Losing a little bit of his calm demeanor, Derek shot back with, “Like what? You gonna run off again?”
“What do you really want from me, Derek?”
Years’ worth of pain filled his beautiful, sad eyes. “I want you to tell me what happened eleven years ago.”
Her heart nearly stopped. She did not want to go back to that night. To when her life was thrown into a downward spiral she hadn’t been able to climb out of.
“I-I don’t...I don’t know what you mean.”
Derek stood. “Come on, Charlie. You and I, we were...close. I thought we were about to become even closer. But then you practically vanished. One minute, we had plans to spend the holidays together. The next, you won’t answer my calls or texts. You avoided me like I had the goddamn plague until I got activated and had to go back to my Team. By the time I had leave again, I came home to learn you’d run off to New York with Porter. So, what happened?”
Before she could stop herself, Charlie spouted back, “Your girlfriend.That’swhat happened.”
“Girlfriend?” He looked genuinely confused.
“Yes, your girlfriend. You know, the one you brought home with you that fall?”
She could see Derek’s wheels spinning. “Kim? Darlin’, she wasn’t my girlfriend.”
Charlie winced. Even after all this time, she still didn’t want to talk about the other woman. She sure as hell didn’t want to know her name.
“You don’t have to do that, Derek. I saw the two of you together.”
“Where?”
“In your living room!”
He let that sink in. “Wait a minute. You came to the house that night? I thought you had to run some errand for your dad or something.”
May as well lay it all out there. Won’t make a difference now.“I lied.”
Derek looked back at her as if that truly hurt him. “Why?”
“When I pulled up in front of your parents’ house that night, I saw the two of you through the big window. You put your arm around her and pulled her close. You kissed her on the head and then the two of you started laughing at something. It was obvious you two were really close.”
Derek ran a hand through his unkempt hair. “Charlie, Kim wasn’t my girlfriend.”
“Derek, don’t—”
“I swear.” He put his hands palms-up. “She was just a friend I met at boot camp.”
No. That couldn’t be right. “You said you were bringing home a friend. You didn’t say it was a girl. Plus, the way you two looked together...”
“Ah, hell.” Derek pinched the bridge of his nose. “Sweetheart, Kim was a lesbian. Still is, far as I know. Her partner, who is now her wife, was deployed overseas that fall. She and I ran into each other on base and got to talkin’. I didn’t want her to have to spend the holidays alone, so I invited her home with me.”
Oh, God.Was it possible?
“Wait,” he told her. “I’ll show you.”
Derek pulled his phone from his pocket and began swiping through his pictures. Charlie’s mind raced for some sort of explanation other than the one she already knew to be true.
“Here. See? That’s Kim and her wife on their wedding day. She sent these to me because I was away and couldn’t make it to the ceremony.”
There, on the screen, was the same girl Charlie had seen that night. She was older, now, but it was definitely her.
And she was wearing a wedding dress while kissing her new bride.
Suddenly, the boat felt as though it was spinning. Charlie’s hand reached for the bow, her hand fumbling to get a grip on its edge.
