Newberry Sin by C. Hope Clark

Author:C. Hope Clark
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BelleBooks Inc.
Published: 2018-04-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

COMING HOME AND finding out that Monroe acted on his threat to leave, hurt more than I thought. I sat with Ally on the back porch after dinner, so damn grateful for the weekend, fighting to act like nothing bothered me.

Ally pointed to the chaise with her wine glass. “Monroe didn’t hardly move from that spot till around noon, when he packed up and asked me to take him home.”

I turned toward the lake. “Don’t blame him, I guess. Man’s got to be one big pile of aches. Probably felt uncomfortable in somebody else’s house.” My friend had never walked off from me. Never been more than miffed at me. Fussed lightly and made jest, but never turned away from me.

Monroe didn’t understand how to fight, much less get even. He still had this simplistic belief in right and wrong. Guess I stumbled into his wrong category.

Ally continued filling me in on his meds and what she fixed him for lunch. “Was afraid his refrigerator might be empty so I filled him up before he left,” she said. “Kept asking him to stay.”

“I appreciate it.” She sure had a newfound energy toward Monroe.

The evening had sent a rain shower that quickly left, leaving the air moist.

“Hey,” she said, poking her bare toes against my legs propped on the porch railing.

“What?” I cradled a ginger ale. Between nerves and the stomach, dinner amounted to little more than half a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The aroma of Ally’s fried chicken had soured my insides the second I walked through the door.

“Guess you don’t have to look at me to listen,” she said.

I gave her a sideways glance. In cutoffs and a boatneck cropped tee shirt, three years younger, my sister pulled off perky with minimal effort. Little could weigh her down. After all, what use was a good credit score anyway? But she loved my kids like her own, which made me overlook way more of her sins than I should.

“Good,” she said. “Tell me, how do you dangle two boyfriends while I have to settle for the Hallmark Channel?”

“I don’t have two boyfriends.”

She nudged me again. “So, you and Monroe haven’t . . . you know?” Her fingers formed a circle, with another finger moving . . . I got the idea.

I could only shake my head, not really wanting to explain Monroe. How he hung around all chivalrous, wouldn’t take another woman seriously in hope I’d tire of Wayne. Because then I’d have to explain how he and Wayne could actually stand in the same room together and talk sports and work. How I couldn’t let go of him as a friend.

“Done it only with Wayne?”

“What’s your point, Ally?” Though I suspected.

She shifted to the edge of her seat, elbows on her knees, the wine glass holding less than a swallow. “What happened to the pregnancy test?”

“What pregnancy test?”

“You know what I mean.”

With a puzzled expression, I gave her a blank stare. “I said, what pregnancy test?”

She froze. “I left it on your toilet tank.

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