The Secret of You and Me - Melissa Lenhardt Page 0,95
begging Sophie to forgive me.
“So, are you?”
“Gay? No. I’m bisexual. Did Kim tell you?”
“Kim? She knows?”
“Who told you?”
“Logan. She asked Sophie if you were gay. Not an hour ago. Sophie said she didn’t know. I knew she was lying.”
Charlie didn’t know anything for sure. The entire conversation was a fishing expedition, and I might as well have been tossing the fish into the boat for him. I could salvage this. Keep Sophie’s secret until she was ready to tell it herself. But, why? She’d had the chance to tell Charlie and Logan and had chosen to lie. The small amount of hope I’d held about Sophie selecting a life with me evaporated. If I told Charlie everything, Sophie would be forced to choose, and I would finally, definitively, be free of this limbo.
Patton squawked and fluttered into the air. A bead of sweat trickled down the small of my back. Mary’s children laughed in the distance.
“I’ve been in love with Sophie since high school. When you went on vacation, I told her. Confessed everything. She rejected me, said it was you she always wanted, so I enlisted. Left town. Stayed away all those years because I couldn’t bear to see her with you. She came by today, after her meeting, and I told her I still loved her. She rejected me again.”
Charlie searched my face, searching for the truth. When his face relaxed in relief, I knew he believed me. His life, his plans, his future, were secure. “Good.” He picked up his six-pack of beer. “Did you ever love me?”
“Yes.”
“And, our last night together? That was all fake?”
“No, Charlie. I’m bisexual.”
“Explain that to me, how you can want to fuck men and women.”
“Google it.”
He scoffed. “When are you leaving?”
“Monday.”
“All of the paperwork for the will and the house can be handled electronically. Have a safe trip.”
The smug expression on Charlie’s face, his supreme assurance he would never lose, grated on me.
When Charlie was at the barn door, I called out to him. He turned. Sunlight backlit him, so he was more shadow than a man. “Do you even love her, or do you just need her to sell your brand to the voters?”
Charlie stepped forward, his expression almost hurt. “Do you know how easy it would have been to leave? To give up on our marriage? I didn’t because I love her. I love the life we have, who she is when she’s not crawling around in a bottle. Hell, yeah, she will help sell me to voters. She’s beautiful and she can talk to anyone about anything. My God, can she charm people.” He chuckled and shook his head. “Men and women alike. So, yeah. I want her by my side, not only because she makes me better, but because I love her, despite everything she’s put Logan and me through.”
“You’ll never love her like I do.”
“Maybe not, but it hardly matters, does it? Have an nice life, Nora.”
twenty-five
sophie
Nora, I hate how we left everything today. I want to be with you. Only you. We can figure this out. Together.
I’m coming over tonight after Charlie goes to sleep. We have to talk this through.
Hello?
Your silence speaks volumes.
If you don’t want to be with me, you’ve got to tell me to my fucking face. Ignoring my texts won’t save you.
When Charlie’s breathing settled into its steady rhythm, I slid quietly out of bed and into the bathroom. I had to see Nora, finish our conversation from earlier. I dressed in the closet, barely paying attention to what I put on, brushed my teeth and pulled my hair back into a messy bun. I turned the light off and was waking my phone to check if she’d messaged when the door opened to a brightly lit room. Charlie stood in front of me.
“Where are you going, Soph?”
“For a run. I can’t sleep.”
“In flip-flops?”
I looked down and cursed myself.
“Going to see Nora?”
“Why would you say that?”
“I went to see her today.”
“Oh. That’s uh, good,” I said. “You two haven’t gotten to spend much time together.”
“Won’t get to spend much more. Nora’s leaving on Monday.”
“Is she?” My voice was unnaturally high.
Charlie nodded. “Seemed anxious to leave. She was relieved when I told her we would handle the paperwork electronically.”
That was it, then. Why Nora wasn’t replying to my texts or picking up the calls I had made before Charlie returned. She was leaving me. She’d decided I wasn’t worth the trouble.
“Oh. Well. I’m sure Nora’s anxious to get back to her life,”