Backwoods

Backwoods by Jill Sorenson Page B

Book: Backwoods by Jill Sorenson Read Free Book Online
Authors: Jill Sorenson
sleeping pad down in front of the fallen log before she spread out the sleeping bag. They sat down, using the log as a backrest and bringing the edges of the sleeping bag around them.
    Cozy.
    “This is much better,” he said. “I think I’m getting too old to rough it.”
    “You don’t look it.”
    “I feel it.”
    She scooted closer to him, sharing his warmth. He smelled delicious, like mint and cedar. A campfire would be nice, but she understood why he hadn’t built one. Just in case.
    “You don’t have to stay up with me.”
    “I want to.”
    They were quiet for a few minutes. She felt fairly calm, considering the circumstances. This afternoon’s adventures could have triggered a major panic attack. “Brooke is sleeping in the tent with Leo.”
    “Are you worried about it?”
    “Not really.” She might be worried if Brooke started dating Leo or fell in love with him. Snuggling was no big deal.
    “I’m sorry for...causing a scene.”
    “You didn’t cause a scene. Brooke was out of line.”
    “So was Leo.”
    She moistened her lips, reluctant to continue an unpleasant subject. “Did you know I’d walked in on Ray and Lydia?”
    “No. Lydia never shared that story with me.”
    Her chest tightened with sympathy. It must have been difficult for him to hear.
    “Is that how you found out?” he asked.
    She nodded, picturing their guilty faces as she strolled through the door in a flirty red dress, carrying take-out bags. “I went there to surprise him with a romantic dinner. I thought he was doing paperwork.”
    “What did you tell Brooke?”
    “We sat down with her together, but Ray did most of the talking. He said he’d fallen in love with someone else.”
    The corner of Nathan’s mouth tipped up, as if he found Ray’s positive spin ironic. Abby considered it a cop-out. He’d played a victim of circumstance, helpless to resist Lydia’s charms. “How did Brooke take it?”
    “Surprisingly well. Her best friend’s parents had divorced amicably the year before. She wasn’t worried about Ray moving out, since he was hardly ever home. He promised he’d never stop loving her, even though he’d stopped...you know.”
    Nathan studied her face for a moment. She hoped the dark hid her sorrow. Although she’d been over Ray for years, these memories still made her sad. The thing she’d wanted most in life—a stable family—had slipped from her grasp in one fell swoop, like the take-out boxes that had fallen to the ground. It was that loss she’d always mourn, not Ray.
    “Lydia told Leo after I went to training camp, but we agreed on a ‘mutual story.’”
    Abby was familiar with the term. A mutual story prevented one spouse from demonizing the other and trying to alienate the children, in theory. “What was it?”
    “We weren’t happy together anymore.”
    This explanation brought tears to her eyes, when the memory of breaking the news to her daughter hadn’t. “He never asked your side?”
    “No. He didn’t want to talk about it, and I was a mess.”
    “Were you?”
    “Completely wrecked.”
    “So was I,” she whispered.
    He didn’t ask her to elaborate, but she felt this...need vibrating from him. It was more than curiosity. Their situations were so similar, their lives forever connected. Maybe talking about it would release them both in some way.
    “You noticed my unease today,” she said.
    “Yeah, but that was just baseball intuition. You hide it well.”
    “It was ten times worse after the divorce. I’d built my life around Ray, as stupid as that sounds.”
    “It doesn’t sound stupid.”
    “I went to nursing school so I could work in his office. I couldn’t believe he had an affair with a client right under my nose.” Lydia had been visiting Ray’s practice for Botox injections and body sculpting, two treatments she hadn’t really needed. “After we separated, I had to find a new job and start over. I’d been working at the retirement center for less than three

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