AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Zane, I-I… oh no.”
Lori raised her hands up to her face. Two steps brought him flush with her. He set the empty bottles of beer on the counter, then gripped her wrists and tugged downward. He waited, and when nothing was forthcoming, he captured her hand in a grip she wouldn’t easily break free from and turned to Maisie.
“Thank you very much for dinner, Maisie. I enjoyed being here again, but right now, I need to steal your daughter away somewhere private so she can tell me what the fuck she’s been keeping from me.”
“Zane—’
“No.” Zane cut Lori off. “No talking. Save it for when we’re alone. Because I promise you, Lori, you’re going to be doing a ton of talking then.”
He towed her from the kitchen, bumping into Jim on their way out. He read the room in an instant, flicking his eyes from his daughter to his wife, back to his daughter, and finally to Zane.
“Oh, he knows.”
“Dad—”
“Jim—”
“Actually, Jim, the only thing I know is that Lori has been keeping a secret that Maisie seems to think is something I should know. And as I have a growing feeling that I’m not going to like it, I’d rather not have an audience when Lori deigns to tell me what she’s been keeping from me.”
Zane waited by the door for Lori to hug her parents goodbye, then led the way to where he’d parked his car. Lori attempted to cut through the icy silence. Zane threw a glower over his right shoulder, and she fell quiet, gnawing on her bottom lip.
He rarely got angry with Lori. Rarely got angry at all. Yet the idea she’d been keeping something from him that, if the anxious tone in Maisie’s voice as she’d pleaded with Lori was anything to go by, was a big fucking deal.
He waited for her to get into the car then handed her the seat belt. Slamming the door, he strode around the hood and settled into the driver’s side. The engine fired up, and Zane floored the gas. The rear end fishtailed, and Lori gasped in response, reaching for the handle above the door.
“Jesus Christ, Zane. I get that you’re mad at me, but I’d like to get home in one piece if you don’t mind.”
He didn’t reply, but he eased off the pedal, and the car slowed to a more reasonable speed. He made it back to Lori’s place in fifteen minutes. They entered her apartment, taking the leaden atmosphere with them. The air was thick with it. Lori felt it, too, if her bowed shoulders and soft sigh as she sat on the couch were any indication.
“Sit down, Zane.”
For a second, he was caught in two minds between the chair and the couch. Berating himself for such childish thoughts, he sat beside her.
She gave him her eyes. “I lied to you.”
“I got that part.”
“No. You don’t understand.”
She bit her lip again and fiddled with the hem on her shirt, running her thumb and finger over the stitching.
“Thirteen years ago, I lied to you. I never thought I’d see you again. You have to believe me when I say that I did what I did because I loved you. I loved you then, and I love you now.”
She gripped his hand where it lay clenched in his lap. “I should have told you as soon as you invited me on a date rather than drag it out for all this time. But I just couldn’t find the words.”
Dread circled in his gut, manifesting in chills running down his spine. “Just spit it out, Lori.”
She audibly swallowed, her lashes lowering to brush her cheeks. Blowing a drawn-out breath between pursed lips, she jutted her chin. Her pupils had dilated to the point of almost eclipsing her irises, leaving behind a ring of green flecked with hazel.
“I never cheated on you. I didn’t meet someone else.”
His eyes flared wide, and he ran the palm of his hand over his mouth and chin, stalling for time. Time to reflect, to absorb her confession. He didn’t get it. Why would she lie about something so awful? Her text had broken his heart into a million pieces, and it’d taken him years to put himself together while he’d stumbled through life trying to figure out where it all went wrong.
“I-I don’t understand.” His lips flattened. “What the fuck, Lori? Explain it to me. Find the words because I’m fucking lost over here. Why would you do that?” He raked his fingers through his hair. “Why?”
Trembling hands lifted to her shirt, and she began to undo the buttons.
“Whoa?” He jerked his head back. “What the hell are you doing?”
