Page 42 of One Little Indiscretion

Sadie followed him out of the room and touched the frame of a sketch hanging opposite the door. “I’d love a cup of tea, actually.”

Carrick changed direction and led her down the hallway to the expansive gourmet kitchen, its surfaces covered with glasses and dinner plates.

Sadie winced at the mess. “Shall we pack your dishwasher?”

Carrick filled the kettle and put it on the stove. “My cleaning service will deal with it the morning.” He opened the cupboard and frowned at the boxes of tea. “I have about ten different types and I’m not sure why since I never drink the stuff.” He motioned her over. “Pick your poison.”

Sadie decided on chamomile and watched as Carrick tossed water over the bag. He held her cup and gestured for her to follow him and she did, scooting around the island and heading for a small nook situated just off the kitchen. He placed her cup on the coffee table and gestured to the wide, comfy-looking blue-and-white-striped sofa. On the wall opposite was a widescreen TV. Sadie sat down, and Carrick slumped down next to her, kicking off his shoes and placing his feet on the coffee table.

“I’m so happy Tanna is coming back to live in Boston and that she’s going to marry Levi. It’s a long time overdue.”

“I think things happen when they are supposed to. Maybe the timing was wrong for them back then and right for them now.” Sadie picked up her cup and wrapped her hands around its warm surface. “You said they met and fell in love while she was recovering from her accident?”

Carrick leaned back, shifted down in the sofa and rested his head on the back. “Yeah. She was nineteen and she had some pretty extensive injuries.” His green eyes were haunted. “That night was probably one of the worst of my life. And the months after that weren’t any fun, either. Tamlyn helped me get through that horrible period.” He pulled a face. “She was pretty amazing, to be honest. She kept me from going off my head.”

Sadie ignored the flash of jealousy dancing along her nerves. “I’m glad she was there for you.” And she was; nobody should go through something so horrible on their own.

“Funny to think that we were all with our wives back then, although none of us were married,” Carrick said, his voice rumbly with exhaustion. “Ronan was with Thandi, Finn with Beah. They’d met a few months before. Within the year we were all married. And none of our marriages worked out. Raeni would’ve hated that. She’d hate to know that, ten years on, we’re all emotionally scarred, and all so damn scared of getting it wrong again.”

“Aren’t we all?” Sadie murmured. “Getting divorced dents your confidence big-time.”

Carrick rolled his head to look at her. “You were married?”

“Yep.”

“How long did yours last?”

“Three years,” Sadie said before raising her cup to her lips.

Carrick half turned, his attention on her. “What happened?”

Sadie wanted to push away his question, to change the subject because she hated talking about Dennis, explaining how she’d failed. She should never have said yes. Not to dating him, sleeping with him, to their engagement and certainly not to their marriage.

But she could tell Carrick; she was sure she could. And maybe then he’d understand why she’d believed what she’d heard about his past.

“I was warned about him,” she softly admitted, telling him the secret that no one else knew, not even Hassan. It was something she’d intended to take to the grave but here she was, telling Carrick.

“Who warned you?”

Sadie put her cup down and bent to pull off her strappy heels. Pulling her feet up onto the edge of the sofa, she wrapped her arms around her bent knees. “Back then I was working for an art gallery on Charles Street and I was locking up when I saw this woman waiting for me. She asked me if we could talk and I said okay, so we walked to a coffee shop across the road.”

Carrick placed his hand on her knee and Sadie felt some of the knots in her neck unraveling.

“What did she say?”

“That he was abusive and controlling and that he wasn’t a nice guy,” Sadie answered. “She was with him for a few years. She thought they were going to get married but he made promises he never kept.”

“Did you believe her?”

Sadie shook her head. “He wasn’t like that with me, not then. I mentioned it to Dennis and he said she didn’t take their breakup well, that he never made her any promises and that she was a bit unstable.”

“And you loved him and wanted to believe him.”

Yeah, she had. “And he was the perfect boyfriend. On our honeymoon he was the perfect husband. It was only when we returned to the city that things started falling apart.”

“She told me not to marry him, and she was right. I should’ve listened to her,” Sadie added.

“A stranger who just appeared out of the blue and started talking trash about your man?” Carrick lifted his eyebrows. “If you had a hint that he was a bastard, then I’d say yeah, you could’ve listened to her, but at that time he was making you happy. Why would you believe her?”

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