Page 36 of Mine to Love
She wanted to tell him to eat his freaking burger, but she refrained. This conversation was hard enough. “You’re right, I didn’t love him,” she admitted. “And I’m sorry I put you through all that, but now is not the time to get into this.”
“After you lost the baby, Charlie asked me if you tried to lie to me about what happened. He told me if you did, I was to come to him.”
Liberty froze. She couldn’t breathe if she tried. Her muscles burned. The roar of her blood racing through her body as her pulse pounded in her ears was the only thing she could hear. She swallowed the bile that smacked the back of her throat.
But it didn’t go down.
The bitter taste lingered like three-day-old fish.
“The truth is both Charlie and I lied,” she said behind gritted teeth while she did her best to keep the tears at bay. “Charlie made up a story about how I fell and I never corrected anyone, so the blame was placed on me.”
“I don’t even know what that means.” Gabriel slammed his fists on the table. “Why do you talk in circles or in ways I can’t understand? I can’t make sense of your words. Charlie says it flat out. You climbed up on a ladder and?—”
“Stop it,” she said sternly. “Did you ever think for one second that this might be too painful for me? What happened has nothing to do with you and everything to do with why Charlie needs to be out of my life. He lied about what happened. He knows he did, but I was too distraught to do anything about it. I had just lost my little girl. I was scared and alone and it was all Charlie’s fault.”
“How was it his fault? He wasn’t even there,” Gabriel yelled.
She swiped at her eyes. “But he was there, Gabriel,” she whispered. “I don’t want to talk about this.” She swallowed a guttural sob. “It’s just too painful for me. I can see all the mistakes I’ve made and I’m trying to correct them. But I don’t want to hurt you. Please trust me when I say that Charlie isn’t who you think he is and it’s my fault that you believe he is. I’m only trying to protect you.”
“By lying to me.” Gabriel went back to eating his fries. “I haven’t contacted Charlie. And I won’t. At least not for now. But I deserve to hear your truth so I can make up my mind about all this for myself.”
She blew out a puff of air. Her little brother just surprised the fuck out of her by his response.
Miles.
He meddled.
Fuck.
She wasn’t sure how she felt about that and she needed to have a conversation with Miles because it wasn’t his fucking place.
“Tonight. After dinner.”
“Miles is coming over. And then he’ll stay for some bourbon. He always does,” Gabriel said.
“I’ll ask him to leave, and then I’ll answer all of your questions.” She rested her hand on her brother’s leg. “But this won’t be easy for you to hear and I understand I kept it fromyou, not because I didn’t believe you could handle the truth, but because it wasn’t your business. It was between me and Charlie. But also because I didn’t want to destroy the bond you had with Charlie with a speeding bullet. I wanted to do it slowly, so that we could move on naturally. Organically. Make a new life for ourselves.”
“The only thing I know is that either you’re lying to me or Charlie is.” He finally lifted his burger and took a bite. “I’ve been listening to Charlie for years about all this. But never you. The only thing you told me was that you didn’t love Charlie anymore and that’s why you divorced him. I’m not stupid. I have eyes. I know there’s more.”
She sighed. “Tonight. The whole sordid story. Tonight.”
Miles reached for the bourbon and two short glasses.
Liberty came up behind him and curled her fingers around his biceps. “Not tonight,” she said. “I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to ask you to leave. I need to have a long chat with my brother.”
“Is everything okay?” Miles asked.
“Not really.” She took the bourbon from his hands and set it on the counter. She yanked him through the kitchen and out the back door. “What the hell did you say to Gabriel about me and Charlie?” She planted her hands on her hips and glared.
If looks could kill, he’d be flat on his back, bleeding out on the grass.
He raked his fingers through his hair, which was in desperate need of a good cut. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about.” But knew exactly what she was referring to, only he didn’t expect it to come back and bite him in the ass so quickly.
“He grilled me at lunch today about me lying to him about why I left Charlie. He demanded I tell him my truth. The words he used were not his own. As if someone coached him on what to say to me.” She cocked her head and pursed her lips.
If she wasn’t so fucking mad, he’d think the look was sexy as hell.
“He grilled me too,” Miles admitted. “It started with asking me if I’d ever been in love before and if I had, why did those relationships end. I had to tell him that I’ve never experienced love before but that I’ve watched one of my brothers get divorced, along with my parents, and a couple end engagements and why those happened. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t get right away where he was going with it. Sometimes, I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed.”
