Sky Garden by Jenny Schwartz

Author:Jenny Schwartz [Schwartz, Jenny]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-11-24T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

When a well-mannered woman began a conversation by pre-emptively apologizing for her presumption, Lanie braced. When Chloe added that she knew who Lanie was, the delicious meal she’d just eaten curdled in Lanie’s stomach. This was where Chloe would make it delicately clear that a woman such as Lanie was not for Nick.

Surviving a serial killer had marked Lanie with the worst kind of notoriety, and evidently Richard, unlike his son, had researched Lanie’s background after meeting her. Then he’d told Chloe.

Yet their welcome had appeared genuine. Expression and tone had matched their words.

“No. I don’t know who you are,” Chloe amended. “But I know what you’ve survived. You’re strong, and I’ve seen your compassion. I need you to listen. There are things you need to know.”

Not a rejection. Far from it. The rigid muscles of Lanie’s back released. She’d been an idiot, too suspicious and seeing problems everywhere. Richard cared for his wife. There were no circumstances in which he’d leave her to handle the dirty work of warning away an unsuitable partner for Nick. If he hadn’t wanted Lanie here, he’d have told her.

Chloe stretched out a hand; only for an instant. She was too weak to extend the gesture. “My dear, you and I know the effect of a major trauma. It changes lives, and not ours alone. Those around us are affected.” Her gaze turned back to the window, to where Richard and Nick had driven away. Her face was pale and pinched so that its delicate make-up was revealed as a mask.

She wanted to talk about private matters, things that Lanie had no right to hear. As curious as she was about the estrangement between Nick and his father, she and Nick weren’t together; not yet, maybe not ever. She thought of what Nick didn’t know of her past, and nearly shuddered. Privacy ought to be respected.

But how did you tell a woman as gently imperious and yet fragile as Chloe that she should shut up. “Is this where you show me Nick’s baby photos?” Lanie asked with bright, unhopeful cheer.

“I can’t. Nick, as a baby…no.”

Lanie’s stomach clenched. That sounded bad.

Chloe clutched the arms of her wheelchair. “You deserve an explanation of the situation, one that Nick evidently hasn’t given you, if you can talk to me of baby photos.”

“No.” Good grief, what tragedy had she trampled on? Lanie abandoned all hope of playing things cool and easing the conversation onto general matters. “Chloe, no. I’m not Nick’s girlfriend, and even then, whatever he wants to share with me is his story to tell.”

“All of our stories intersect. We own bits of each other. No one’s story is his alone. And Nick…he needs to learn to open up. He’s too much like Richard, as much as he’d hate to hear that.”

“We have reasons to hold ourselves private.”

“Not from everyone. Just listen, Lanie.”

As if she could do anything else. Chloe was too urgent to resist. Good manners and compassion meant Lanie couldn’t walk away, and she thought Nick would forgive her.

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