I Have a Secret (A Sloane Monroe Novel, Book Three) by Cheryl Bradshaw Read Free Book Online Page B

rubbed her hands up and down her bare arms.  “Do you, ah, drink coffee?  There’s a great place around the corner if you don’t have any plans.”
    I smiled.  “Your car or mine?”

    The diner was closed when we got there so we opted for hot beverages from a metal dispenser at a gas station and sat in my car with the heater on high. 
    “Have you been to AA before?” she said.
    I shook my head.  “First time.”
    “It’s a great group.  You’ll like it.”
    “Actually, I’m not umm…”
    She reached out her hand and pressed her fingers into my arm.  “It’s okay…I know how you feel.  It’s always hard the first time.  The good thing is you took a step today that will change your life.”
    I felt too guilty to continue the farce any longer, especially when she was a recovering alcoholic herself.  “I don’t have a drinking problem.”
    Her face twisted into ten different kinds of confused before she said, “You don’t have to deny it any longer. Once you attend a few more meetings you’ll realize we’re like the family you never knew you had, and now that you have us, we’ll always be here.”
    “No listen,” I said, “I wasn’t there because I have a problem.”
    She shook her head like she still didn’t believe me.  “Why else would you go?”
    “How long were you Doug’s sponsor?” I said.
    “A few months.  He said he’d been trying to come for years, but it’s not easy.  If you can make it through the door and face your friends and neighbors, it’s considered a big deal, especially in this town.” 
    “I wonder what made him commit.”
    “Trista.”
    “She made him go?”
    Heather shook her head. “She’d started taking med’s. I guess that reality gave him the push he needed.”
    I took a sip of my drink and set it down in the cup holder. “Why?”
    “Doug said she was depressed. He blamed himself and thought if he could stop drinking, maybe she’d start to care again.”
    “What made him think she didn’t?”
    Heather shook her head. “I don’t know what kind of dose they had her on, but it was high enough to make her behave like she was in a coma. He’d come home and she hadn’t made dinner like she usually did, the house was a mess, the twins had destroyed the place…”
    “And where was Trista while all this was happening?”
    “In bed most days with the door locked behind her.  The kids basically fended for themselves.”
    “You seem to know a lot about their situation,” I said. 
    She shrugged.  “I guess.”
    “Do all sponsors get this involved in their partners personal life?”
    Heather scratched behind her ear. “He needed someone to talk to, and I was there.”
    “Well then, it was good he had you for a friend.”
    She placed her coffee cup on the center console between us. “Yeah, I guess that’s why I got so emotional in there.”
    “If you two were so close, maybe you can tell me why you think he’s dead,” I said. 
    “Whoa—what makes you think I know?”
    I wiggled my arms up and down. “You seem to know everything else.”
    “I was shocked when I found out what happened. Everyone loved Doug.”
    “I’ve heard that a lot lately,” I said, “but at least one person didn’t feel that way.”
    “I don’t understand what you mean. I was told he got drunk and fell over the railing on the ship.”
    I shook my head. “I was there, on the boat. I saw the surveillance camera. He didn’t fall over the side; he was stabbed and then thrown over.”
    She clasped her hand over her mouth and flicked her head from side to side. “Rusty died from a stab wound too, didn’t he?  I can’t believe it. What does it mean? I don’t understand what’s happening.”
    Heather stuck a couple fingers in her mouth and bit down. 
    I looked away.
    “I know I shouldn’t,” she said. 
    “What?”
    “Bite my nails. Can’t help it. I always do it when I’m nervous. Sometimes I bite them down so far, they bleed.”
    I turned back