Free River's Return (River's End Series, #3) by Leanne Davis

relationship? Obviously, you had one. Can’t deny that. I’m figuring you were probably married and it didn’t work out.”
    She stared at him, but didn’t answer, or move for a pronounced moment. He nodded and said softly, “See? Didn’t work out. Still hurts you. I don’t need that. I don’t need to set myself up for pain. Nope. Not for me.”
    “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    “Do you? Really, Allison, do you know what you’re talking about? If relationships are so good, why do you live alone and work alone? Why is there no one to warm your bed at night? At least, I can allow myself to enjoy that! You don’t seem to allow yourself even that small joy. So really, perhaps I actually already engage in more of that interaction you were speaking of than you do.”
    “You don’t know anything,” she snapped, her tone tight as her eyes grew brighter in anger.
    “I know, or I think I know, someone hurt you. Badly. Did he cheat?” She didn’t answer and he nodded. “Deny you were ever married.”
    “I was married,” she finally relented. Her eyes were still dry as they narrowed at him.
    “You’re not now though, are you?” He kept his tone deliberately soft and soothing. Gentle. As if trying to ease her into confessing her own shortcomings.
    She held his gaze and finally nodded that he was right.
    “Did he cheat?”
    She let out a breath slowly. “Technically.”
    “ Technically? Is this the same woman who kept telling me, a near stranger, about the ethics of my ‘cheating’? How is your husband any different? How does that work?”
    “We were hardly married by then. I didn’t blame him.”
    “You didn’t blame him?” Shane’s incredulity was mirrored in his wide eyes and raised eyebrows. “Cheating is cheating, isn’t it, Allison? Isn’t that what you think?”
    Something weird jolted through her body whenever his deep, strong voice said her name instead of calling her teacher. He mostly called her teacher, which she considered an insult at first, but now it had become almost a term of endearment. He seemed to strangely like her. “You can’t possibly understand what my marriage was like.”
    “I can, actually. I can understand why you think people should not cheat. You’ve given me enough shit about it, but your husband cheated, and you don’t blame him?”
    She knew the expression on her face was pinched, and her pursed lips and glaring eyes were almost painful. “No, I don’t. Now, you mentioned Jack and Erin were back. How was their honeymoon?”
    “Not a very smooth segue.”
    “I know.” She shrugged with a small smile. “I was hoping you’d kindly go with it.”
    He eyed her. “Fine. We’ll go with it. They had a marvelous time. They’re all tanned and fit from swimming in the ocean and all that. Speaking of changing the topic, I was wondering something?”
    “Really? What’s that?”
    “Could you help Erin? Teach her to read, I mean? I was thinking about what you said, how the schools can’t help someone like her. Could you? Or is she totally hopeless? Forever illiterate?”
    “Of course, she’s not hopeless. Who would suggest that?”
    “She did,” he said, shaking his head. “She told me and Jack and Ian and everyone else. Well, maybe not so outright. She’s a master at misleading everyone. She listens patiently to everyone’s argument, and fully agrees and even tells us she’ll think about it. I’ve heard her discuss the same conversation with at least a half dozen people. She’s hella good at keeping us all at bay. I wondered if perhaps she just can’t learn. Is it possible for someone to be unable to learn to read?”
    “She can learn something. More than she has to date. Yes, I could help her. I know, she gave me the same, ‘I’ll think about it’ speech three years ago when Charlie invited me to dinner.”
    “Charlie invited you to dinner?”
    “You never heard about that?”
    “No.”
    “Charlie invited me to dinner, and I