I march into the front bedroom and start picking up clothes off the floor, and the chair, and the bed, and shove them into my duffle bag. “What a jerk,” I mumble, thinking of Rob, but really aiming my words at Mike. Seriously, do all guys cheat? Are they incapable of fidelity? What is the point of being in a relationship if they cannot control their little, uh, urges? I shake my head and rush into the bathroom and slide all my toiletries from the counter into the unzipped bag. I head into the shower and grab my shampoo, conditioner, and razor. When I turn around, I find Courtney, sans sand and wrapped in a fresh towel. “We need to talk.”
“I’m not the one you need to talk to.”
She steps toward me. “I can’t tell her and you know it.” She swallows a knot and her eyes fall to the ground. “Because she would never forgive me.”
“I wouldn’t forgive you either. Heck, he’s not even my boyfriend, and look how pissed off I am!” I shove her aside and grab my phone and car keys off the night stand.
“Don’t go,” she manages.
“I can’t stay, Courtney.” I cross the room and head toward the door. “And I won’t be the one to tell her either.” I swallow a horrific flashback before it pervades my mind. “I’ll leave that to you and Rob.” I put my hand on the door knob. “And I hope to God, you two aren’t still…” I turn and face her, realization swelling inside of me. “Or maybe that’s what you were doing while she and I were taking a walk, huh?”
“No, we weren’t.” She walks toward me, pleading. “You have to listen to me, Callie. You have to.” I pause, considering her pleas, but I have no desire to hear the details. Sickness swirls in my stomach. “Please,” she begs, the word catching in a choppy breath. “I can’t tell anyone else…and I sorta’ already told you.”
“Fine.” I drop my duffle bag on the floor. “You have five minutes, but then I’m leaving.” We cross the room and sit on the edge of the bed, and she swipes a tear from her face. “It all happened a week after Chloe left for her Grandma’s house. Mrs. Callahan called me and asked me to come over to hang out with Rob. She needed to take Riley to an audition and was going to be out of the house for the day.” I see where this is headed, but I sit in silence, wanting the confession to be over. “So—when I get there, he was still in bed, sleeping¸ so I crawled under the covers and joined him.”
I push out a breath and glare at her. “Do I really need to hear the rest?”
“Yes, you have to understand why this happened.”
“I don’t see why I have to know anything.”
“Who else am I going to tell? Plus, you’re good at keeping secrets.”
Yeah, I am sort of a vault. After all, I am moving to Tennessee in a week, and I haven’t told anyone about it. Who would be able to keep that kind of secret?
“So Chloe had been gone for a week, and I was the only one he would talk to. He thought she may not come back, and if she did, he figured it was over between them.” She wrings her hands. “We both thought it was over, but I never knew why she left. He still protected her secret, so I had no idea about the rape yet.”
“I can see,” I begin, “why you thought it was okay to…”
“Kiss,” she finishes. “That’s all we did.” She sighs. “Because when he woke up and realized it was me in his bed, he freaked out.”
“So, let me get this straight, you kissed him while he was sleeping, and when he woke up, he stopped you.”
She nods and then drops her face into her palms.
“Oh my goodness! He’s a saint!”
“Yeah, tell me something I didn’t already know,” she mumbles.
I eye her, watching her get up and cross the room. She tilts the blinds and lets the light spill into the room. “Tell me, Courtney, what hurts you more: rejection from one friend or betraying another?”
She stares back at me, her lips pressed into a straight line. A tear slides down her cheek. “I just want what they have. Is that so wrong?”
“Yes.” I pause, giving her the disapproval stare. “And you could have had it with Josh. He and Rob are cousins and cut from the same mold. My god, what guy is better than Josh Callahan? His family owns five car dealerships and a ranch that sprawls down the river. Not to mention, he’s hot, smart, and genuinely nice.”
“Well, I screwed that up.”
“You have Ian,” I offer.
“Until I mess that up.”
“Who knew you could be so self-loathing?”
She shakes her head. “I’ve had a rough summer.”
“Haven’t we all?”
“Not Caitlyn,” she suggests.
“She dates Brandon Edwards. That’s got to be painful.”
Courtney imitates Caitlyn’s perfect smile. “Not that way she describes it.”
I stand up, sigh deeply, and place my hands across my heart. “Brandon is the best boyfriend in the world. Today he let me rub his dry, calloused feet for an hour.”
“That is so hilarious, but I can’t even laugh right now,” Courtney replies evenly. “You think I should talk to Chloe?”
“I don’t know.” I glance over at her. “What does Rob think?”
“He thinks it would hurt her.”
“Then you should wait to tell her¬—wait to apologize, but until then, it’ll just be another secret of the Seven Cs, waiting for the right moment to be revealed.”
“Hmm,” we say in unison, separately thinking of all the secrets we keep in the name of friendship.
*****
The Secrets We Keep Page 12