Page 36 of Holidate Fail
Dahlia turned and walked back to the SUV without saying a word, her body shaking with a barrage of grief and loss and stupidity.
Chapter 11
Kelly risked a glance at Dahlia as he started the ignition, noting her stiffened body and the fact that she sat as close to the door as she could.
“You okay?” He glanced over as he put the SUV in drive.
The look she gave him knifed him in the gut. The overwhelming hurt in her eyes shattered him before she returned to looking out the window.
“What did you two talk about?”
She shook her head. “You don’t have to pretend.”
Pretend what? “Look, I can see how my ex being here would be hard to take as a coincidence. But I swear, I have absolutely no idea what she’s doing here. And after the hell she put me through, I couldn’t care less, except for how it’s affecting you.”
“You guys okay up there?” Heath asked. “What did Kristy say to you?”
It was as if Dahlia hadn’t even heard either of them. “Everything makes sense now. Talking to me at the beginning of the scavenger hunt. Getting mad when Heath touched me. And let’s not forget the best damn sex I’ve had in a long time. How does it feel to prostitute yourself out like that, Kelly?”
What the hell? And when had he told Heath his ex’s name? “What happened?”
“Whoa. Hey.” Lacole leaned forward. “Dahlia, do you want to trade seats?”
“No, you guys stay back there. It’s fine. It’s all fine.” Her tone gave every indication that it was not, in fact, fine.
“You sure?”
“There’s no reason for all of us to be miserable.”
Kelly glanced at the mirror into the backseat. Their two traveling companions sat with rapt attention. He didn’t enjoy spilling his guts in front of others, but no way was he going to wait three hours to have this conversation. “First of all, we had sex because we both wanted to. And it was pretty damn great for me, too.”
Dahlia snorted.
“Second, Kristy’s an expert liar and manipulator.” Kelly pulled on to the main road. “She played me often enough, telling me she was at work when she was having an affair. Making me doubt what I saw with my own eyes, playing with my emotions and using what she knew about me to get what she wanted. She knows what to say to people to believe something that isn’t true.”
“Oh, is that what’s happening?”
He tightened his hands on the steering wheel. “How could you think I’d be part of … of … whatever is going on? And with someone so conniving like her?”
“How did she get there, Kelly? How did she know where we’d be and when we’d be there? How?”
Kelly focused on passing the car in front of him. “I’m trying to figure that out, too.”
Heath cleared his throat in the back seat. “Maybe I can help.”
“It’s nice of you to try, Heath, but I don’t think you can.” Dahlia shifted her body even closer to the door, her hand curled tightly on her lap. “I knew my time with you wasn’t going to end in a bed of roses. I was just fooling myself thinking it would be a while before the flowers died. You studied me, like I was a specimen, in order to say and do the right things. Even if I’m wrong, it still feels this way.”
“You are wrong,” Kelly said.
She sniffed, and it broke Kelly’s heart.
Movement in the rearview mirror had Kelly looking at the reflection of the couple in the backseat, shifting to hold hands.
“Heath.”
“I didn't do anything.” The other man’s head snapped up. “I mean, yes?”
“Had we met before yesterday?”
