A Winter Wedding(90)

Fortunately, Lourdes said nothing. She simply stared up at him as he did his best to take care of the small things she wouldn’t be able to see without a mirror. “There you go,” he whispered. “You look great. Fine. No one will notice.”

She allowed him to take her hand. He was about to guide her to the edge of the celebration, where he hoped they could slip into the crowd, but a bitter voice he knew all too well broke the silence.

“Well, that was entertaining.”

*

Lourdes felt her stomach drop. Kyle’s hand tightened on hers, and he turned to confront his ex-wife. “What are you doing here?” he demanded.

“Certainly not what you’ve been doing,” she countered.

Lourdes cringed. She had never had sex in public before—couldn’t believe she’d been caught the first time. Did Noelle have pictures?

She doubted it. Fortunately, there wouldn’t have been enough light.

“You’ve been following me again,” Kyle said.

“Because I need to talk to you.”

“No, you don’t. We have nothing to say to each other.”

“Yes, we do! I was your wife. Can’t you at least give me...give me a few minutes?”

“For what?” he growled.

Lourdes could feel Kyle’s anger. She knew Noelle had to feel it, too. It seemed to take her off guard, was probably something she’d never seen before. With the fire, he’d finally lost all patience.

Noelle’s eyes darted in her direction, even though she addressed Kyle. “You have to quit telling the police that I’m the one who set fire to your plant, Kyle. It’s not true.”

“Don’t try to tell me you didn’t do it,” he said. “I saw you there.”

“Because I heard the sirens and...and I wasn’t far away. So I drove over to see what all the excitement was about. But I was just as shocked as everyone else when I saw those flames.”

“Which is why you left in such a hurry? Because it came as such a surprise? Funny, but everyone else who came by actually stuck around to watch.”

“I was afraid you’d see me! I didn’t want you to know I’d been driving past your place again.”

“Of course! You just happened to be driving by right at that moment.”

When she stepped out from the shadow of the building, the moon’s weak rays revealed the fear in her eyes. “I’m there a lot. You know that. But I’m telling you I didn’t do it! I...I could never do something like that to you. You’re...” She took a deep breath and seemed to switch tactics. “You’re just trying to get rid of me once and for all, so you sent the police over to get my fingerprints, hoping I’d end up in prison.”

“I admit that no one’ll be happier to see you there than I will,” he said.

“Kyle!” she cried.

The way Noelle said his name, with a gasp, told Lourdes that comment had hurt.

“Leave me alone,” he said and began pulling Lourdes along with him as if Noelle didn’t matter, as if he’d leave her right where she was, calling after him.

But Noelle didn’t stay put. She followed them and began talking even more loudly. “You have to listen to me! You have to call them off! Please?”

Lourdes tugged on Kyle’s hand to get him to stop walking before they reached the crowds. She didn’t want this to become a public spectacle, with Noelle screeching at the top of her lungs that she’d just watched them having sex in the alley.

When Kyle came to a halt, so did Noelle. She seemed to understand that she was dealing with a much more determined man than he’d ever been before. She’d pushed him too far. “Lourdes, go to Eve’s,” Kyle said. “I’ll come for you there. I don’t want you involved in this anymore.”

“I won’t leave,” she said. She didn’t trust Noelle, was afraid Noelle might claim he’d hit her or even raped her. Lourdes wouldn’t put anything past someone who might have committed arson, and Noelle seemed so desperate tonight.

“I’m tired of your lies,” he said. “I’m tired of everything about you. What you look like. What you say. How you think. All your so-called emergencies. What does it take to get rid of you? For you to realize I’ve never loved you and never will?”

When she rocked back, he cursed under his breath as if he hadn’t meant to be quite that cruel. No doubt those words had come from the depth of his frustration—and been helped along by all the other extreme emotions he’d felt in the past twenty-four hours. “Look, I have no desire to be as hateful as I’m being right now. I’m sorry. I just... I need you to leave me alone, okay? The police will investigate. If your fingerprints match the ones that were left at the scene, they’ll arrest you. If they don’t...then maybe it was someone else.”

“But I’ve been to the plant. I’ve touched things. Remember when A.J. and I came to get the water heater? Even if my fingerprints are there, that doesn’t mean I set the fire,” she insisted, her voice much smaller than before.

“No one else has anything against me, Noelle,” he said. “Only you have ever made my life miserable.”

Lourdes guessed that Noelle was about to cry, although she couldn’t tell for sure. “It...it had to be Genevieve,” she said. “She did it knowing you’d think it was me and I’d get the blame. That’s her way of taking revenge for when...for when I gave her that bloody nose at the bar.”