Page 31 of Mountain Void

“Don’t,” Lorenz said evenly. “That’s my ex-wife you’re talking about.”

“Your ex …” For once, even Ry seemed at a loss for words.

“Well,” Hugo said carefully.

“I thought she moved back to Florida six years ago. But she’s been here all along, in Sallanches. Teaching at a school.”

“Wow. That’s a lot to take in, man.”

A dark-haired woman in a deep burgundy dress joined Charlie. He’d seen her before; she worked at the school.

Seconds later, two men approached the women, smiling broadly. The taller one leaned in slightly as he spoke, his entire posture openly interested.

Lorenz’s jaw locked.

The sight of that man looking at Charlie like that made him want to punch him right in his smiling face. But he had no right to feel this way. Charlie was free to speak to whomever she wanted, and laugh with whomever she wanted.

“I should go,” he said abruptly.

“Because two guys are talking to her?” Hugo asked. His vaguely amused look pissed Lorenz off even more.

“Looks to me like you’re still interested,” Ry said. “Maybe you should go say hello. Maybe it’s your opportunity for a second chance.”

“There won’t be any second chances. I really messed up.”

“Whatever happened couldn’t have been that bad, Lorenz,” Ry said.

It was that bad.

Lorenz restrained himself from snapping at his friends. They had no idea what had happened between him and Charlie. They knew that he’d been married, but they didn’t know how spectacularly he’d destroyed it.

And Lorenz could come up with countless excuses for how it’d happened. He’d been exhausted. He hadn’t been sleeping. He hadn’t been thinking. Both he and Charlie, each in their own way, had been grieving the loss of their unborn baby. He should never have opened his mouth, but he’d been so desperate to fix something that couldn’t be fixed. He’d never meant to hurt her.

Still, none of that excused what he’d said.

Four words.

Four stupid, unforgivable words.

Four words that had destroyed everything, driving the final crack through their already fragile marriage.

We’ll have other babies.

He’d seen the light die in Charlie’s eyes as he’d uttered the words.

Lorenz clenched his teeth hard. He’d regretted those words the instant they’d left his mouth, but there was no way back—no way to put a broken eggshell back together again.

“It was bad,” he said, and left it at that.

Across the room, one of the men bent at the waist to murmur something in Charlie’s ear.

Lorenz turned away.

“Come on, let’s get a drink.”

Charlie

“That man keeps staring at you, Charlie,” Carmen said, her expressive dark eyes signaling to the right.