“I wondered why there was nothing in your basket.”
I laughed. “Actually, I came to town to shop but somehow that didn’t seem as important as taking you to lunch. Did you recognize me right away?”
She dangled her piece of pizza midway between the pan and her mouth. “Wait, are you saying you knew me from across the street?”
“Darlin’, I’d know you in the pitch-black.”
She rolled her eyes, laughing. “That might be an exaggeration. But I love it.”
“Did you know me right away? Please don’t tell me you had no idea who the old guy stalking you in the grocery store was.”
“You’re not an old guy. I’d have known you anywhere. Especially your eyes. Although the rest of you is considerably larger than the last time I saw you.”
I grinned. “I’d hope so. I bet I was a hundred pounds soaking wet back then.”
“To me, you were the hunkiest guy in Idaho.”
“Just Idaho?” I peeked over at her before taking hold of my piece of pizza and taking a large bite. Since my divorce, I’d been on a few online dates. Every time, I’d been astounded at how I suddenly didn’t know how to eat without making a tremendous amount of chewing noise. With Carlie, though, it was as natural as if we broke bread every day of the week.
“If only we’d been able to stay in that moment forever.” A shadow crossed her face. She reached for her water. Her hair fell over her cheeks and for a split second, thirty years vanished and I could see her exactly as she’d been at sixteen. Freckles scattered across her nose and a smile that lit up every room. Eyes that were both soulful and sweet. No makeup to speak of, other than some mascara and lip gloss. “I’ve thought about that a lot over the years. How could I have been so happy one moment and the next so utterly gutted?”
I didn’t say anything, simply reached across the table and covered her hand with mine for a few seconds.
She set aside her drink and fixed her gaze on me. No longer a girl, here was a woman in her prime. I’m sure she would disagree. Women in their forties and fifties seemed to have no idea how the years they’d lived and loved had made them even more beautiful. There was no use telling them, either.
“What?” She reached over and placed her fingertips briefly on my bare forearm. “What are you thinking about?”
“You’re beautiful. That’s what I’m thinking.”
Her brows knit together as she dabbed at the condensation on the outside of her water glass. “Do you have any idea how nice that is to hear?”
“I’ll say it again if you want.”
“Tell me what happened with your marriage,” she said.
“Short story, she fell in love with her gun instructor. Long story, we were unsuited from the start. There are no innocents when it comes to relationships. I’d withdrawn from her. She was lonely.”
She pursed her lips in a decisive way. “If you have problems, you should talk about them and try to work through them. Not cheat.”
I studied her as she crumpled the napkin into a ball. Something in our conversation had made her uncomfortable. “What is it? Did your husband cheat too?” I asked this as gently as I could, hoping to coax her to talk.
“He made what your ex-wife did look like a minor offense.” She tossed the crumpled napkin toward the end of the table, where it landed near the hot pepper shaker. “He’d been using call girls for years. It all came out in the wash, as my mother would say, when one of his prostitutes decided to blackmail him to keep quiet. She was one of many.” She brushed a stray hair from her cheek with the back of her hand. “He’s a high-tech executive. His reputation was important enough that he paid her a hundred thousand dollars before he came to me. He told me everything. It had all been going on for years.”
“Oh, God, Carlie, I’m so sorry.” Sweet, smart Carlie? How could any man do that to her?
“He said it was my fault. My coldness or something like that.”
“Wow, that takes a certain type of person.”
“I gave him the best twenty years of my life. We’d had a child together. And then, this. The ultimate humiliation.”
“I’ve never wished I had ties to a paid killer before.”
She threw her head back, laughing. When she sobered, she looked back at me. “It’s been a long time now. I’ve moved on. I’m sad about what it did to my daughter. Since she found out what happened, she hasn’t spoken to her father. That’s the only part that still keeps me up at night.”
“Even though I don’t have kids, I can understand how much that would hurt.”
“I worry about her. Will she be able to have a good relationship with a man, or will she be afraid the same thing will happen to her?”
“She has a great mom, so I think she’ll be all right.”
“I’d like to think so. It was such a blow to her. She’s changed since then. I used to call her my Babbling Brooke because she never stopped talking. These days she’s quiet. Introspective. I can see the distrust in her eyes when she meets new people.”
“The right man will be able to get through her walls.”
“You think so?”
“I do. If I recall, I had to work pretty hard to break down your tough exterior,” I said.
“What’re you talking about? I was completely head over heels for you. I just couldn’t believe a boy like you wanted me. Do you remember my glasses?”
“You were cute in those glasses.”
She reached down to the bench and pulled her phone out of her wallet. “Would you like to see a photo of Brooke?”
“Absolutely.”
She slid the phone
