“We’ve missedyou.So many of us scattered like dice to get out of town, but thankfully we have you in our clutches again.”
Hadley laughed but then made a face.“For now at least.”It was something else she’d have to figure out.Because now that she was here, did she want to move back to Raleigh?If she and Kyle got back together, she would have to.
“What do you mean by that?”Izzy asked.
Realizing they didn’t know about Kyle, she told them about the previous weekend and his desire to reconcile.Hadley was prepared for the conversation to come—what she wasn’t prepared for was the silence.“Really?Come on, guys, no one has anything to say?You’re just going to sit there and stare at me?”
Michael stopped strumming the guitar he’d brought along and glanced at Everett before meeting Hadley’s gaze again.
“What do you want us to say?”
“The truth.Always.”
“Okay… You’re crazy if you do it.You deserve better,” Michael said.
“Decisions were made that brought Kyle to that point,” Izzy added.“Not a few decisions, either, but lots,” she added, her gaze soft, wary, as she stared at Hadley.“And you just moved here.Are you really going to move back?”
Hadley shifted her attention, glancing into the many faces now staring at her, and shrugged.“I don’t know.And I know there were decisions made over time that shouldn’t have been but…I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t let the kids’ activities and schedules come between us.I traveled so much with Abby’s lacrosse team, I was away every weekend.”
“So what?Did you cheat on Kyle while you were staying in those hotels?”Izzy asked.
“Of course not.”
“Exactly.Because you loved him and you respected your marriage vows.He didn’t,” Izzy said.“And there’s no excuse for that.”
“So you don’t believe there’s any chance that someone could stray and the marriage could still work?”she asked, knowing they obviously didn’t know about her parents but curious as to their responses.
“There are always outliers,” Michael said.“But it takes two.”
“Three,” Allie corrected.“God’s gotta be in there, too.”
“Speaking of which…what about forgiveness?”Hadley asked next.“After twenty-five years and two kids, what if I was too hasty in walking away?”
“Were you?”Michael set the guitar aside and reached into the cooler for a bottle of water.“From what I gathered, it wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision.The reason you did it is because he walked out on you.He chose someone else.”
“And what about all of that horrible stuff he said to you?”Izzy added.“Haddie, he was cruel, needlessly so.Are you going to let him do that again?What happens next time?We get what we allow.”
It was a struggle to breathe normally.She’d asked for truth.And all that they’d said was painfully honest.Even if it came as tough love.“What if there’s not a next time?”Hadley asked.
Michael cracked open the bottle but didn’t lift it to his lips.
“Look, I hate to be the guy who rats out other guys but…cheaters cheat, sweetheart.”
“I don’t think he cheated before…her,” Hadley said.
“Are you sure about that?”Michael asked.
Hadley squirmed in her seat, her mind flashing back to the times when Kyle would get a call and leave the room, when she’d picked up his phone to see who’d just texted him only to have him yank it out of her hand using privacy and HIPAA as his excuse.
But was that really why?Hadn’t shewonderedbefore but not wanted to face the truth?“You think he’ll do it again,” Hadley said, trying and failing to keep the tremble from her voice.
Michael tilted his head to one side as he regarded her, his dark gaze sparkling in the waning sunlight.
“Ah, sweetheart.The question is…do you?”
The seedof doubt had been well planted, and as Friday approached, Hadley began to stress over Kyle’s return to Carolina Cove.
Mary Elizabeth’s party sounded like an evening of torture.After her trip to the south end with the cousins, she knew they’d all be watching.As would the Babes and everyone else in attendance.