had both speeches prepared. “I understand that, but sometimes in a relationship your partner screws up, and you have to decide what’s more important.”
“It’s not that simple. I know everyone thinks I should forgive him and move on.”
“I didn’t say that,” Mel corrected. “From what I hear it wasn’t like Henry told you. He tried to keep on hiding it.”
“He claims he was going to tell me, but then I walked in when I shouldn’t have. I think I would still have felt betrayed even if he’d confessed to me.”
“And how would you have felt if he’d told you right after you met?”
She’d thought a lot about what would have happened if he’d been honest all those years ago. “I don’t know. I hope I would have given him a chance.”
“I’ve known you a real long time.” When Mel wanted, he had the dad stare down.
She sighed. “Fine. I probably would have protested him. I probably would have used his job like a wall to protect me. I don’t know. I was very attracted to him. I might have tried to sway him to my side.”
“But you did,” Mel began. “Sway him to your side. I’ve known about Henry for a long time, too. I figured it out pretty quick. I know I always talked about how I would protect the two of you if the invasion came, but the truth is, I would have had Henry watch my back.”
A little hurt went through her. “You knew but didn’t tell me?”
“In the early days I only suspected. He knew a whole lot about firearms, and he moved way too well for a professor,” Mel explained. “By the time Nate and Zane and Rafe and Cam showed up, Henry was better at hiding that side of himself. Laura was too wounded to truly look at him. And Rye was a small-town sheriff. He didn’t know what a true predator looked like. I watched him real carefully in the beginning, but there was only one thing I knew besides the fact that he’d either been military or Agency.”
“What was that?”
“I knew that he loved you. That whatever had been in his heart that pushed him into that darkness had been replaced with love for you.”
She wanted to believe him. “But he’s very good at acting.”
“That’s what I’m telling you. He’s not as good as he thinks he is,” Mel replied. “Not if you know what to look for. Has he done anything besides this to make you think he doesn’t love you?”
“No, but he’s killed like a hundred people, and he knows my stance on the death penalty.”
Mel shrugged. “Which is why he didn’t tell you in the first place, honey. Do you still love him?”
That was an easy question to answer. “Yes, but I worry I don’t know him. I worry that I only think I love him because he was the first man to pay attention to me.”
“Sometimes you get lucky. I didn’t. I had to try a couple of times before I met a woman who could love me. I had a fiancée back in my military days, but that ended real poorly, if you know what I mean. And then there was the alien queen,” he said with a sigh. “Royalty is hard.”
And sometimes it was difficult to find the kernels of wisdom that lay in between Mel’s alien stories. “Most people don’t get lucky. Most people do have to kiss a couple of frogs before they find their prince. What if Henry’s a frog?”
Mel’s gaze went somber. “And what if you’re folding the first minute you run into real trouble?”
That wasn’t fair. “I’ve had trouble in my life, Mel.”
“Good. Then you know this is a dent in your bumper and not a complete loss. It feels like real trouble, but it’s not. You know a real marriage doesn’t stop because you wrote the words happily ever after. Sometimes there’s happiness and then not. Sometimes you don’t solve all your problems with a handy kidnapping. Sometimes it takes just holding on until you get through the storm.”
She felt her eyes widen. Was he saying what she thought he was saying? “What are you talking about?”
Mel stood. “Those books you write. I told you. I see more than you think I do. And don’t worry. Laura won’t figure it out. She knows something is up, but she hasn’t narrowed it down. And I will not apologize for liking romance novels. Cassidy got me into them. They’re soothing, and yes,