Page 79 of Snowed In With the Mountain Man
JJ wished he could lie, but he couldn’t. One lie now would cause a thousand problems later, and for some reason, he didn’t want to risk this newfound friendship with Dahlia. He knew it couldn’t go anywhere. He suspected she wouldn’t want it to, even if she was sticking around. But he refused to ruin what they’d built between them with lies.
So, he blurted out the truth. “She was my wife.”
Dahlia’s eyes widened, her mouth hanging open until she gathered her wits enough to reply. “You’ve been married?”
“For a short time.”
He could practically see the questions racing through her mind. He swallowed hard as he battled with how much to tell her. Where to even start.
“Here?” Dahlia said, her brows drawn together in confusion. “I mean, was she someone you met here in—”
“No.” His tongue felt thick and heavy. This was why he never wanted to discuss his past. He had no idea how. He didn’t have the words. And besides, no one ever tried to pry. They could sense immediately that he wouldn’t go there.
But Dahlia was a different story. She wasn’t the type to settle for some vague answers.
“So you were married… in South Carolina?”
He nodded.
“And then?” she prompted, an edge of impatience in her tone. His Dahlia clearly had no patience for hedging or half-truths.
He swallowed hard.His Dahlia?When had he started thinking of her as his anything?
“And then…” he started. Oh heck, there was only one way to finish. “Then I left.”
“You left,” Dahlia repeated. Her whole demeanor shifted right in front of his eyes. This was no fun poker partner, and it wasn’t even the fiery dragon her sisters seemed to see.
No, sir. This woman before him was pure ice.
“You left your wife?” Her tone was impossible to read, the hollow look in her eyes so much worse than her poker face.
He leaned forward. “It wasn’t quite that simple. I—”
“No, I understand. It didn’t work out. It got too hard, so you quit. It happens, right?”
She shot out of her chair before he could stop her.
And that was when he noticed that her chest was rising and falling too quickly, her hands clenched into fists at her sides.
Her extreme reaction rendered him speechless.
She was heading toward the door before he could get a word out.
“People always quit,” she muttered. “It doesn’t matter that she might have problems of her own. She’s just too impossible to live with, was that it? Why suffer for the rest of your life when you can be free!”
He shook his head as he followed her, his own pain and anger lost in the sheer shock of her over-the-top reaction.
“Look, Lia, you don’t even know what happened.”
“I don’t need to hear your story! It always ends the same!”
He gaped at her as she yanked open the door.
“What are you doing?” His voice was clipped with urgency.
“Leaving is always the easier option.” She gave him a pointed look… and then stormed right out into the raging blizzard.
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