what, like it's hard?

“So,” Abby says dangerously.

“Dont’t start,” Langdon interrupts, feeling a headache come on.

A blisteringly fake smile has spread across Abby’s lips as she ignores his warning. “So,” she emphasizes, “You seem very familiar with Mel.”

He sighs. From the moment they ran into Mel at the park, he’s had a bad feeling. Of course, he’s always happy to see her. Everything in the world slows when he looks at Mel. She makes him softer, agreeable, eager to sing her praises and lick her wounds.

It’s just a feeling he’d rather not experience while his wife is next to him.

His children had run to her. Tanner and Penny love Mel, a fact that Abby was not previously aware of. Langdon knew from the look on her face that they would be getting into an argument at home after this.

And that was before Tanner wanted ice cream.

“Mel,” his son pleaded, tugging on her fingers, “Can we go to the ice cream place we went last time, please, pleaseeee!”

Abby glares at him, “She’s even got a special nickname for you.”

“It’s just something she picked up from the kids, they say it all the time.”

“You’re their father, Langdon, of course they say it all the time. She should call you by your name. Frank? Or, how about Dr. Langdon?”

“That’s what she says at work.”

Abby bares her teeth sarcastically, “Oh yeah? So, she only calls you Daddy at home?”

Frank groans, his hand coming up to pinch the bridge of his nose. “You’re making a big deal out of nothing. It’s a figure of speech.”

“That’s not what that fucking means, Langdon. She didn’t say it as a metaphor,” Abby snaps, “She said it like— like she was used to saying it.”