Page 38 of The Banned Books Club
If you’re willing, please come over—or suggest somewhere else we could meet—so we can have a few minutes to chat. I swear I won’t mistreat you. I won’t even raise my voice. And I won’t keep you more than a few minutes. I just really want to talk.
Thanks for your consideration.
—Cormac
“Oh, God,” Gia muttered. She didn’t want to meet with Cormac. Why would she go over to his place—stroll into the proverbial lion’s den—to discuss something she wished she could just block out of her mind? And if she didn’t do that, where else could she even suggest?
She folded the note along the same crease lines.Nope, she told herself. It didn’t matter how nicely he’d asked. She didn’t have to do it, didn’t owe him anything.
But would he interpret her refusal as guilt? Assume she was ashamed of her behavior?
She didn’t care, she decided. There was no way to convince him of the truth. If he didn’t believe her after sitting through the trial, he wasn’t going to believe her now. He’d said it himself—he didn’twantto believe her.
Except...the sympathy people in town were giving the Harts was costing her friends. She hadn’t spoken to Ruth since they’d had drinks together the other night, and Sammie had sort of tried to defend Ruth when she’d called the day after to smooth everything over. Gia could tell she was getting caught in the middle, but she felt Ruth would probably receive more of her loyalty in the end since she lived here and Sammie saw her so much more often.
Besides, Cormac had been young and emotional back when they’d had that confrontation at school. So had she. Maybe theyshouldtalk as adults and try to ease the pain Mr. Hart had caused so they could all find some type of closure. She’d never wanted his family to be hurt; she wishedsomeonewould understand that...
Gia put the note back under the rock so it wouldn’t blow away or get wet while she went back to the hot tub, where—instead of watching the movie—she spent the next twenty minutes staring at it and going back and forth in her mind as to whether she should actually meet with him.
Fortunately, by the time she got out, it was too late to go to anyone’s house, so she didn’t have to wrestle with herself any longer tonight.
She’d put the onus back on him, she decided at last. If he really wanted to talk to her, she’d give him the chance. But she wasn’t going to show up at his place, especially in the middle of the night. The only reason she was willing to meet him at all was because he’d shown so much restraint at his office. He could’ve piled on. Louisa had certainly wanted him to. And yet he’d apologized for her and treated Gia with respect.
After she got out of the water, she went inside and showered. Then she dressed in a warm pair of sweats, wrote a note of her own and used the same rock as an anchor when she left it on his back doorstep.
11
Cormac banged loudly on his mother’s door. Now that she was dating, he rarely swung by unannounced, especially in the evening or early morning. He was afraid of what he might encounter. If she was sleeping with someone, he didn’t want to know about it. That was her business entirely. But he’d just dropped off Mrs. Wood and Astro and had a few minutes before he had to hurry home and shower. Fortunately, his first appointment at the clinic had canceled; he didn’t need to be at work until ten.
Finally, through the narrow side window, he could see his mother shuffling to the door while belting her robe, her short gray hair sticking up in back where her head had obviously been resting on the pillow.
“What is it?” she asked as soon as she let him in. “Is there some sort of emergency?” Her gaze swept over him in alarm. “Are you okay?”
He lifted his hands to signal that she could quit looking for injuries. “I’m fine. I just...wanted to talk to you.”
Now that she knew her nursing skills weren’t required, she scowled at him. “And you couldn’t have called me later? You had to wake me up at seven thirty in the morning?”
He gave her a sheepish look. “I’ve been up since five. Seven thirty isn’t allthatearly, is it?”
“It is to me,” she replied. “I worked late last night.”
“I’m sorry. I should’ve waited.”
She blinked at him. “But?”
But he’d looked out the window first thing this morning and noticed that the rock he’d left on the chaise in the Rossi yard was gone. Gia had probably gotten the note he’d written—or someone else in the family had—and yet she hadn’t come by. Maybe it’d been too late. But he couldn’t help being skeptical that she’d ever be willing to talk to him, which left him with no way to resolve the conflict inside him.
“I need to know something. Why did you divorce Dad?Didhe molest Gia?”
Her jaw dropped. “What the heck, Cormac! You hit me with this at the crack of dawn seventeen years after the fact? Why’d you wait so long?”
He probably should’ve gone home and showered, then dropped by on his way to work. He was damp from running and getting a chill despite the well-worn Hart Veterinary Clinic sweatshirt he wore with his running shorts. “I...” He let his words trail off because he wasn’t sure how to express that it was loyalty that’d stopped him. He felt guilty even now for trying to verify his father’s story.
Besides, actually saying what he was thinking would identify him as a traitor, make it impossible to take back.
But the truth was the truth. He figured he might as well face it. “I was afraid of what you might say.”
“And you’re not anymore? What’s changed? You’re tired of putting up with the way he lives his life?”
