” It was a feeble comeback and both men knew it. Kyle didn’t know what was happening at the other end of the line. He would have been encouraged if he had.
In fact, his father-in-law had just turned around to glare at his wife. For a long moment, Denise returned glare for glare but she couldn’t sustain it. She hadn’t realized until Dan whirled around that what she’d said to her daughter could, or would, be interpreted that way. Denise was stunned at the anger in her husband’s eyes.
Abruptly, she knew she’d gone over the line. The comment had been a casual one in her mind…a simple offer. She hadn’t thought before she’d said anything about the men at the club. She saw now she’d well and truly stepped in it.
“Well, it’s actually a little worse than that…Dad,” Kyle said unhappily. “I think you need to consider the implications in what she said.”
“Like what?” Dan returned quickly. His anger, directed at first at Kyle had changed direction.
“Well…look at it this way, Dan. Your wife was encouraging Peggy to commit adultery,” Kyle said. “That implies Denise is of the opinion that cheating on one’s husband is a correct response in at least some circumstances, Dan. I think that would make me a little uneasy if I were you.”
His father-in-law was silent for a long space while he digested Kyle’s words. The glowering frown on his features changed into something colder and far more implacable as he continued to look at his wife’s white face.
“Yeah, I see what you mean, son,” Dan said in a controlled voice. “My daughter takes after her mother too much sometimes, Kyle,” he said quietly, staring at the woman he’d married.
“I blame myself for some of that,” he mused. “She was the baby of the family and she was born at one of the busiest times in my life and I just didn’t have enough hours in a day to make sure her mom didn’t indoctrinate her with some of the most screwball ideas you ever heard,” Dan said.
Kyle heard an indignant yelp from Denise. He almost smiled. It was the first humorous thing he’d heard in a while.