Things We Never Said (Hart's Boardwalk 3)

Jesus Christ. His wife was barely out of their bed, and she was already shacking up with someone new. And not just anyone, his goddamn friend. Michael knew his marriage was a mistake, and he’d known that for a long time, but that didn’t mean this didn’t sting.

“Guess the part where she told me my job was part of the reason our marriage didn’t work was a lie, huh?”

Bronson frowned. “She said that?”

You bet she’d fuckin’ said that. And that was when he worked the day shift. “Yeah, warning you now, Kiersten isn’t the kind of woman who wants to know about your day.”

“The shit I see? I wouldn’t put that on her anyway.”

Yeah, Michael hadn’t either. But Kiersten didn’t even ask him the simplest “How has your day been?”

Maybe that was just their relationship. Perhaps she’d be different with someone else.

And, truthfully, Michael wanted that for her. It was unexpected that she was trying to find it with a friend of his, and so soon, but Nick was a good guy.

He should be more upset than he was.

Part of him was almost relieved.

Did this mean he didn’t have to feel so guilty anymore?

Exhaustion deflated him. He held out his hand to Bronson, who took it, relief relaxing his features. “Take care of her.”

“Thanks, Mike. I appreciate it.”

“Well, I appreciate you telling me.”

They shared a nod and Michael left his friend, his tired brain now wired with this new information. As he drove home to his one-bedroom apartment in Chelsea, he thought of all the shit Kiersten had spewed at him during their many arguments. His job was depressing. He worked too many hours, and the pay wasn’t even that great. They needed more money. They needed a bigger house, nicer things.

Their house had been in Everett, and despite all the crap she’d given him about money, Kiersten wasn’t vindictive. She knew he couldn’t afford to keep up mortgage payments and get an apartment near the city. Instead, she’d gone back to her parents’ house in Southie, and they’d put the Everett house up for sale. Any equity would be split between them.

Michael sighed, feeling a weight compress his chest.

He’d never understood most of Kiersten’s complaints but at the base of them was her foremost: that he was distant with her. That he kept putting off having kids with her.

At the time, Michael hadn’t delved into it. He thought he was doing his best as a husband. After that ill-timed vacation in Hartwell to fix things between them, he realized all the crap Kiersten had been giving him over the years came from that belief—that he was distant with her.

That he didn’t love her the way she loved him.

/> Seeing his reaction to Dahlia—finding out who she was—it was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

They’d gone home the next morning, and Kiersten packed a suitcase and left.

The weight tightened like a vise around his ribs, and he squeezed his hands around the steering wheel. Of all the places to bump into Dahlia McGuire, it would be on fuckin’ vacation.

Seeing her had messed with his head. He’d thought he’d get over it like he did her leaving in the first place, but the memory of seeing her in that bookshop lingered. The stricken look on her face kept replaying over and over in his head.

She had to be as beautiful as he remembered, didn’t she? She couldn’t have gotten bitter and old-looking. No, that would be too fair. His own bitterness twisted in his chest. Michael hadn’t even known it was still there. He’d thought meeting Kiersten four years ago, settling down with her, meant he’d moved on.

Clearly, he hadn’t.

But Michael would not make the same mistake twice.

The woman Michael had fallen in love with had died when Dillon died, and the person left behind in her body was a coward who’d proven she didn’t love him the way he had loved her.

Michael pulled up to the triple-decker that had been converted into apartments and stared up at the second floor where his small one-bedroom was housed. Thirty-four years old and he was staying in a fuckin’ bachelor pad, starting over again.

He thought of Bronson and Kiersten. His wife wasn’t a stupid woman. She was strong and opinionated, and he’d always thought she was up-front about how she felt. But if she was now dating Nick after telling Michael for months that his job was the problem, then she’d been lying.