Tell No Lies by Julie Compton Read Free Book Online

passenger seat next to him. "I don't know," he said, getting out of the car and quietly closing the door. "It's late, Claire. Let's go to bed. I'm too tired to even think about this now."
    He sensed her watching his face, but he didn't look at her. He hadn't meant to sound so abrupt; she probably had a lot of questions, but he couldn't think about Earl's announcement without thinking about what had happened with Jenny. He needed time to figure out how to tell Claire.
    They didn't talk when they went into the house. Claire went back into their bedroom while Jack brushed his teeth and checked on the kids. Michael slept as usual, his body curled up in the fetal position with the covers pulled up close near his chin. It was his three-year-old son, Jamie, who caused Jack to pause. He stood next to Jamie's bed, staring at his small body lying uncovered on a tangle of sheets and blankets. His mouth was open, his still-girlish lips forming an imperfect circle. In the darkness of the room, with only a few shadows visible from the starred but moonless night, Jack stared at him. The guilt from Jack's long-abandoned religious upbringing surfaced, and he hated that he still allowed it to haunt him. Finally, he sighed, bent down, and kissed Jamie's sweaty, sweet-smelling forehead.
 
    When he returned to the master bedroom, Claire was still awake, sitting up in bed in the dark, waiting for him. He climbed in next to her, but in the room's blackness the images of Jenny and her parted lips returned. He rolled over on his side, away from Claire. The cicadas had stopped for the night and the room was still.
    "Jack?" Despite the softness with which she spoke, her voice shattered the fragile silence.
    "Yeah?"
    "What is it? There's something else on your mind."
    "Yeah."
    She didn't say "tell me" or "what is it?' or anything at all. She just waited. Jack wondered whether relief would come once he'd told her the truth. But what happens if you tell your wife that you kissed another woman? She'd be hurt, he'd say he was sorry—it didn't mean anything, and then it would all just blow over, wouldn't it? After all, he reminded himself again, it was just a kiss.
    "I've been thinking . . . what would you think about me running for District Attorney?"
     
    The next day, Jack slept in. The first time he woke, around seven, the bed was empty and he could vaguely hear the noises downstairs of Claire getting Michael and Jamie ready for school. He smelled coffee and he knew this was Claire's way of tempting him to get up; she didn't drink it. He knew he should drag himself out of bed and go down and have breakfast with them, especially since he hadn't seen his children last night. But he didn't feel he could face his wife. He wondered if he would ever be comfortable around her again, and felt a sick kind of admiration for men who had real affairs and seemed unaffected by them. It was just a kiss, he reminded himself once again. Resolving to just forget about it, he pulled the covers over his head and tried to go back to sleep.
 
    By the time he woke for good, at close to ten, the house was quiet. He was surprised that she hadn't wakened him to say goodbye. Maybe she was on to him. No, she couldn't be. She hadn't inquired more about Jenny, and she'd been genuinely interested the night before when he'd suggested the idea of running for DA. His paranoia was nothing more than that; his own exaggerated fear of being found out.
    As he stood in the shower, running the water as hot as he could bear, he thought about what he would say to Jenny the next time they talked, and he wondered when that would be. Should he just pretend it had never happened? Maybe she had been drunk enough that she wouldn't even remember. He doubted that. He could say something trite like "it didn't mean anything," but he was smart enough about women to know that they took that kind of statement as a direct insult.
    He closed his eyes and let the water pour down over his head. The inside of