Absolution(77)

“Can I get you another drink?” he asked, trying to ease the ever-growing silence between them.

“No thanks.”

He took his time in the kitchen, grabbing another beer out of the fridge. He took a quick gulp, peering back out into the living room again. She had been sitting in the same position for over forty minutes, her elbow propped up on the arm of the sofa, head resting in her hand. She looked miserable. Maybe he needed to clear the air? If something was wrong, he would much rather know about it and try to deal with it. Pretending it wasn’t happening clearly wasn’t working, for either of them.

He walked in and sat down on the couch again. Reaching over for the remote, he switched off the TV.

She frowned over at him. “What are you doing?”

“Just hear me out. I can go if you want – I didn’t mean to just barge in here and make things all weird again.”

She regarded him cautiously. “You don’t have to go. And you didn’t barge in, either.”

He immediately picked up on what she didn’t say. “But things are weird, aren’t they?”

“I’m sorry,” she sighed. “I’m not very good company tonight am I?”

“If I’m over-stepping the mark, I’m the one who needs to apologise,” he said gently, “But has this got anything to do with Callum? Because everything seemed fine before he arrived. Did he say something? I thought we’d sorted that out, but if –”

“No, it’s not that,” she said quickly. “I think I’m just tired. Between the late night last night and feeling like crap today, I guess it’s taken more out of me than I thought. I don’t normally drink that much these days, and – anyway, I’m sorry.”

“I can understand that,” he said, attempting a smile. “And I’m guessing by the yoga mat, you had some kind of exercise thing earlier? Hangovers and exercise don’t usually mix that well.”

Something in her expression told him he had just made a huge mistake. His heart sank.

“I think we should do this another time,” she snapped, reaching around the side of the couch to pull her wheelchair over.

He should just collect his DVD and get the hell out of here before he made things worse, but he was reluctant to just leave things like this between them. She transferred over to her wheelchair, and he couldn’t help but admire her technique. She handled it the same way she seemed to handle everything else, with confidence and grace.

“I’m sorry I’m being such a bitch, I’m just tired,” she said. “I’m busy tomorrow night, but why don’t we try this again on Monday night? I’ll try not to be such a pain in the ass, I promise.”

“Okay, and you’re not being a bitch,” he said, forcing a smile.

“Yeah, I am,” she said wearily. “But to be totally honest, I’m just too exhausted to care.”

He took the hint and got up to retrieve the DVD from the player and pop it back into the cover. “Well, I’ll get going then. I hope you get some sleep and feel better tomorrow.”

Throughout the drive home, and long afterwards, he played the night over and over in his head. The one thing he couldn’t quite reconcile was what had made her snap at him like that. He had said something about hangovers and exercise. What was he missing?





CHAPTER 14




“Sometimes, you find yourself in the middle of nowhere. And sometimes, in the middle of nowhere, you find yourself.”

- Unknown




Maggie slid the phone back into her pocket and shook her head, whistling under her breath. “She sounds really tired – and really pissed at you. Apparently you ruined her night.”

Callum shrugged, trying to feign an indifference he didn’t feel. “She’ll get over it.”

“Why’d you do that? You know she likes to keep that stuff private.”

Callum searched for an answer. The one that came to him was not the one he spoke out loud, though. “Because it’s important and she knows that.”

“Well, yeah, she does. But Jack was there. It couldn’t have waited?”

Callum shot a sideways glance at her, frowning. “So just because Jack was there, she should let this stuff go?”

“No. I guess not. But you could’ve been a bit more delicate about it.”

“Shockingly, delicate isn’t really my forte.” Maggie nodded in agreement and he frowned. “She’s putting on a show for him, trying to pretend like everything’s fine, that it’s exactly the way it used to be. Total bullshit, obviously. It’s about time she was honest with him. He needs to know the truth. Besides, we had a deal. I didn’t think she’d go all psycho about it.”