Page 65 of Loud Unspoken Memories

Guilt courses through me at the idea that she might know everything about what I’ve been doing. My actions. My thoughts. Is she somehow watching me, feeling betrayed at how easily I jumped into bed with Marti?

Fuck.

I sit on the closed toilet waiting for the feeling to pass.

It doesn’t.

After staying in the bathroom far longer than necessary, I go out, get properly dressed, then pour hot water into a mug, mixing it with my emergency stash of instant coffee.

When I hand it to Marti, she looks at me inquisitively. “Everything okay?”

“Yes,” I lie and gesture to Bex. “I just really need to get this guy outside.”

“You know where I’ll be.” She chuckles, sinking deeper into the covers. “I suppose I’ll get up and shower eventually, but rightnow, the thought of it is even more unappealing than staying all sticky.”

“Alright then. I’ll see you later.”

She tilts her head, staring at me oddly. I turn and call to Bex as he excitedly races to the door.

~ ~ ~

Three hours later and half frozen, I go back inside, having let the dog in long ago. Bex is sleeping in front of the fire, and Marti is still in bed working on her laptop.

She shuts the lid quickly.

I lift an amused brow. “Don’t tell me you were watching porn.”

She guffaws. “Of course not.”

“It’s okay if you were.”

She rolls her eyes. “I do not watch porn, Dallas. Do you?”

I shrug. “It’s been a while.” I take my coat off and warm my hands by the fire. “So why the secrecy then? You slammed that thing shut so fast I’m surprised you didn’t break it.”

“I was… just trying to get a little work done.”

I narrow my eyes at her. “You’re lying.”

Her arms fold across her body defensively. “I am not.”

“You want to know how I know you’re lying?” I stride over and pull her lower lip from her teeth. “You bite your lip when you lie. You also bite it when you’re shy. And horny. But after the last twenty-four hours, I doubt you’re either of those. So, tell me, Martina Alexandra Carver, what exactly is it you don’t want me to see? Because I’m not moving until you tell me.”

I try to push away the guilt that niggles at the edge of my consciousness. Half of my time outside was spent convincing myself I was going to keep my distance. Put up a wall between us. Put a stop to… whatever seems to be happening here. Butthe moment I walked back in and saw her, my resolve instantly began crumbling.

And now she has a secret. Something she doesn’t want me to see. It’s not a bad secret, based on the look on her face. But maybe an embarrassing one. If curiosity killed the cat, I’m as dead as a feline surrounded by a pack of wild dogs.

I sit on the edge of the bed, knee up on the mattress, facing her. “Come on, show me. How bad could it be?”

An eruption of pink crosses her cheeks. “Okay, but please understand I was just fooling around. It’s not anything serious.”

She opens her laptop, types in the passcode, shifts the screen so I can see it, and closes her eyes.

My jaw hits the mattress as my brain wraps around what I’m seeing. The screen is split. On the right is our website: Montana Winery. On the left is a bunch of graphics I’ve never seen before. Graphics that include the business name, wine labels, logos, and all kinds of other branding stuff.

I’m completely dumbfounded. “How long was I out there?”

Her eyes open. “I told you, I was just messing around. I was bored and didn’t feel like doing any real work.”

---