Page 48 of Sing For Me

“Why the rush?”

I can’t exactly tell her I was trying to dodge her. So I tell her another version of the truth. “I don’t like going down there. Some people say the older parts of the hotel are haunted.” I laugh awkwardly.

Kelly doesn’t. Mortification threatens to take over, except it’s then my eyes land on her hands. She’s gripping the thick railing-height glass in front of the water with knuckles almost white, she’s holding on to it so tightly.

We may not be friends—we may not even like each other very much, which is strange for me given how hard I try to give women the benefit of the doubt. But I can’t help but feel a pang of concern for how upset I realize she is now. Because I think she might be crying.

She’s upset.

“Kelly, is everything okay?”

She looks up fast, as if she was waiting for someone to ask. “No,” she manages. “I’m not okay at all, Reese.”

Someone skeptical might think she wasn’t being genuine. But there’s something about her tone that’s so familiar. She’s genuinely upset.

And, I realize, she doesn’t seem like the type of person who has friends to commiserate with.

“Oh. Um…” Oh God, this is almost surreal.

“You know, I thought Eli was lying about you,” she says, saving me from having to speak first.

Then I register what she said. “Really?” I ask, hoping I sound casual.

“When he first told me about you last spring. I was sure of it. I know what he’s like when he gets upset. But now, seeing you two together…he looks genuinely happy, Reese. So do you.”

She looks back toward the water, and that’s when I see a tear roll from her glasses down her perfect pale cheek.

But I’m still stuck on what she said. That we both look genuinely happy. “Kelly, I—” I hesitate, reaching into my pocket and pulling out the little packet of tissues I remember I stuck there. I hand it to her, and she takes one with a wobbly nod. I don’t know what to say.Don’t worry, it’s not real? You were right to think this was a lie?

But I realize I don’t know what she’s upset about. Oh God, does she still love Eli?

Does he still love her?

I have the sudden urge to act like a child. To yell at her that she had her chance.

But I’m immediately mortified by that. It’s an ugly reaction, one I don’t want any part of. One that’s not me. Besides, if she still loves Eli, isn’t that good? Isn’t that really the whole reason Eli wants to do this?

We didn’t actually talk about whyhe lied to her. I thought that was it at first, knowing how badly she messed him up. But when I decided to help him, I felt like he just wanted to prove to her that he’s got his life together.

My heart thunders in my chest. Maybe I’m standing in the way of two people who might get to have a second chance?

But what aboutyoursecond chance?

“He was in love with you,” I say, the truth coming out before I can stop myself. Even though it suddenly hurts like hell. “The divorce destroyed him.”Youdestroyed him.

But Kelly just gives a soft laugh. “I don’t know. I used to think so, but I think now…I think he was in love with the idea of me. I think he had it all laid out in his head how his life would go, and I looked good in that plan. Our divorce wasn’t the end of us to him, it was the end of that dream.”

I don’t know what to say to this. I don’t think she’s right, at least not entirely. “He changed his name for you, Kelly.” Eli told me when he married Kelly, he’d taken his mother’s maiden name, because she didn’t want to be Kelly Kelly.

“He called my bluff.”

I snap my mouth shut. She’s wrong. He loved her, I know he did. But it’s not my place to tell her that, is it? I’m suddenly deeply uncomfortable with having this conversation with Kelly, not when what Eli and I have is a lie.

I feel sick. I turn to the water, to the soothing gurgle of it passing over the rocks.

“I’m sorry, Kelly,” I say. “I need to go.”

I’m about to leave, to head down to the basement, creepy or not—anything is better than this—when Kelly says, “I think Neil’s cheating on me.”

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