Free Holly Lane by Toni Blake

he just didn’t think it was right to go around airing his or Sheila’s private problems. And for another . . . he wasn’t proud of what he’d done.
    And as for why he’d suddenly let himself tell Sue Ann now . . . he wasn’t sure. But it had been hard lying here with her naked, having her ask him, and putting her off. Somehow, the deeper they’d gotten into the discussion, the more inevitable it had begun to feel that he would tell her the truth. And then he’d heard himself just blurting it out.
    Now she lay back in the bed beside him, staring up at the bunk above, the way he’d been doing for a while—and, hell, he hated upsetting her. He should have just kept his mouth shut, especially given all the new news about Jeff she’d gotten just tonight. After all, he’d managed to keep this to himself for three years—and he’d picked now, here, her , to suddenly start telling? A heavy sigh echoed through his body and out as he lifted his hands to run them back through his hair. “I’m sorry I told you.”
    “No, don’t be. I pried it out of you,” she insisted—but she continued speaking more quietly than before, her voice dropping further still when she asked, “Um, do you mind if I ask who you did this with?” Her body still felt more rigid than it had a few minutes ago, like she suddenly wished she were anywhere else besides in a bed with him.
    “No one you know,” he told her.
    “And did you . . . care about her, this person?”
    Arghhhh, him and his big mouth. Suddenly, he felt like it was happening all over again, the whole rotten thing and all the ugliness and regret it had brought with it. “I . . . I . . . ” Barely knew her. God, no, that wasn’t the right thing to say. “It’s a long story,” he settled on instead.
    “Well,” Sue Ann replied, voice still whisper-soft in the confines of the cabin, “I have some time.”
    Yep, she did. And so did he. And now that he’d so stupidly, hastily spilled his big secret, he supposed there was nothing left to do but tell her the whole unpleasant tale. Should have thought about that before you spit out the truth. But even as much as it would pain him to rehash this, he had to now—because now he had to try to make Sue Ann understand.
    “Okay, here goes,” he started, already feeling a little short of breath. Damn, he wasn’t comfortable discussing this. But again, he had no choice now. And hell, he probably shouldn’t say this, but . . . “The fact is, Sheila and I had reached a point in our relationship where I was almost afraid to be out in public with her.”
    Sue Ann blinked, clearly taken aback, then asked, “What does that mean? Because, to be honest, Sheila was never my favorite person and I always thought you’d end up with someone nicer—but she wasn’t that bad.”
    He just drew a deep breath and slanted Sue Ann a look in the shadowy light. “Listen, I really don’t like saying anything negative about the mother of my kids—that’s one reason I never talk about this—but . . . she really was kinda that bad by then. She got bored being a stay-at-home mom and resented the fact that I was out working, seeing people every day. Eventually, she got . . . a little irrational. She started accusing me of going after other women when I wasn’t.”
    “Really?” she asked, her eyes widening on him.
    He nodded, vindicated to hear she thought that sounded extreme. “I mean, I run a community-based business, so I have to be nice to people—including women. But I sure as hell wasn’t after them—I wasn’t even flirting.”
    “I believe you,” she said very solemnly. “I know you well enough to know that.”
    “Thanks,” he answered, appreciating her faith in him, especially at a moment when it would be easy not to have any. “And things just escalated from there—it was like we were enemies and she was out to hurt me.”
    “What did she do?” Sue Ann asked.
    And Adam let out a long sigh, remembering the