The Secret of You and Me - Melissa Lenhardt Page 0,94
how insignificant he was to the broader world.
“Jamie, though. She won’t take rejection well. She’s a concern. Unless you intend to leave Sophie for her.”
“Good thing I’m not sleeping with her, then.”
“Charlie, cut the shit. Sophie told me all about you.”
Charlie laughed. “Oh, did she? What did she say?”
“Besides that you liked your affairs? That you would try to seduce me.”
“I haven’t, though, have I?”
“Isn’t that why you’re here?”
“Will you be disappointed if I say no?”
“Not really.”
Charlie rocked the bucket back off the ground. “Wow. Don’t spare my feelings, NoNo.”
“Don’t call me NoNo.”
“Why? I used to call you that all the time. So did Sophie. In fact, I heard her call you NoNo last night, and you didn’t blink.”
I drank my beer so I wouldn’t have to answer. NoNo had been my nickname since childhood, but I couldn’t hear it, or think of it, without hearing Sophie’s voice whispering it in my ear, or calling it out when we made love. Like she did this morning. I looked away. “I’ve outgrown it.”
“I suppose Sophie can get away with things we mere mortals can’t.”
I glared at Charlie. “Why are you here?”
He finished his beer, put the empty in the six-pack, and took out another. The bottle opened with a pfft, and he stood. “I need you to leave town.”
“You what?”
“For Sophie’s sake.”
I pushed away from the stall door. “What’s wrong with Sophie?”
Charlie’s eyes sparked as if I’d confirmed his suspicion. “She’s an alcoholic, for one. A terrible mother most of the time because of it. A habitual liar. A master manipulator.”
“That’s not the Sophie I know. That’s the disease,” I said.
Charlie scoffed. “Alcoholism isn’t a disease. It’s a weakness, one that Sophie had finally overcome. She’d been sober for nearly a year. She was getting her life back together, her relationship with Logan. Our marriage. Then you came back in town, and the drinking starts. The lying. And, I started thinking back over the years, and you know what every binge she went on had in common?”
I remained silent.
“News of you. Your deployment, your injury, every other little piece of news Emmadean spread around town as if you were the second coming of Christ.” Charlie stood a mere foot away from me. I looked up at him and met his gaze with a fierce determination I didn’t feel. His voice lowered and softened, became intimate. “There have been many times over the years when I’ve wondered how different my life would be if we’d gotten married like we’d planned. Usually during the difficult times, and there have been many, many difficult times with Sophie. You know how volatile she can be. But, something funny happened that summer after you left. I learned what it was like to be in love. I’m not telling you this to insult you. I loved you, Nora, and we would have had a good life, I think. But, with Sophie, I’ve had passion. That volatility has its benefits, especially in the bedroom.”
I clenched my jaw but didn’t blink. I knew it was a lie. Sophie loved me. Wanted me. Told me how she felt nothing when they had sex. But, the image of them making love that I’d tortured myself with all those years ago, and my own experience with Sophie’s passion, wasn’t so easy to forget.
“The bad times make me appreciate the good times more. We’re a great team, me and Sophie, and we’re just getting started.” He moved forward a half an inch, and his voice hardened. “And, you’re not going to take that away from me.”
“Take what away?”
“My wife. My future.”
My heart soared. Sophie’d told Charlie and Logan, about us, about herself. She’d leaped, and I was going to be there to catch her. “Sophie told you.”
“Yes.”
“And, you’re here to try to intimidate me to leave?” I laughed in his face. “I won’t go into what they did to prepare females for capture by extremist forces, but you might be able to imagine it. A two-bit small-town lawyer like you isn’t going to intimidate me by getting in my face. Especially when it comes to being with the woman I’ve loved my entire life.” I shoved him back and walked away. “Go home, Charlie. You’re embarrassing yourself.”
“So, it’s true? You’re gay.”
I turned to face him. “What?”
“Sophie didn’t tell me anything. She lied for you to the end. So much for your training. This two-bit small-town lawyer got you to confess pretty easy.”
It took great discipline to keep my face impassive. Inside, I was