Page 17 of Ripple Effect
I get a little choked up. “Thanks, Sam.” Before him, I can’t say I really had a friend. Acquaintances, sure. But Sam might be my first friend. Of course, I wasn’t leaving him to come back to this alone.
A small smile flirts with Sam’s lips. “You know, Iris is so much like you it’s scary. If it weren’t for the fact you have a dick, I’m not sure which of you I’d have fallen for.”
“You’re such a douche,” I laugh in his face. I take another bite of cake just as I hear behind me, “You’re only just recognizing this? Tsk, tsk. And here I thought Sam presented those traits much earlier than now. Maybe around birth?” The voice is smooth as honey.
I don’t have to guess the owner as only one woman’s voice has ever caused chills to race down my spine. “Libby.” I stand to face her.
No more than a foot separates us, but the distance on her face means it could be miles. “I’m so sorry for your loss.” Now that I’m close enough to touch her, those words sound so lame in face of the devastation I can clearly read on her face. I reach out to touch her hand, and worry makes the delicious cake I ate curdle in my stomach when I feel how cold her skin is. “I’m here for anything you need. Anything.” And I find myself meaning it. If Libby only wants to use my shoulder to cry out the emotions running through her like a virus, then I’ll be there for every tear.
I don’t understand what it is that makes me want to fix the world so she’ll smile in it.
Stepping back so my hand drops, Libby’s dead voice says, “Don’t say something unless you mean it, Cal. I’m all too familiar with men saying pretty words and then not following up on them.”
Her words are like a well-aimed kick when sparring. I feel like dropping to my knees and begging for forgiveness for breaking our date years ago. “Libby…” I start, but she turns toward Sam.
“Your parents are wondering if you plan on mingling with any of the family. Your friend is certainly welcome to join you.” Without another word to either of us, Libby glides away. The black she’s wearing makes her look pale and aloof, untouchable. There’s no laughter in her face.
“I guess I wouldn’t either if I’d just lost someone I love,” I mutter aloud.
“What?” Sam asks. His face, filled with humor before, is much more solemn.
“Laugh. Libby looks…haunted.”
Sam looks stunned for a moment before he shakes his head. “Cal, I don’t know how to tell you this.”
Frowning, I face him. “Tell me what?”
“ThatisLibby. Or I should say, Elizabeth. No one but her parents and Iris get away with calling her Libby anymore. Not even me. The girl you knew from college is long gone. Over the last few years, she’s closed up.” Sam sighs as I gape at the back of the cool, elegant woman greeting another table of people before moving on. “One time I was home in between missions. She wasn’t supposed to tell me, but Iris said Mom and Aunt Natalie speculated if it was because of her engagement gone bad.”
I almost fall back and land on my ass in the green grass. “She was engaged?”
Sam sneers, his lip curling. “Yes. For a few months. Her brother and I hated him from the minute we first met him. Turns out we had reason to.”
I’ve never met the dick and I want to kill him. “What happened to him?’
Sam uses his fork to point to the man who’s stopped Libby with his arm wrapped around another woman—one whose coloring is a lot like Sam’s. “He works for Akin Timbers. And the woman he cheated on her with is a cousin. It’s only at events like this she acknowledges either of them.” He lets out a rough sigh.
Libby brushes by them without a word, but I can’t help but notice the man’s eyes admiring her ass. “Let me kill him,” I hiss.
“If I thought it would bring our Libby back, I would. She’s so closed up, the only person she ever really talked to about it all was Nonna.” He shakes his head. “I thought I was closer to Libby than anyone—even Josh—but I haven’t been able to figure it out. She’s shut me out.”
But in my mind’s eye, I recall Libby’s mini-me stomping on my foot in the driveway.“Boys aren’t supposed to make you cry.”Then there was the look on her face when I put the flowers on the grave out of respect. And intuitively, I know something about her metamorphosis has something to do with me
What could I have done? We never even had a first date. Quickly, I replay all of our interactions until my body gets tight.“Maybe when you get back, I’ll need some new sunflowers.”
And in three years, I never once made contact, nothing, despite the tangible connection between us. Not even a hello. I wanted to—God, how I wanted to—but it wasn’t long after I left that I realized that Libby wasn’t meant for the life I was leading. And I couldn’t just go leaving her to constantly wonder and wait. So, I stayed away even though it just brought more darkness down around me. As for Libby? Well, she probably thought she was a game, and with her tender heart, she barely decided to try again when she was betrayed. It was likely made worse every time Sam came home from a “business” trip, since he’d likely mentioned my name. Groaning aloud, I realize it likely would have been like salt poured into an open wound when Libby saw Iris. There’s not a doubt in my mind Libby would have heard about the three of us working together at Alliance. Fuck.
“I think I know how to fix this.” I hope.
Sam gapes at me like I’ve grown two heads. I’m not perturbed as I’ve seen the look numerous times during mission planning. “You do realize I’ve tried everything to break through to her, right? And that I love her more than I love my own sisters?” Then as an aside he mutters, “Shit, I need to be careful about saying crap like that here. Sure as hell, it will get back to them.”
I’d laugh at his predicament if the one I was facing myself wasn’t so damn dire. “I need to find time to talk with Libby.”
Sam laughs. “Good luck with that. Every time your name’s come up, she’s…” Dawning realization crosses his face. “Son of a bitch, what did you do to hurt her?”
“Nothing. And that’s the problem. I made a promise and then stupidly broke it.”
“What kind of promise?” he asks suspiciously.
