AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m sorry,” she said, glad he’d mentioned her. It would take some of the weirdness away, speaking of the pink elephant.
Sitting back with his arm across the back of the lounge, just grazing her shoulders, it was the first time they touched since he’d helped her onto the boat. With his thumb rubbing her skin absently in a circular motion, she felt the pathway a long her chest, over her nipples and down further, past her waist.
The chemistry was there, and it was intense, but the food had numbed the urgency to explore it, and she was so happy to just sit back and watch the lights across the water. Then at about nine, they heard the first explosion.
“Look at the sky! It’s early for fireworks. I wasn’t expecting them tonight.”
“This is amazing. I’ve always loved fireworks!”
They watched the colorful display, like it had been put on just for them.
“Tell me about yourself,” Alphé asked. “I know you’re Maggie Angel’s friend but not much more.”
“We’re childhood friends from Pensacola. Do you know Annie Casson?”
“I know of her,” Alphé said, glad they were sitting in the shadows. He tried to keep his face neutral. “She’s married to the hardware store owner’s son, correct?”
“Right. Annie, Maggie and I grew up together. When Maggie moved out here, I was happy for her because it was the answer to a bad situation she’d been in. But then when Annie moved, too, I was lost. When the opportunity to come out here popped up, I jumped at it. I have a new client in Saint John’s Parish, and I decided I’d ask if I could stay here with Maggie and see if I like it.”
“So that was just a few days ago?”
“Yesterday morning, actually. And then I met you.”
He squeezed her shoulder, biting his lip, contemplating. She waited and he began to talk again.
“I need to tell you something. I’m deciding this right now.” He explained about living with his ex, the hows and whys. “But I’ve decided I’m going to move out of my house. I’ll allow my ex to stay there for the kids’ sake, but I have to leave.” He turned to Katrina and looked her right in the eye. “I don’t think I can tolerate it after tonight.”
“Alphé, you don’t know me.”
“I don’t care. I haven’t gone out on a date in, oh, at least fifteen years. Since I met my ex.” He laughed when she expressed disbelief. “It’s the truth. I haven’t had the desire. And when I knew that things were going south in my marriage, I didn’t have the energy to try to change. I had to work hard to support my family, and that had to be enough. It’s my fault she looked elsewhere.”
“Do you mean she was cheating?”
“Yep, she’s cheatin’ now, and she was cheatin’ then. I don’t know all the names, but I know she was doing it. One man was the other vet in town.”
“I’m so sorry,” she replied, wondering what would make a man allow his wife to disrespect him like that.
“They got caught in her web, I’m sure. She’d just had a rough way. She’d lost a baby. I think that’s when it started.”
“Oh no, oh my god, I’m so sorry.”
“Yeah, it was pretty awful, and I wasn’t there for her. It didn’t hit me the same way. I didn’t know she was even expecting, and then a week after she told me, bam, she lost it and it freaked her out. I didn’t give her what she needed. I admit that. She was grieving, and I had to fish. It sounds like I’m trying to simplify it, but that is about what it was.
“Anyway, I want you to know that I’m moving out.”
“I’m worried that you’re making a big change on my account. I’m not sure I want that responsibility.”
“I want to be free to see what’s going on here between us because I’ve never had this before, like a whop in the bod with a wet towel.”
“Oh, jeez, what an awful comparison,” she said, laughing.
He tried not to stare at her for too long, her long legs and a smattering of freckles across her cheeks. Those green eyes shining in the dark like a cat’s eyes, and long red hair curling across her back. The shirt she wore fooled the eye; it was some kind of fabric that tried to cling, but just when he thought he might get an idea of her curves, it loosened up again.
“That shirt you’re wearing is driving me nuts,” he said, frowning.
“It’s silk,” she said, rounding her shoulders a little to keep it from clinging to her. Then she glanced at him sidelong. “Do you like it?”
“Yes,” he said, moving his eyebrows up and down playfully, laughing with her.
