Page 111 of Ly to Me

The truth didn’t come easily past my lips, and it startled me a bit that it was becoming easier to do so by the day—to let people in. To tell them my truths.

Spreading the soap along my skin, I tried not to think of all the things my husband did to me last night after I told him one of my biggest truths. I nearly groaned as I recalled all the ways he wouldn’t stop touching me, whispering in my ear that he loves me while filling me—

“Hello. Earth to Lyra. Are you even still there?”

“Sorry, Soph.” I cleared my throat and started washing my hair. “Remember how I said I grew up here?”

“Yeah…” Her voice trailed, then a snapping sound jolted me in place. “Oh! You knew him? Holy freakin’ shit, Lyra, is he the one who messed you up for other guys?”

My brows pinched together. “What makes you think I was messed up for other guys?”

“Because you refused to date anyone. Ever. Like I toldyour husband—and no, I won’t get over that term, by the way—you haven’t looked at anyone with actual interest since I’ve known you. They were always a means to an end.”

“I dated some of them,” I retorted.

“Please, no you didn’t. They got you things and you may have left the house to go meet them somewhere but I wouldn’t call what you did ‘dating.’”

She wasn’t wrong. Not about any of it.

“If you must know—” Soapy bubbles fell to the tiled floor in clumps as I washed my hair. Helen was right—my hair did take forever to clean. “Carver was my high school—”

“Sweetheart,” Carver finished, making me nearly jump in place. He leaned against the doorframe, a cocky smirk fixed on his lips as his eyes roamed my naked body, heating like we didn’t have sex all night long. “Hey, Sophia. Thanks for taking care of my girl while I couldn’t.”

Sniffling sounds echoed in the shower from the phone. “No, stop it. What?”

“She cries a lot just like you, huh?” Carver said low, but not low enough.

“We don’t cry a lot,” Sophia and I said in unison.

“What she said,” Sophia added.

“Right.” Myhighschool sweetheartcrossed his ankle over the other, watching me wipe a stray tear from my cheek from his earlier sentiment. “Came to tell you Grant is here, so please don’t come out wearing just my t-shirt this time or I’ll have to rip his eyes out of his head.”

“You sound busy. I’m just…gonna go.”

“Bye, Sophia,” Carver purred, stepping into the shower to where the water didn’t reach. He grabbed the phone and started typing on it.

My brow arched. “And what are you doing,husband?”

He cocked a smirk, one that made me want to rip his clothes off and jump his bones all over again. “Adding my number to your phone. You know, in case you need anythin’.”

“What if I don’t need you for anything?”

He stopped typing, his chin still angled down toward my phone but his eyes meeting mine, making them appear dark and devilish. “That wasn’t what you were screaming last night,wife.”

My cheeks burned as I stepped back beneath the water. “Doesn’t your friend care that you’re in here, botherin’ me right now? Shouldn’t you be entertaining him?”

Carver snorted. “Grant never needs entertainment. Heisthe entertainment.”

The time flashed on my phone as he set it back down on the ledge. I cocked my head as the words he’d said to Hayes in the truck came back. “Is Hayes here, too?”

“No. Why?”

“You said he’d have time or something around ten. And your other friend is here.”

Carver rubbed his jaw with his palm. “Best not to bring that up around Grant. He uh…he wouldn’t like knowing where Hayes is right now. We’ll keep it at that.”

I shrugged. “Okay, so, what is Grant doing here? You didn’t tell me yesterday.”