Page 141 of Just One Kiss

Carly stilled. “Understand what?”

“Why Josh left.”

Carly had been waiting for an answer to that question for sixteen years. She’d been waiting, but the other night, Josh had made it clear—his reasons were thin. He had no regret over leaving. “He left because he couldn’t handle it,” she said simply. He’d done the cowardly thing and left her alone to pick up the pieces.

“Carly, Josh left because he was scared,” Gloria said. “And that was our fault.”

“Isn’t everyone scared when they have a child?” Carly asked, certain the answer was yes. “At some point, you have to grow up. Josh just wasn’t ready. He took the easy way out.”

“And you’ve never forgiven him.”

“No, I have,” Carly said.

Gloria’s brow furrowed.

“You don’t believe me?”

“Why aren’t you together?” she asked.

The memory of Josh’s kisses invaded her mind.

“It’s obvious you love each other,” she said. “So, what’s holding you back?”

After a long beat, Carly saw no sense in pretending. “I’m afraid he’ll leave again.”

“He didn’t leave because he wanted to. He left because he thought he was protecting you.”

Carly frowned. “He said something like that, but it makes no sense. Protecting me from what?”

“It’s true, Carly,” Gloria said. “Look at me. He had good reason to fear something like this would happen to you.”

“But Jim would never hurt me.”

“Not Jim, sweetheart. Josh.” Tears spilled from Gloria’s eyes.

Carly shook her head. “Josh has a temper, but nothing like this—he was never violent or even physical.”

“But he was scared he would be.” Gloria paused. “I need to tell you something, Carly. And you’re not going to like it.”

The dark feeling of dread nagged her from the inside out. “Okay.”

Gloria’s eyes fell to her folded hands in her lap. “Josh has always blamed himself for Dylan’s death.”

Carly frowned. “Why would he do that? I thought it was an accident.”

“Because we made him believe it was his fault.” Her lower lip trembled, and her eyes fluttered shut, a shaky dam struggling to hold back the floodwaters.

“What do you mean?”

“Dylan died as a result of a hemorrhage in his brain. The kind you get when there’s trauma to the head.” Gloria wouldn’t look at Carly.

Dozens of questions raced through Carly’s mind.

“It was an accident,” Gloria said. “Dylan was trying to protect me and got caught in the crossfire.” She pulled a tissue from her pocket and dabbed the corners of her eyes. “Jim was so worried someone would find out what had happened, he told the police Dylan had fallen while he and Josh were rough-housing at the park.”

Carly’s heart sank.

“I think we told the story so many times we all believed it—Josh especially. I had no idea he was carrying around that kind of pain all these years. We told ourselves we did what we had to, to keep our family together, but today I realized the price we paid for our own comfort.” She inhaled. “The price Josh paid.”

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