Page 43 of This is Why We Lied

“Nothing.” Will shook his head. “Obviously, he found his way up here, managed to survive, managed to get married and have a kid. That’s what I don’t get, you know? That life, being a father, having a wife and kid, that’s the kind of life he always wanted. Even when we were kids, he used to talk about how being part of a family would solve all of his problems. And here he is with everything he wanted, and he’s fucked it all up. The way he treats Mercy is unconscionable, but Jon clearly needs him. Dave’s still his father.”

Sara had never met the man, but she didn’t think Dave was much of anything. She also didn’t know whether he was still at the lodge. Normally, Sara would never break a patient’s confidence, but Mercy was a victim of domestic violence and Will was a law enforcement officer. The fact that Mercy was talking as if she felt like her life was in danger had pushed Sara into thinking she had a duty to report. She hadn’t considered the impact the information would have on Will. Dave’s violent tendencies were literally causing him to lose sleep.

“The part that really makes me angry,” Will said. “What Dave went through—it was bad. Worse than what I went through. But the terror, the unrelenting fear—those memories live inside of your body no matter how much your life changes for the better. And Dave’s turning around and doing the same damn thing to the person he’s supposed to love.”

“Patterns are hard to break.”

“But he knows what that feels like. To be scared all the time. To not know when you’re gonna get hurt. You can’t eat. You can’t sleep. You just walk around with a rock in your stomach all the time. And the only thing good about being hurt is you know that you’ve got a few hours, maybe a few days, before they’ll hurt you again.”

Sara felt tears well into her eyes.

He asked, “Does it bother you?”

Sara wanted to know what he was really asking. “Does what bother me?”

“That I don’t have a family.”

“My love, I’m your family.” She turned his head so that he would look at her. “I will go where you go. I will stay where you stay. Your people are my people, and my people are yours.”

“You’ve got a lot more people than I do.” He forced an awkward grin onto his face. “And some of them are really weird.”

Sara grinned back. She had seen this before. His coping mechanism during the rare times he talked about his childhood was to always retreat into humor. “Who’s weird?”

“The woman with the feathered hat, for one.”

“Aunt Clementine,” Sara provided. “She has an outstanding warrant for stealing chickens.”

Will chuckled. “I’m glad you didn’t tell Amanda. She would’ve loved to arrest someone at my wedding.”

Sara had seen the emotion on Amanda’s face when Will had asked her to dance. There was no way she would’ve ruined the moment. “I told you my aunt Bella’s second husband died by suicide. Shot himself in the head. Twice.”

The awkwardness had left his smile. “I can’t decide if you’re joking about that.”

Sara looked into his eyes. The moonlight picked out the flecks of gray inside the blue. “I have a confession.”

He smiled. “What?”

“I really want to have hot lake sex with you.”

He stood up. “The lake is this way.”

They held hands as they walked down the path, stopping along the way to kiss. Sara leaned against his shoulder, matching his pace. The absolute silence on the mountain made her feel like they were the only two people on earth. When she’d thought about her honeymoon, this was what Sara had imagined. The full moon glowing in the sky. The fresh air. The safe feeling of Will beside her. The glorious prospect of uninterrupted, unrushed time to be with each other.

She heard the lake before they reached it, the gentle slap of waves against the rocky shore. Up close, there was something breathtaking about the Shallows. The water was cast in an almost neon blue. The trees curved around the bend like a protective wall. Sara could see a floating dock several yards out. There was a diving board and a sunbathing platform. She had grown up on a lake, and it made her happy to be close to the water. She kicked off her sandals. She slipped out of her dress.

“Oh,” Will said. “No underwear?”

“Hard to have hot lake sex unless you’re naked.”

Will glanced around. He clearly didn’t relish the idea of public nudity. “It seems like a bad idea to jump into something you can’t see in the middle of the night when no one knows where you are.”

“Let’s live dangerously.”

“Maybe we should—”

Sara cupped him between the legs and gave him a deep kiss. Then she walked into the water. She suppressed a shiver at the sudden drop in temperature. Even though it was the middle of summer, the melt in the Appalachians had come late. There was something bracing about the chill as she swam toward the floating dock.

She turned onto her back to check on Will, asking, “Are you coming in?”