And then he’d seen the cop car right behind her.
“No, I got the soup. Ate it at your kitchen table, actually. Nonnie wanted to chat.”
If she could sit and chat with his grandmother, she must be all right.
Leaning against a wall in the break room, he slid down to the bench beside him, breathing easier. “I’ll bet she did,” he said. Based on the not-so-subtle inquisition he’d been subjected to that morning, pertaining to his late-night visit with Addy the previous night, he cringed at the thought of what Addy had been put through.
“Who was the victor?” he asked.
“I’m not sure,” she said. “I think that remains to be seen.”
“When?”
“Sometime in the future.” That future they’d talked about the previous night?
“I passed you on the way to work,” he told her because he approached life from the front line. Always. “You were pulling out of the state park land.?
?
“You did?”
“Yeah, but I noticed you too late to honk.”
“I didn’t see you.”
“There was a cop car right behind you.”
“Oh.”
“Everything okay?”
“Yes. Everything’s fine.” Was it his imagination or did she suddenly sound different?
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
“Okay.” It wasn’t like she owed him any kind of explanation. It was just odd.
He didn’t think for one second that Addy was seeing someone else. There’d be no reason to lie to him about that. Or any reason to ask for a future with him if it were so.
“Are you in some kind of trouble?”
“No.” She didn’t give him any more.
* * *
MARK WAS A SMART man. He knew something was up.
Which meant that she was either going to have to engage in more lies, or tell him the truth.
The idea made her blood run cold. She’d lose him for sure.
Or would she?
If he really cared, he’d know that Adele was only a cover, like a piece of clothing she had to wear for a short time—that the woman he cared for was Adrianna. Once he got past the initial shock, Mark would forgive her for the betrayal.
Or not.