Gage (Men of Honor 1)

Holly

* * *

By the time I met Lisa and Tracy at the table I was back to being confused and feeling not so good about the way I’d just acted. “What’s wrong? You get hit in the head by a ball or something?” Tracy, the more outspoken of my two friends asked as I took the seat the server held out for me.

I wasn’t sure if I should tell them what was going on. So far I’ve been keeping my unease about Donna concealed, and now with my new doubts I wasn’t sure that it would be fair to voice my earlier suspicions. If it turns out that I’m wrong, then I’d be casting aspersions against her character that aren’t warranted.

I looked around the table at the two of them as the waiter poured me a glass of water from the bottle they’d left chilling in the ice bucket. I waited for him to walk away after presenting me with the menu before leaning in so no one at the surrounding tables would overhear. They’ve been my friends forever and there isn’t much we haven’t shared over the years since college.

I’d been lucky enough to meet them both my first year there and even luckier to learn that they lived not far from the town where I was born and raised. That thankfully, is where our similarities ended. Both are way more worldly and outgoing and had played a huge part in dragging me out of my shell during my college days.

If not for them and aunt Emma I may have endured a very horrible time on campus and the bond we’d formed over those four years together, especially after pledging the same sorority is one that I expect will last for a lifetime. So, with that reminder in mind, I opened up and told them what not only I, but my husband suspected.

“Oh thank fuck!”

“Tracy!” I scolded when she lifted her glass for a sip of water.

“What? We were discussing that all last night. I thought for sure it had gone over your head but I should’ve known that man of yours at least would’ve picked up on it.”

“What do you mean? You knew?” She rolled her eyes at me and I looked at Lisa, who had been the one Donna had approached to make her way into our little circle. “I’m sorry Holly, I thought you two were friends, or at the very least acquaintances, had I known what she was up to I never would’ve invited her along yesterday.”

“It’s okay it’s not your fault.”

“Yes it is. That whole thing could’ve gone really south if Gage and your mother in law hadn’t shown up. But then again, it’s only after he showed up and I saw how she acted that I started to suspect. Forgive me?” Lisa reached across the table and squeezed my hand.

“Of course, nothing to forgive.”

“Oh shit she’s here. Don’t look, don’t look don’t look.” I fought hard not to turn around at Tracy’s words while she sipped at her water and looked everywhere but at Donna who I was sure was standing in the doorway.

“Let’s pretend we’re caught up in conversation.” That was Lisa’s suggestion and the three of us started talking animatedly as if we were discussing something of great importance. All the while my heart was beating in my lungs and that sick feeling was threatening to make me gag.

I’ve never been good at confrontation and I hate that feeling of being mean to another human being, but what was the alternative? Should I spend another afternoon listening to her talk about my husband as if he were hers?

Should I bite yet another hole in my tongue so as to keep my words of anger behind my teeth? I saw Gage’s face in my mind’s eye, heard his words of encouragement from the day before and sat up straight. As much as I wished he were here again to shield me from her barbs, as his wife, the only woman in his life, I have to guard my territory.

Donna’s shadow fell across the table in the afternoon sunlight that blazed through the UV protected glass windows and I still didn’t turn my head to look at her. “Good afternoon ladies, fancy meeting you here.”

I recognized her temerity in that moment when none of us responded with anything more than the look Tracy threw her way and she was still able to keep that smile on her face.

Had that been me and a table of women ignored me so staunchly, making it obvious that I was neither welcome nor wanted, I would’ve slithered away to lick my wounds and spend maybe a whole week in bed to recover. Not Donna, she actually had the nerve to pull the one remaining chair out from the table and sat down.