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But they knew why. Charlie knew it was because that was expected of him. You reached an age where you got the girl and the house and had kids. For him, it was the year after he finished at the fire academy. The family had pressured him. Big Mike and Roberta were married, and Joey had just been born.
And then a mishap, Clare got pregnant. Stunned into reality, Charlie didn’t love Clare. He wasn’t even sure he liked her, but you got a girl pregnant in those days in a big Italian family, you did the honorable thing and married her.
“Do you really need to ask that? You were pregnant with Paul, the pink elephant in the room. You were supposed to be taking birth control pills. I used a rubber until you promised me you were on the pill. You even showed me the container. ‘I’m on the pill, Charlie.’ And then two months later, POW! You’re pregnant!”
The word rubber reverberated. Clare clamped her hands over her ears, cringing.
Inexplicably, Charlie began to cry. All the years he was with Clare, he never questioned his devotion to her and their two sons. He went through the motions of being a husband the best way he knew how. If there was supposed to be more to it, he didn’t know because he’d never been in love before.
“Hurry up and get out of here.”
“Oh my god, are you kidding me?”
“You would have been free to leave long ago if you’d been honest with me, Clare. Get out.”
Stunned at his perceived cruelty, Clare knew she should have been thrilled. A little piece of her, however, had hoped he’d beg her to stay. That he’d promise to give her whatever she wanted.
So that was the end of his marriage.
And now he had Lila Conner, someone who evoked those feelings in him that Clare never had. He was immediately attracted to Lila, there was no doubt about it. And once on that trajectory, there was no turning back. Charlie Saint was going to fall in love with Lila.
