A Winter Wedding(91)
“Now it’s Genevieve who’s to blame?” Kyle scoffed. “Will you just stop? No more lies! No more anything. And God help you if you ever do anything to Lourdes. If you so much as breathe a word about what you witnessed here tonight, I’ll tell everyone what you did to our baby—while accepting all their sympathy for your supposed ‘miscarriage.’”
If she’d been about to say anything else, that shut her up. It was tough to tell in the meager light, but Lourdes was pretty sure she’d gone pale.
Putting his arm around Lourdes, he led her through the crowds. She’d expected him to use more caution when they walked back onto the main drag. But he was beyond caution. He marched her to his truck. Then he drove them both home.
*
When they reached the house, Kyle poured himself a drink. He offered Lourdes one, too, which she refused.
“You don’t think Noelle could’ve been telling the truth about that Genevieve person, do you?” she asked. She hadn’t said anything on the way home, hadn’t even mentioned what they’d done in the alley, and of that, he was glad.
Kyle pulled his gaze away from the whiskey in his glass. “No, but I’m sure the police will check into the possibility.”
“It’ll be interesting to see whose prints, if any, show up on that broken bottle.”
“Didn’t you hear Noelle?” he said. “She’s trying to cover for that by saying she’s been at the plant quite a few times.”
“So she could’ve dropped that bottle before?”
“I believe that’s what she’s trying to suggest.”
“You really don’t think it could be Genevieve?”
“Genevieve’s not nearly as likely as Noelle.”
“Do you know Genevieve well enough to call and ask what she was doing that night?”
“No. I’ve only met her once or twice. She hasn’t been living here that long.” He might call her anyway, though. Noelle had acted more vulnerable tonight than ever before. But she was such a great actress. She could’ve been faking it all.
Lourdes moved her purse over to the counter. “You said something to Noelle...about the miscarriage.”
He took the final swallow of his drink. As he put down his empty glass, he was tempted to pour himself another but decided against it. “You mean the abortion?”
“Yes. Why do you think she did it? She didn’t want the baby?”
“I guess not. It was just another thing to be used for whatever she could get out of it. The pregnancy had already got her what she’d initially wanted. She proved that she could ‘steal’ her sister’s boyfriend. That Olivia had nothing on her.” He shrugged in a sad way. “The baby had served its purpose.”
She sat down next to him at the table. “But she didn’t tell you? Didn’t include you in the decision?”
“No. She claimed it was a miscarriage and did everything she could to make me feel sorry for her. She even hinted that it was my fault, because we’d argued beforehand.”
“Did you ever check her story? Try to find proof?”
“I made some calls, but all that stuff is private. No one at any of the clinics I tried would divulge whether she’d been in, despite the fact that we were married and I was the father.” He rubbed his face as he remembered. “And I didn’t search too hard. Part of me wanted to believe her, even if it meant being deceived. If she’d done what I suspected, I knew I’d only hate her more.”
“So you were still trying to make your marriage work.”
“For a while. As far as I’m concerned, marriage is about commitment as much as love. We didn’t have love, so I was trying to make up for it with determination. I knew she was her own worst enemy, and I thought I could help her. That she’d somehow be better or different if I could make her happy and secure. With time, I hoped I could learn to love her.”
Lourdes crossed her legs. “Even though you suspected her of ending the pregnancy that was the reason for your marriage? That’s not much to build on.”
“Turns out, it was impossible. I could hardly stand to touch her after that. Bottom line, my intentions were good, but—” he poured himself that second drink, after all “—I just ended up causing us both more pain.”
“And you feel guilty about it.”
“That’s why I’ve put up with her for so long. I tried to make her happy, but I couldn’t force my heart.” And now he wanted Lourdes, as if life with a country music star was any more realistic for him.
Kyle cursed to himself. He’d even seen it coming and couldn’t sidestep it.
“You told me you don’t have anything you could say about marriage at Riley and Phoenix’s wedding. But with the way you feel about commitment, it sounds to me as if you do.”
“They’re in a completely different situation.”
“They are. They have the benefit of love. But marriage still takes commitment.”
He eyed her. “What are you doing? Trying to get out of writing my speech for the wedding?”
“Just trying to guide your thoughts.” She pulled her laptop over. “Why don’t we open a document and get that started?”
“Not tonight.” Kyle was exhausted. He had no energy for writing speeches—and yet he could easily have taken Lourdes into his room and spent hours with her. They’d only had a couple of hit-and-runs, nothing like the kind of night he would love to spend with her.