Blackberry Island 1 - Barefoot Season by Susan Mallery

Author:Susan Mallery
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Harlequin Enterprises
Published: 2012-03-26T18:30:00+00:00

“I know I’m a fool,” the woman said, her voice shaking as tears spilled down her cheeks. “I tell myself to be strong. That I should leave him. That’s what you’re thinking, aren’t you? That I’m an idiot?”

“No. Of course not.”

Carly patted the other woman’s shoulder sympathetically, hoping she looked more comfortable than she felt. She’d come into the lounge area to make sure there was fresh wood in the fireplace. Seth and Pauline wanted to use the space that evening and it was going to be cool. Carly had thought a crackling fire might both warm the guests and give them a little nudge in the romance department.

What she’d found in addition to plenty of wood was one of her guests curled up in the window seat, sobbing. Even worse, Carly couldn’t remember her name. It was an M name. Mary? Marti? No, there were more syllables than that. Martina? Now Carly searched for a polite way to ask.

The woman, maybe in her mid-to-late thirties, dabbed at her face. “He cheats. That’s why we’re here. My mom says I need to pack up and go but I have two kids. They love him and I don’t want to be a single mother. Besides, the rest of the relationship isn’t so bad. I just keep hoping one day I’ll be enough.”

The tears began again. Carly sat there knowing she couldn’t possibly ask the woman’s name now. Nor did she have any advice to give.

“I’m such a loser,” the other woman said.

“No, you’re not. You’re in a difficult situation. You have to make the right decision for you and your children. But it’s your decision. Not anyone else’s.”

The woman nodded. “He loves me. I know he does.”

“I’m sure he does.”

The woman looked at her. “You think I’m fooling myself. That if he loved me, he wouldn’t cheat.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You don’t have to. I can see it in your eyes.”

“Then you’re seeing the wrong thing. Only you can know what’s going on between you and your husband. No one else.”

The woman covered her face with her hands. “I’m such a fool. Why can’t I stop loving him? Why do I have to be stupid?”

“You’re not stupid and you’re not alone. We all do things that don’t make sense to other people.”

She dropped her hands and stared at Carly. “You don’t look like you’d ever make a mistake like this.”

“I’ve made dozens. More than that. My husband cheated on me two days before the wedding. With my best friend.” She shrugged. “I married him, anyway.”

Carly had felt trapped. She was pregnant. At the time she’d felt she didn’t have a choice. That marrying Allen was better than being alone.

There’d been so much screaming, she thought, not wanting to remember but unable to stop herself. First she’d walked in on them. Allen had stood there, naked, swearing it wasn’t his fault. That Michelle had seduced him. He’d been drunk and hadn’t realized what he was doing.

Carly had accepted his story, even as she suspected he was lying.

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