Page 66 of Tragic (Lark Cove 3)

She nodded. “If you ever want to talk, I’m here to listen. But you don’t owe me anything.”

I nodded, looking at my lap, and whispered, “Thank you.”

“Actually, I think I’m the one who needs to do some explaining. I’m sorry for leaving like I did after dinner.”

“It’s okay.”

“It’s not.”

“You cleaned my house and made me breakfast. You also made sure I didn’t decapitate myself with a chainsaw. It’s all good.”

She smiled. “Still, I’d like to explain. If you don’t mind.”

“Not at all.”

Her eyes lost their humor as she looked out into the trees. This wouldn’t be some light explanation or a bunch of nonsense excuses. She was about to tell me the reason she’d disappeared to Montana and sought refuge on our mountain.

“My ex-husband didn’t want to get divorced. In fact, he fought it tooth and nail for nearly two years, contesting every agreement my attorney drafted. He kept saying it was because he loved me. Maybe that’s true, but I also think he didn’t want to be alone. He’s used to getting undivided attention, and ever since the day I met him, he had all of mine.”

I’d gathered as much from the one side of their phone call I’d overheard.

“We got married right after college,” she said. “We were both really focused on our careers, and life was good. We were young. We were ‘Happily Married’—that label everyone works so hard to get. But after a couple of years, I wanted more. I wanted to be ‘Mommy.’ So we started trying for a baby. One year passed, then another and nothing. I was so young, it shouldn’t have been a problem, so we decided to see a fertility specialist.”

The pain in her voice physically hurt to hear, but I stayed quiet, listening as she poured her heart out on my porch.

“We weren’t . . . I wasn’t able to have children.” A lone tear slid down her cheek and she brushed it away.

“I’m sorry.”

She forced a smile. “There are a lot of treatments and options for infertility. We could have kept trying. But still, the news was hard to hear, and I didn’t take it well.”

Piper twirled her mug, watching the dregs spin at the bottom. “Adam didn’t take it well either. Instead of staying home to comfort his wife, he took his gorgeous costar out to dinner at my favorite restaurant. And then he kissed her and got caught.”

My hands tightened around my mug. Talk about babies would normally send me running for the hills. The image of Piper holding a swaddled bundle was way more than I could handle this morning. So I forced it away, not letting painful memories shut me down. And instead, I focused on a different emotion. One that had gotten me through a lot of hard times. Anger.

What kind of a fucking asshole cheated on his wife? And under those circumstances? That motherfucker deserved to have his ass kicked. Repeatedly.

“He says he didn’t sleep with her.” Piper rolled her eyes. “But I don’t know.”

“You think he’s lying?”

“Maybe.” She sighed. “Yes, I do. But it doesn’t matter now. The kiss was enough. I moved out and filed for divorce.”

“But he still calls you?”

She nodded. “I asked him to stop. We’ll see if he listens.”

This guy didn’t love her. If he truly did, he’d let her go. Maybe calling and harassing her was his way of getting even with the divorce. “What did he say to you during our dinner?”

“He asked if I was seeing someone. I told him yes. I know we were just casual, but you’re the first man I’ve been with since Adam.”

“He didn’t like it, did he?”

“No.” She smirked at me. “He didn’t.”

“Good.” Though I didn’t like that he’d upset her, I did like that it was because of me that the asshole ex-husband had gotten pissed off.

She flashed me a dimpled smile, then shook her head. “Regardless, I shouldn’t have answered the call. I shouldn’t have run out of here like that. I let him get to me when I should have just told you all about it over dinner.”