Second Choice Wife novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: Brake

I shook him until his eyes opened.

He came up out of sleep gasping, and his hand caught my wrist hard enough to hurt.

Then he saw who it was and let go.

"Naomi."

"You were shouting."

"I'm sorry."

"You said Bridget's name. You said, 'Brake.'"

The room was dark except for the city lights.

I couldn't see his face, only the shape of his shoulders pulling in.

"It was a nightmare," he said.

"I know it was a nightmare."

"I've had it for ten years. The crash. I hear myself say whatever comes."

"You were driving," I said slowly. "You've told me. You've told everyone. Why would you tell Bridget to brake?"

"She was in the truck earlier that night. She was with me at the lake." His voice was flat and quick. "I don't know why I say it. It's a dream."

It was the first lie he had ever told me.

I knew it.

He sat up, switched on the lamp, and rubbed his hands over his face.

The clock said ten past five.

"I have to go," he said.

"Where?"

"Out."

"To the lake. At six. Because she said to come alone."

His hand stopped on his jaw.

"You read my phone."

"It was on the floor next to my head, Heath. It lit up."

"Naomi."

"She said she'd tell me everything. What's everything?"

"It's nothing. She wants attention. She wants me back and she'll say what she has to."

"Then let me go with you."

"No."

"Then tell me what she'd say."

"I can't."

"You can't, or you won't?"

He stood and pulled on yesterday's trousers.

He didn't look at me.

"Both," he said.

I sat in the middle of the enormous hotel bed with the sheet around my chest.

Four hours before, he had said my name like a prayer.

Now he was dressing in the dark so he wouldn't have to meet my eyes.

I thought of the ring.

I thought of the empty chair at the reunion, and of a boy at the diner who had never asked me a single question about myself, and of every night I had lain a hand's width away and not asked him anything either.

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