Page 140 of Just One Kiss

“Sorry, I know it hurts.”

“The night he left—what happened?” Gloria’s voice shook as she spoke.

“To make him leave, you mean?” Carly patted Gloria’s cut dry with gauze.

The older woman nodded.

“He told me to go out with my friends, and when I got home, I found Jaden screaming and Josh beside himself.” Carly’s mind whirled back. “He was so angry, as if it was somehow Jaden’s fault—or mine—that Josh couldn’t figure out why he was crying.”

“Where was Jaden when you got home?”

“In his crib,” Carly said, unsure why Gloria would ask that.

“And Josh?”

“The living room.” Carly frowned. “Why?”

“I remember once when Josh was a baby.” Gloria’s voice hitched. “I’d run out to the store and left Josh with Jim. He’d been asleep and should’ve slept for another hour, but he woke up screaming.” Her eyes went glassy. “When I got home, Jim was so irate for leaving him alone, for taking so long at the store.” Her words faded away, as if she was remembering something painful.

“He hurt you?”

“I thought he might’ve hurt Josh,” Gloria said. “I was so panicked, so worried that Jim had taken his anger out on my baby.”

“Did he?” Carly carefully affixed Steri-strips over the wound.

She shook her head. “No. Not that time anyway.”

“Gloria, why do you stay?” Carly sat down across from her. “I know Josh has asked you to leave.”

Gloria nodded, turning away, shame clear on her face. “I was afraid.”

“More afraid to leave than to stay and risk getting seriously injured?”

She shook her head. “You don’t understand. I’m not strong like you are. I’ve only got a high school diploma, and I’ve never had a real job in my life. Where would I go? What would I do? I can’t live so freely on my own.”

Carly reached over and covered the woman’s hands with her own. “Yes, you can. And you wouldn’t be alone. You’ve got me and Jaden and Josh.”

Gloria’s eyes found hers. “The night Josh left, something was wrong with Jaden.”

Back to this. Why was Gloria so interested in ancient history? “Yes. He had a fever. A bad one.”

“And Josh didn’t realize it?”

She shook her head.

Gloria stilled. “Carly, how much do you know about Josh’s little brother, Dylan?”

Carly had never known Dylan, so sometimes it was easy to forget Josh had ever had a sibling at all. “I know he passed away before you moved to Harbor Pointe.”

“Is that all?”

Carly folded her hands in her lap. “Josh never liked to talk about Dylan.”

Gloria covered her mouth with her hands and looked away, eyes welling with fresh tears.

Carly sometimes wondered if Dylan’s death was the reason Jim was the way he was. Surely the death of a child took a terrible toll on parents.

“I think I understand it all now,” Gloria said.

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