Her Perfect Life by Hinze Vicki

Author:Hinze, Vicki
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Magnolia Leaf Press
Published: 2014-04-17T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Sometime before dawn, Katie awakened on the sofa and looked at C.D., slumped and seemingly sound asleep with his head lolled back. His presence felt reassuring. The light above the stove in the kitchen was on and cast enough of a glow to see the outline of his face, but little more. His eyes were closed, but she couldn’t tell from his breathing if he was really asleep, awake or languishing in that netherworld somewhere in between. “I think I owe you an apology, C.D.” She whispered in case he had drifted off, too.

“For what?” he whispered back.

“I imposed on our friendship a little too much.” Inside, she was shaking, afraid of losing that special bond between them in spite of assurances he made under the influence of . . . whatever this was between them. They belonged, but what did that mean? To him, what did it mean? “I didn’t intend to make you feel you had to do… this.” Had he felt pressured to alter their relationship? Had she done that to him? Had he done it to himself because he had been rescued and she hadn’t and she’d come home and Sam had ditched her? Did C.D. feel he had to step up out of guilt?

His response was immediate and blunt. “I didn’t feel I had to do anything.”

“I know you feel sorry for me because of the way things have gone in my life since I got back, and then Sam giving me the divorce papers on my birthday… well, that just added to it.” The truth in that hurt, and made her sick. She’d never in her life been with a man because he’d pitied her. That she felt C.D. was with her now because of it made her want to throw up.

“Is that what you think this is about, Katie?” He sat up straight to look into her face. “You think I’m here with you because I feel sorry for you?”

He was angry. He shook with it, and that confused her. “I understand it, C.D., and I’m apologizing for putting you in that position. Don’t come unglued on me for it.”

“I’m not coming unglued.”

“You’re really close,” she insisted. “Don’t you think I recognize when you’re angry? Honey, I know you better than—”

“No, you don’t,” he cut her off, touched her shoulder so that she sat flat, back against the back of the sofa. “If you think I’m with you out of pity, you don’t know me at all.”

The truth was written all over him. She touched his face, smoothed the anger from it with trembling fingertips, and reassessed, doing what she should have done the first time. “Why are you here with me, C.D.?”

“Why are you here with me?” He challenged her.

She rolled to face him, then sandwiched her hand between his. “That’s a fair question.”

“Do you have a fair answer—beyond you had nowhere else to go, because you could have gone anywhere, Katie. I want to know why you chose to be with me.

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