Lie Baby Lie by Andrea Nourse

Author:Andrea Nourse [Nourse, Andrea]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Andrea Nourse

Twenty-One

Caroline

Honestly, I don’t know what I expected to come of all of this. The unraveling could have played out a million different ways. I think I’d always known the truth would work its way out, eventually. A small part of me planned on it coming through a tearful confession to Reese first, then Ben. I’d explain to each individually that I’d only been trying to heal the past. I never thought I’d connect with Reese or want to be her friend. It all happened so innocently. There truly was no bad intent on my part. I’d practiced this speech so many times in my mind. Each time, it ended with both eventually accepting my apology and awkward family gatherings with the Davis and Bates families. Wishful thinking on my part.

But it unfolded in the exact nightmare that anyone with a thirty-foot view of the situation could have predicted. As graceful as a one-ton elephant doing ballet. Nearly killing her daughter certainly didn’t soften the blow. Her showing up at the hospital to find her new best friend embracing the man who’d abandoned her thirteen years ago likely didn’t help either.

I deserved every ounce of pain that came from that slap. I had it coming, so to speak. If I were in Reese’s shoes, that slap might have been a punch followed by more punches and hair pulling. The look on her face after contact told me she hadn’t intended on hitting me, it was an instinctual response. The sound had echoed through the hallway of the hospital, which fell silent the moment she came out screaming. Everyone heard everything.

Ben and I watched her rush back into the hospital. He stood next to me, completely silent. His body language showed defeat. He was slumped forward, shoulders slacked, hands in his pockets. His breath, coming slow and steady as always, left a fog in the air that hung for far too long.

“Can we go home?” I asked, breaking the silence.

He pulled his hands out of his pocket, reached for mine, and guided me towards the valet. His skin was hot. I wanted to grab hold and never let go. Something told me this might be the last time he touched me for a very long time.

“My car is in the ER parking garage,” I said. My brain was a jumbled mess. I wasn’t sure I was in shape to drive home, but the prospect of an awkward car ride home with Ben wasn’t appealing.

The valet took his keys, and another attendant offered to walk me back to the other garage. I nodded a thank you.

“I’ll see you at home?” It was both a question and a statement. He grunted softly. This one-sided conversation was even more interaction than I was expecting from him.

Once in the safety of my car, I unleashed a barrage of four-letter words that I’d been holding in. I cussed myself for being dumb enough to think any of this would work out in my favor. I never should have agreed to babysit Lily, nor should I have let her try on my heels.

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