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“I don’t want to talk about it,” Gareth told him.
He heard shuffling behind him and glanced over his shoulder to see that Wade had taken a seat on one of the stools Gareth kept in the garage. Wade didn’t say anything, just sat there with his arms crossed, watching him expectantly.
If Jackson had been there, he would have pestered Gareth until he spilled everything. Wade’s silence was weighty, and Gareth knew he was going to end up sharing all the details.
“We found out that Aria lied to us,” he said, reaching to hang the trimming sheers on the hook above the worktable. “She left without saying a word to anyone.”
“I thought she was sick.”
“That was all a ruse, apparently. When we got back to the house on Saturday, she was gone.”
“And she didn’t tell you anything? How did you find out she lied?”
“She left a note saying she was sorry.” Gareth dropped a pair of pliers into a drawer. “But Nora was the one who gave us all the details.”
“Well, that’s not suspicious at all,” Wade said with a snort.
“I would have agreed with you, except she had proof. Her jealousy of Aria led her to try to find some dirt on her. Unfortunately, there were things Aria had hidden that gave Nora all the ammunition she needed.”
“And Aria didn’t stay to defend herself?”
“Not much she could defend against,” Gareth said, turning to lean back against the workbench. “If it had been faked, Aria could have stayed and defended herself. She had to know that we’d give her the benefit of the doubt against Nora’s charges.”
“What did she do?”
For a moment, Gareth found that he wanted to protect Aria. He didn’t want people to know what she’d done, even though she wasn’t there. But he knew he could trust Wade with the information. The same couldn’t be said for Jackson, as the guy liked to talk, and not everything he said passed through his brain first.
Staring at the floor, he slowly shared the details with Wade.
“How are you doing?” Wade asked when he was done.
“The clinic is suffering without her,” Gareth said. “Janessa too, since Aria wasn’t just another employee to her. She’s lost her friend, and she’s having to cover the receptionist job as well as her own again.”
“How areyoudoing?” Wade repeated.
Gareth pushed down the ache that tried to swell up inside him. “I’m fine.”
“You lieagain.Don’t do that, bro,” Wade said quietly. “I’ve never seen you so gone on a woman the way you are over Aria. Tell me how you’re really doing.”
“I’m angry,” Gareth finally said. “If she’d felt anything for me like I feel for her, she’d never have been able to leave the way she did. It was like she just didn’t care about any of us.”
“I know that hurts. But from watching you two together, I honestly think she does care for you.”
Gareth frowned. “She has a very funny way of showing it.”
“I would think that she’s probably ashamed and embarrassed,” Wade said. “I know I would be. And telling people I really cared about that I hadn’t been truthful would be super hard.”
Gareth understood what Wade was telling him, but it didn’t ease his anger and hurt. He wanted her feelings for him to have been strong enough to risk telling him the truth. He wanted her to have trusted him.
Knowing that he’d had neither her love nor her trust made pain pulse deep in his heart.
“God wouldn’t want you to carry anger or hate in your heart for her,” Wade said.
“It’s beenthree days.” Gareth glared at his friend. “I think it’s unrealistic for you to expect me to be beyond the hurt and anger already. How long did it take you to get over your divorce?”
Wade regarded him with a calm gaze. “I’m just saying that if you’re presented with the opportunity for a second chance and your heart is full of anger, you may screw it up.”
Gareth didn’t want a second chance. The intensity of his emotions since realizing that Aria had left scared him. If nothing else, he’d learned that he needed to get to know someone much better than he had Aria before getting involved on a deeper emotional level with them.
