“Well, hell…news travels fast, don’t it?” I said with a chuckle.
He shrugged. “You know how it is. It may not seem like it, but Estes Park is still small.”
Nodding, I replied, “Yeah. Nothing happened. Nothing ever will.”
“Why’s that?”
I laughed. “Come on, Dalt. You know why! She’s my daughter’s nanny. And I can’t let anyone in…” My voice trailed off.
“Listen, if you don't feel that way toward Emma, then fine. But don’t lead her on, because she isn’t some hook-up that you’re gonna be able to walk away from in the morning.”
I turned and shot him a glare. “You don’t think I know that?”
“Do you? Then finish what you were going to say. You can’t let anyone in again?”
“I can’t do that to Lisa again, okay! I can’t cheat on her.”
Dalton jerked back like he’d been slapped. “Cheaton her? What are you even talking about? And what do you meanagain?”
Lifting my hands, I shoved my fingers through my hair and groaned. “I’m not talking about it here.”
“Fine. Then let’s go.”
“Is Hadley asleep? I don’t want her to see me like this.”
“I’m taking you home.”
“Home?”
“Yeah, Aiden. Home.”
We were no sooner in his truck and driving down the road when he started assaulting me with questions. Who was it with? When did it happen? Did Lisa know?
“Stop!” I shouted, the blurry scenery out the passenger window making me ill. “My head is pounding and you’re making it worse.”
“You just dropped a damn bomb on me back there. Dude, I never would have taken you for a cheat.”
“She wasn’t alive. It was right after she died, and I was so lost. I got drunk and woke up with Nancy in my bed.”
Dalton immediately pulled over and put his truck in park, then dropped his head against the seat.
“I don't remember anything that happened,” I said, barely above a whisper.
“Then are you sure it happened at all?” he asked. “Everyone knows how much she was trying to get with you, even when Lisa was still alive.”
“Yeah, I'm sure. I found a condom on the floor and it had been?—”
He put up his hand. “I get it.”
“I felt so damn guilty. I woke her up, told her to get out, then I went and told Roger. He was angry, but he said he knew his wifehad been up to something. Never thought I’d give in, but I told him I’d been blind drunk and didn’t even remember anything.”
“Is that why you were so distant all those months?”
I nodded. “She wasn’t even dead a week, and I slept with someone else.”
“You talk to the pastor about it?”
“Yeah. He told me I did nothing wrong. I mean, Lisa and I had been separated, about to be divorced. She’d basically moved on with someone else. She only moved back home because she got cancer. Then I went off and slept with her best friend.”
