AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Laura froze on her bar stool.
“Tanner? Are you related to Mark Tanner?”
Edward frowned. “My brother. Why?”
Then it all hit her at once. The resemblance was no accident. This was the brother who’d slept with Mark’s wife. Who’d stolen the boat company and now he’d bought her a drink. She felt trapped suddenly, as if the walls of the bar were closing in.
Laura felt anger bubble up in her.
“Look, I’m friends with Mark,” she said and let that sit there, hoping he took the cue and left. She didn’t really want to have to spell it out for him, but their flirting was over and so was the drink.
Edward frowned.
“Oh, so he’s told you about me, has he?”
“He has.” She tried to lace the sentence with as much meaning as she could muster. I know all about you, buddy. I know what you did. What kind of brother you are. I want nothing to do with you.
“Well, that’s a shame because there are two sides to every story. Don’t suppose you want to hear mine?” Edward asked, quirking a hopeful eyebrow.
“I don’t see how that would change things. You… I mean, what you did.” Laura lowered her voice, as if somehow the other people in the bar would overhear. She glanced at a waitress who scurried by them carrying a tray loaded with fish and chips and hamburgers and fries.
“You mean you’ve never done something wrong, something that everyone would think was terrible, but no one ever gave you the chance to explain?” Edward asked, as if he could see into her very heart. She had done something wrong. Something very wrong.
“What if I had?” she asked, daring Edward to come up with a reason to justify taking Mark’s wife and the company.
“Then you understand there are two sides to every story.”
Laura watched him, waiting.
“Did Mark tell you he lost his son?” Laura nodded once. “Did he tell you what he was like after that? What he did?”
“He was grieving,” she assumed.
“Yes, he was. But he lashed out. At everyone. At me, at his friends, at his wife. That day was a tragic accident, but he blamed his wife,” he said.
“Yes, but she fell asleep. I get it was an accident, but how irresponsible,” she said.
“I know it sounds bad. But Timothy had trouble sleeping at night. She was up with him most nights, and she was just tired. And it’s a mistake she has to live with for the rest of her life.” Edward glared at his amber-colored beer in his glass. “But Mark, he called his buddy, the police chief on the island. He came, put handcuffs on her. Took her to jail for neglect. She spent two nights there before I hired a lawyer and got the charges dropped. She might still be there if I hadn’t intervened.”
Laura wasn’t sure how she felt about that. If it was truly an accident, did she deserve jail? Then again, her fiercely protective mothering instincts took over, as she thought of Timothy, left unsupervised. Maybe she should be punished.
Laura didn’t know. The situation seemed so hard. Before she could say more, she heard someone clearing his throat behind her. When she spun on her stool, she saw Mark standing there, freshly showered and wearing a button-down white linen shirt and khaki shorts. His face seemed flushed beneath his tan, as his dark eyes flashed with anger.
“Am I interrupting something?” he asked, glaring first at her and then his brother.
CHAPTER TEN
MARK FELT THE heat rise up his neck as anger, thick and hot, flowed through him. And jealousy, too. Laura had her legs crossed at the knee, revealing the bare skin of her newly tanned legs, and she was sitting entirely too close to Edward, the man he trusted least on the entire island. They practically sprang apart when he approached, as if he’d interrupted a secret rendezvous.
Or was that just his history talking?
Laura didn’t belong to him. She couldn’t cheat on him. Yet part of him wanted her to be at least enough on his side not to have a drink with the one man he disliked most in the world.
“We just met,” Laura said quickly, green eyes wide, pleading. Her red, red lips parted and he couldn’t be mad at her. She was too damn pretty. He focused all his rage on Edward instead.
“Yes, I was just about to tell her about how you got me all wrong,” Edward said, taking a calm sip of his beer.
“I didn’t get you wrong.” I know you all too well. “Besides, don’t you have Elle at home? Where’s she?” Mark wanted to remind Edward and let Laura know that this little snake wasn’t free. He had a woman at home, after all. One he’d stolen, but still.
“She’s fine. Tired, that’s all.” Edward kept his voice even. Laura’s head swiveled back and forth as she looked from one brother to the other, clearly uncomfortable. “When are you going to learn, brother, that you’re the only one who thinks I’m the bad guy?”
