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“That’s exactly what I thought.” Shewrinkled her nose. “There’s that sexually transmitted nerdinessagain “
“What, what are we talking about then?” Icouldn’t put it together. It couldn’t have been Scott.
“I overheard them in the driveway. Well,they weren’t in the driveway, I was in the driveway. They werebehind some bushes—”
Relief flooded through me. Of course, it wasa misunderstanding. “My sister would never have sex in a bush.”
But good for Scott for grabbing a pick-me-upon his way out.
“They weren’t having sex. They were breakingup.” Charlotte’s brows came together and she looked close tocrying. “Just listen to me, okay? I get it, you don’t want to hearany of this, but you have to.”
“I’m listening.” This was quickly becoming aconversation I couldn’t lean back and relax for. I sat up andbraced my elbows on my knees, hands hanging between them. “What didyou overhear?”
“Scott was mad. Hurt because of what we toldhim. He was confronting her about sleeping with someone else. Andhe…” Her voice trembled. “He sounds like he loves her. It soundedlike it had been going on for a long time.”
I wanted to tell Charlotte that she musthave misunderstood what she’d heard. Or that maybe it hadn’t beenCatherine with Scott. But Charlotte had been there. She knewexactly what she’d heard. I couldn’t argue with her because thetruth was inconvenient for me.
“I need a second to think,” I said, and gotto my feet. Pacing would be so much more satisfying if I didn’thave to do it with a cane.
She sat on the sofa, hands clasped in herlap, knuckles white.
“I suppose it makes sense that he wouldn’twant us to be together, if he thought there was a chance of beingwith Catherine later,” I muttered, mostly to myself.
“It sounded like she’d promised to leave herhusband for him,” Charlotte said. “Or at least, he thought that wasgoing to happen.”
“Never.” That was fully out of the question.How could Scott not have seen that?
“Catherine said she wanted to believe thatshe could walk away from everything to be with him, but shecouldn’t.” Charlotte looked down at her fingers twisting in thethrow.
“She has a lot more to lose,” I noted.
Charlotte flinched.
Before I could question her reaction, shewent on. “She didn’t want to endanger her stability. And he accusedher of not loving him enough.”
“It sounds like she doesn’t love him atall.” I couldn’t fathom the idea of Catherine having a humanemotion like love in the first place.
“He said he would give up billions if itmeant he could be with her,” Charlotte said quietly.
I scoffed at that. Scott? The guy whoobsessed over interest rates and read nonstop self-help books aboutgrowing wealth? I couldn’t imagine him walking away from a milliondollars, let alone a billion, and definitely not for someone likeCatherine.
“That doesn’t sound realistic. Poetic, I’llgive him that. Not realistic.” None of this made any sense. On thefew occasions that Scott and Catherine had been in the same roomtogether, I couldn’t recall them ever saying more than a few politewords to each other. When could this have happened? And why onearth would someone like Scott be interested in my sister? Sure,she was beautiful. But she was also cold and materialistic.
And apparently she cheated on the guys shewas cheating with.
A tear streaked down Charlotte’s cheek and Iwent to her side, sitting to take her into my arms. “Don’t cry.This isn’t an emergency or anything, I promise. Whatever is goingon with your brother and my sister? Those things don’t involve us.It’s not going to impact our relationship.”
“Yeah,” she said, wiping her eyes. “But I’mangry at him. He gave us so much crap about being together.”
“Some of the crap, I could see where he wascoming from. He was worried about our age gap and our datinghistories more than the fact that you’re his sister, I think.”Although he had been concerned about it affecting our friendship. Ichalked that up to his guilty conscience.
“I want to go to his place and punch him inhis stupid face,” she muttered.
I chuckled. “Don’t think that he and I won’tbe discussing this. He gave me so much grief about dating you, buthe was helpingmysister cheat on her husband? Not cool. Butalso, not worth losing either of you over.”
“Right.” She let out a long breath. “I guessI was worried over nothing.”
“Not nothing. It’s weird.” I didn’t want todiminish her feelings, but at the moment, I wasn’t even sureexactly how I felt about this development. “But I’m not going tobreak up with you over it. Are you going to break up with me?”