Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

Melody

My heart raced as I stared into Charles’s eyes. I’d tried not to think about him over the years, but I’d been making up for it in the past couple days. “It’s your turn. You said you would tell me about your life.”

A server came and took our orders: a lobster meal for each of us. I wasn’t worried about whether Charles could afford it. He could. Wasn’t that why my mother had hated him all those years ago? I hadn’t understood why until the end of our relationship, when the divide had become too big.

Charles leaned back. “What do you want to know?”

I picked up my water and took a sip. “I guess everything. Start when we … quit talking.”

“Quit talking?” he repeated. “Okay, if that’s what you want to call me trying to interrupt your wedding and you turning me down flat.”

I didn’t respond to that. There was too much to sort through first. “Continue,” I said, flashing a smile I didn’t really feel.

“You want nineteen years?”

I nodded. “If you’ll give them to me.”

For a second, he looked like he wanted to say something snarky, but then he returned my half smile. “Well, after you sent me away at the wedding …”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “You sound so dramatic.”

He put his hands in the air. “It was dramatic, and I will get more answers out of you, but I promised to go first.”

I waited.

“I don’t know if you know or not, but that next year I took leave from Harvard. I joined the Navy, and then I became a SEAL. After six years of being a SEAL, I came back and finished my law degree at Harvard.”

I nodded. “My mother did keep me up to speed about you.”

He shook his head, and another small smile played at his lips. “That’s interesting. More on that later. I think you knew I married a woman named Sheila.”

“I heard. Tell me about it. If you want to.”

He wagged a finger at me. “I don’t want to, but I want answers from you later, so I will.”

My heart ratcheted up a notch. It was tit for tat. I supposed I could live with that. The more time I spent with him, the more I wanted to be around him.

“We were married for almost five years. I’m not sure if it ended because of her affair, or because the fertility treatments didn’t work, and it took us to a bad place emotionally.”

My jaw dropped. “She had an affair?”

He nodded, then took a sip of water, looking away.

“I’m sorry,” I said softly.

“It was a dark time for me. I’m not going to lie; I questioned a lot of things during that time. Especially my faith. The purpose of life.”

I reached across the table and put my hand over his. “I can imagine.”

He inhaled a long breath. “I’m sure you’ve experienced this or had friends who went through it.”

I nodded. “I’ve had close friends go through infertility problems. It has always made me feel sort of guilty, because when I decided to have Will, we got pregnant right away. Though …” I trailed off and pulled my hand back.

“What?” He leaned in, listening intently.

I rapidly blinked, looking down. I didn’t want to tell him, but it tumbled out. “I wanted more children, but Peter didn’t. One was enough for him.” I sighed and met his gaze. “We fought about it, but I felt like I didn’t have the power in the relationship. I mean, he was earning the money, and he said no, and I was staying at home and …” Why was I going on about this? “I didn’t want to talk about myself.”

We were both quiet for a few seconds.

“I want to talk about you,” he said softly. “That’s what old friends do. We talk about life, about the joy, the pain, the disappointments.”

“True.” I gave him a soft smile. “Then you keep going. I want to hear more.”

He gave me a winning smile. “You mean you want to hear more of my messiness?”

“I do.” I wasn’t sure if he wanted to tell me, but it seemed like he did. “How did you and Sheila meet?”

“Sheila and I met in San Diego, California. I was visiting one of my Navy SEAL buddies. We were going to a party with other SEALs. She was one of the girls at the party. Later, my buddies confirmed that she was the type of girl that went to those things to meet Navy SEALs. When she found out about me and the money, I guess she turned it up. I didn’t find all of this out until we were divorced, and they all told me. Which really ticked me off. That would’ve been nice to know.” He sighed. “I was a complete idiot.”

I squeezed his hand. “It could happen to anyone. We are all just trying to find connection and love.”

He put his other hand over mine. “Thanks. I’m fine now. That’s what we must do, right? Adapt, adjust, move on.”

“At least, that’s what people say. I’m only a couple months out of this divorce thing, and it doesn’t feel easy right now. I guess I didn’t learn to adapt and adjust like a Navy SEAL would.”

Compassion shone in his eyes. “Divorce is hard. It gets easier.”

Suddenly, I didn’t want to talk about this anymore. I took another sip of water and stared out at the ocean. “Remember that summer you came to town, and I was fifteen? Your grandfather took us to this restaurant.”

He smiled. “I do. In fact, that’s what I’ve been thinking about since we said we’d go to dinner. I thought about the first formal dinner we went together on. I mean, outside of eating dinner at each other’s houses.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “I remember your grandparents laughing and joking with the staff. Your grandfather told me to order anything I wanted, and I was stunned. I’d never been told that before.”

“I remember. Because I think you ordered, like, three things, and my grandparents told people that story later so they would know how sweet you were.”

Embarrassment washed over me. “I didn’t know I was only supposed to order one. I didn’t know what they were talking about.”

He gently brushed his hand over mine. “I know.”

I stared at our hands and then met his eyes. That old chemistry between us was still there, still burning strong. I pulled my hand away.

“Hey, it was sweet. My grandparents always told that story because they thought you were so wonderful, and that was just a fun night.”

After all the years of being apart, I guessed I could be honest. “It was a good night. We had a lot of good summer memories and Christmas memories. Well, until …”

He cleared his throat. “I’m guessing you don’t want to tell me what happened that Christmas that you got so mad at me for.”

Anger surged inside me, but just like in the movies, the food appeared and saved me from having to answer. “I guess we’ll talk after we eat.”