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I was down on my knees clearing a bottom shelf when I heard the door open behind me. I glanced back and was shocked to see Shelly walking in. My heart thumped more quickly as I stood up.
“Hi, Shelly,” I said warily. Why was she here?
“Hey, Tenleigh. I don’t think we’ve ever actually talked.” She gave me a small smile.
I released a breath and managed a return smile. “No, I guess you’re right. Well, nice to officially meet you.” I couldn’t help that it came out like a question. She had to be here about the other night. So why was she smiling in a friendly way?
She nodded, her smile disappearing. “You too.”
We were both silent for a second before I tilted my head toward the table. “Do you want to sit?”
“Sure.” She walked over and scooted herself up on the small table I’d always used as a desk. I leaned back against the bookshelf, taking her in. She was very pretty, with her petite body and thick, blond hair.
“So,” she said, “I’m sure you’re wondering why I’m here.”
I nodded, tensed to hear what she was about to say. Was she going to tell me nicely to get out of Dennville too? To leave her and her little family alone? To stop making scenes with her boyfriend in public bars? Would I actually blame her if that was exactly her reason for this visit?
“Have you seen Joey?”
I blinked. “Joey?”
“My son.”
“Oh,” I breathed. Kyland’s son. “Only from afar.” So she’s going to use him to make me realize why me being here isn’t productive for anyone.
She nodded. “He looks exactly like his father.”
Hurt speared through me as Shelly referred to Kyland as Joey’s dad. Yet I also had a sudden feeling of irrational ownership too. I straightened my spine. Stupid, stupid Tenleigh. You don’t own any part of Kyland—not one single part. If that isn’t clear to you in this moment, then your ability to reason is seriously defective. It didn’t feel reasonable, so why did it still feel so instinctual?
“Which is difficult sometimes since he forced himself on me.”
Whoa. Whoa. What? Kyland would never ever, not in a million… Oh. Oh my God. I felt like I was reeling. Her words rocked me to my core. I reached behind myself to brace my hand against the solid bookcase.
“Kyland’s not Joey’s father?” I breathed. And for some reason, my eyes filled up with tears.
“No. He couldn’t be. We didn’t sleep together. I mean…” She looked up at me. “We had…in the past.” She gave her hand a small wave. “Stupid teenage fumbling. He never loved me. He doesn’t love me now—not more than a friend anyway.” She was quiet for a minute. “He was the first one I went to—after it happened…after I found out I was pregnant. I don’t even know why exactly. Maybe I loved him a little. Maybe I hoped he’d want me in some way—I guess I always had. I realize that now…but I didn’t then.” She shrugged.
I went and sat down next to her on the table. “He lied to me,” I said. I still felt like I was reeling even though I was sitting down.
She turned to me and nodded. “I know.”
“Why, Shelly? Why would he do that?”
“I don’t know exactly. He said he’d help me. He said he was going to stay in Dennville, that he had to stay in Dennville for some reason, and that he’d help me if I needed some money. And then he asked if I’d help him too and back up his lie if you said anything to me. I didn’t understand why, but”—she let out a breath—“at the time I was so messed up, I was almost happy to pretend it was his. But”—she shrugged—“you never confronted me anyway so I didn’t have to lie.”
“No,” I said, staring straight ahead. “I left town as quickly as possible after he told me he’d gotten you pregnant.” Had he actually said that? Or had he just told me she was pregnant and I deduced the rest myself? Either way, he’d let me come to the incorrect assumption. He’d wanted me to.
“I kinda thought that was probably the reason,” she said. “But he’s never said. He helps with Joey when he can—my father and my brothers, they”—she took a shuddery breath and it looked like she was going to cry—“said I brought it upon myself by spreading my legs for every guy who came along. For a while, I guess I believed it was true. They refused to help me.”
I reached over and put my hand on top of hers and she smiled sadly at me. “How did it happen?” I asked gently.
“I met him at Al’s. I went to the hotel on the highway with him,” she said. “I went willingly. I even intended on having sex with him. Obviously.” She was quiet for a minute. “When we got there, he started getting weird. He wanted to tie me up. I wasn’t into it. I started to leave and he threw me down on the bed and started calling me a cock tease. I said no, but I didn’t struggle. I never struggled.” She shook her head again. “Sometimes I wonder if I had…but, well, what’s the use in that, right? He had sex with me and afterward, he said thank you.” A tear trickled down her cheek. “He thanked me and I still hear it in my head sometimes. And I don’t know why that was the worst part of it, the part that stays with me, you know?”
