Everything Nice by Mari Carr Read Free Book Online Page B

since his passing, but she felt strongly that grief was a private thing and there was no way she’d break down in front of Charlie, despite her anger over the third degree.
    “I’m sorry,” he said softly, pulling her up and enveloping her in his embrace. His compassion and the genuine sorrow in his voice caught her unaware and she felt the tears she’d kept locked away since Jim’s death break free.
    “Damn you,” she said as she tried to stop crying. “Why does any of this matter? Why bring up all this ancient history?”
    “It’s my fault.” Alex’s voice drifted to them from across the room.
    Allie jerked out of Charlie’s embrace, surprised to find Alex in the doorway. Like Charlie, he’d only half dressed and was wearing a pair of tatty jeans. How long had he been listening to their conversation?
    “What?” she asked.
    “It was my fault you left. I pressured you that night by the bonfire, Allie. You were still young and I asked you for way more than you were ready to give,” Alex replied.
    “What did you say that night?” Charlie asked, and Allie could feel the walls closing in on them. The happiness of the previous night vanishing with the accusations, the jealousy, the suspicions. How could they have fallen so far, so fast? When she’d woken up this morning, she’d felt years younger and lighter than air. She hated drudging through the past, especially when none of it mattered.
    “He said he wanted a ménage. Between the three of us,” Allie replied. “But that’s not why I left town.”
    “Sure it’s not,” Alex answered sarcastically.
    Allie raised her eyebrows at him and grinned. “I wanted both of you even then, Alex. I really did. But dammit , I knew what would happen if I gave in to that desire.”
    “What would have happened?” Alex asked, and she sensed he was relieved by her words, if not wholly convinced.
    “I would have stayed. I would have ended up in bed with both of you and it would have been wonderful and terrible at the same time.”
    “Why?” Charlie asked.
    “Because I had too much I wanted to experience, to do. I wanted you, but if I’d given in to the attraction, the passion, I would never have gone off on my own. I would have let myself be sucked into your lives and I would still be working in that damn diner and dreaming of far-off places and reckless adventures. Staying here would have killed me.”
    “We would have taken you places, Allie. Let you experience all those things.” Charlie’s words were sincere, yet Allie couldn’t help the laugh of disbelief that flew from her lips.
    “Ha! If I’d told you I wanted to bungee jump off a bridge, Charlie, what would you have said?”
    His eyebrows furrowed and she watched him struggle to give her an honest answer. “I’d have said it was too dangerous.”
    She giggled at his response and leaned forward to kiss him gently on the cheek. “That’s exactly what you would have said, and I would have respected your feelings and chances are very good I would have skipped the bungee jumping even though I desperately wanted to try it. How do you feel about skydiving?”
    Alex growled. “I would have let you go, but I would have strapped you to me.”
    Allie laughed at his confession. “I went solo several times and it was exhilarating.”
    “Don’t say any more,” Charlie said quickly. “I have more than enough gray hair from just hearing Ginny read your letters over the years. I don’t think I wanna hear firsthand accounts of every reckless, crazy, insane thing you did.”
    Allie shook her head, grinning. “I didn’t think any of those things were insane. And I wouldn’t change one second of the past six years.”
    “So Griffin let you do all that stuff?” Alex asked.
    “I’d known Jim my whole life. He and my dad were good friends, but he changed after his wife died. They were married thirty years and he’d spent the majority of his life working and accumulating a ridiculous pile of money. When