Page 32 of Don't Fall for a Grump

“I’m sorry,” I murmur.

“I know,” she says with a slight nod.

“That wasn’t fair. I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

“I know that too,” she says, in the same calm tone. “Are you OK?”

I snort a derisive laugh. OK is probably the farthest from how I feel right now.

“That’s a no then,” she says, a slight smile twitches at the corner of her mouth.

“I’m angry,” I say.

“Well, that’s the understatement of the week,” she says lightly.

“I suppose.” I laugh.

We sit quietly for another moment. I’m teetering on whether I want to tell her what’s going on in my head. On Sunday afternoon, I had been more than economical with the truth, but doing that again now was pointless.

“I’ve been trying to avoid what happened back there ever since I got here,” I begin.

I might as well tell her. Sylvie has likely told her a version of what happened, based on whatever she knows. But if Bree is going to know how my marriage ended, I want her to know what really happened. Not what the town thinks happened.

“When I come back to Sharon Springs, I rarely go into town. I’m usually not here long enough to have a reason to do so. Claire and her new husband, Anthony,” I snarl their names, “settled down here after our divorce. Of course, the house they now own was partly paid for by the divorce settlement, which only adds to the sting.”

Bree frowns at that statement. “But I thought—”

I lift a hand to stop her. “I’ll get to that.”

I pause for a second, wondering for one last time, whether telling Bree everything is a good idea.

She already knows.

Of course, she does. Sylvie couldn’t have stopped herself from spilling the gossip.

“Their affair was bad enough,” I begin, “but finding them together in our bed felt like a knife to the heart. Almost worse was discovering that most, if not all, of the town knew what was going on, and not one person thought to tell me.”

“Oh God,” Bree gasps, her hand touching her mouth. “But why?”

I shrug. “Damned if I know. Maybe none of them wanted to be the one to break the news to me and be the tattle tale. Even though I can guarantee, their tongues were wagging amongst each other. Discovering your wife is cheating is bad enough. But the humiliation of knowing that every person you grew up with knew and didn’t tell you about it.” I sigh and shake my head. “I can’t describe that.”

Bree’s forehead is furrowing even deeper, and I know she has questions. “Even Sylvie?” Bree asks, her bewilderment written all over her face.

I shake my head. “Sylvie didn’t know. She wasn’t here at the time. She wasn’t even in the country. After college, she took six months out and toured Europe with some girlfriends.”

Bree looks relieved, as if she would’ve struggled to believe that Sylvie would have kept such a thing to herself. She then frowns again. “Claire does not seem to care though. She was speaking to you like you were best friends.”

I snort again and shake my head. “Oh,” I say, with heavy sarcasm in my tone, “that’s because her affair was my fault.”

“I beg your pardon?” Bree’s eyes fly wide. The disbelief is back on her face.

“Oh, yes. She feels no shame for what she’s done, because, according to her, she was thrust into the arms of her lover due to my lack of attention.”

“What a load of…” Bree suddenly presses her lips together to stop herself from continuing. I have a fair idea of what she was about to say.

“Apparently, if I hadn’t worked so much, if I hadn’t been away in the city for days on end, if I had paid her more attention, she would not have sought the affection of another man. She wouldn’t have gone looking for attention if she was getting what she deserved from me. Strangely enough, though, she had no problem spending all the money I earned from the job that kept me away from her so often. Not once did she tell me to change my job, take a pay cut, find work somewhere closer to Sharon Springs, so we could be together more often.”

“Of course not. She wanted it both ways,” Bree deduces.

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