"Andre Ellis."
"And you are."
"I consult for the Front Range Arts Collaborative. Rachel's office. That's how we met." He did not add the rest. The rest was not a job description, and he was not going to undress it in front of her parents. "I believed her marriage was ending. I believed you were not in this house tonight. Both of those beliefs were given to me by her. I'm not saying that to move the blame. I'm saying it because you asked who I am, and a liar by accident is still standing in your kitchen."
Rachel flinched at the phrase. "I didn't say the marriage was ending."
"You said he was already gone in every way that mattered," Andre said, and he looked at her at last with something that was not only shock. It was the beginning of a private injury, separate from Jason's, smaller in the room and not smaller in him. "You said tonight was ours because tomorrow he would come back and we would be careful again. If that was not the end of a marriage, Rachel, you should not have used the word careful like a calendar."
Carol whispered, "Oh, God."