Slow Dancing on Price's Pier by Lisa Dale Read Free Book Online Page B

anyway.”
    Rochelle was looking at her, studying. Her cute round face was full of compassion—but a kind of intelligent scrutiny as well. “There’s more, isn’t there? There’s more to this than your husband’s affair.”
    â€œIs there someone else?” Claudine asked.
    Thea shook her head, appalled. “I’ve never been unfaithful.”
    Claudine’s lips curled into a grin. “That doesn’t quite answer the question,” she said.
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    It hadn’t taken much convincing to talk Jonathan into playing hooky from work—he always was easy to persuade—and so on the last Tuesday of the month, they bought tickets for the ferry and decided to spend the day on Block Island, away from the crush of the crowds. Now Garret floated with his brother in a shallow saltwater cove, the tide barely moving their kayaks along the surface of the water. The air tasted of salt and sunshine, and Garret watched as the color began to come back into his brother’s face.
    â€œNot bad, eh?” Garret took a big breath, felt his nostrils flare with the effort. Low green reeds edged the glassy water around them. “Worth bailing on work?”
    Jonathan laughed. “And then some.”
    â€œCome on!” Garret began to paddle, leading them deeper into the verdant, snaking rivulets of the salt pond as the nose of the kayak cut a path through the water. The sun beat down hot on the back of Garret’s neck. Schools of fish darted beneath them, and birds twisted in the air overhead. Garret’s arms began to burn, and when Jonathan caught up with him, they were both breathing hard. They spent a few minutes drifting to catch their breath.
    â€œDo you do this a lot?” Jonathan asked.
    â€œEnough,” Garret said. “I try to get out here a few times a month during the summer. At least that.”
    Jonathan adjusted the brim of his baseball cap. “We’ve got to get Irina out here with us next time. She’d love it.”
    â€œYeah. She’s quite an athlete.”
    â€œShe gets it from her mother,” Jonathan said, smiling. “That and her stubborn streak.”
    As long as that’s all she got, Garret thought. And from the way Jonathan turned his head, he wondered if his brother had heard.
    â€œCan I ask you a question?”
    Garret trailed his hand in the cool water, the pressure of the current pushing against his palm. “Shoot.”
    â€œI know you were mad at Thea for marrying me—”
    â€œWater under the bridge,” Garret said, laughing.
    Jonathan frowned. “The question is, why weren’t you mad at me for marrying her ? Why didn’t you stop talking to me too?”
    Garret laughed again. “I did stop talking to you.”
    â€œBut only for a little while,” Jonathan said.
    Garret dug into his lunch bag for a bottle of water. He hadn’t brought his brother out here for a heart-to-heart. And yet, he should have seen it coming. He and Jonathan had almost always been on speaking terms, but there was no denying that their relationship had cooled—maybe even frozen—in the years since Jonathan and Thea married. Only the potential for divorce had made an opening for Garret to truly seek out a friendship with his brother again.
    â€œThat’s all in the past,” Garret said. “Let’s just forget it. Upward and onward. We’ve got a lot of life ahead of us now—to make up for lost time.”
    â€œI guess you’re right. I’m just trying to understand.”
    Garret screwed down the cap of his water bottle overly tight. He knew exactly what Jonathan was getting at—but the subject was off-limits. Over the years Garret had come to terms with his brother’s marriage to Thea. Where Jonathan was concerned, Garret had done what he could to forgive and forget. Jonathan was his brother, after all.
    But he would never in his life offer that