Read Hush for Free Online

always would. “You’re still not over Megan,” she blurted. Apparently, as absolutely crackers as it seemed, she was jealous of a dead woman.
    “Not true at all. Megan killed herself precisely because I was over her, because I broke up with her—at least that’s what I believed at the time.” His head tilted to the side. “Megan was seeing someone else. Did you know about that?”
    Her hand stifled a sharp gasp, and then she stuttered, “W—what? Who?”
    “You sure you don’t know who Megan was seeing? I mean in this town it’s hard to keep anything secret.” His eyes narrowed, as if he thought she might be lying to him.
    Her head jerked up. “I’ve had just about enough of this, Charlie. I’m tired of talking about her. If I knew a damn thing about Megan and another man, I would’ve told you at the time. I would not, could not, have let you carry that guilt around with you. Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to leave.” To control the shiver in her voice, she kept it low. “And I’ll be taking you up on your offer of not bothering me again— ever .”
    He stopped making thumb circles and slipped his fingers around her wrist like a manacle. She twisted her hand, tugging, trying to get free.
    “Don’t run away. It doesn’t work. Trust me I know from personal experience. I had to come back and face my demons.” He hesitated. “And…Anna, I came back for you.”
    His words rang in her ears and echoed in her thoughts. Anna, I came back for you .
    It took her a beat to catch her breath. “Well, you took your sweet time about it, didn’t you? I loved you, Charlie.” She tried to blink away the stinging sensation in her eyes. “There, I said it. I loved you . And you left town without even saying goodbye. I had to hear it from Nate you’d run off to enlist.”
    “And I’m trying to tell you, trying to show you, how sorry I am. That’s why I came home. I never should have left you without trying to make sense of what was happening between us, because the truth is I knew you loved me. But…surely you can see how overwhelming that felt under the circumstances.”
    Her mouth had gone to cotton, and she could hardly swallow. She didn’t want to talk about this anymore. All she wanted was to go back to pretending that none of it mattered. Everything had been just fine right up until the moment Charlie showed up and started dredging up the past. With Simone’s assistance, Anna had hired a night nurse to help with their father, and that had freed her to finally get her own place. She loved her job at the library, and Mrs. Marlowe had even arranged a special schedule so that Anna could take classes at a nearby community college. Then ten months ago, she had become a doting and very happy aunt to little Bobby. Life was good , and she’d worked hard to make it that way.
    The last thing she needed was Charlie coming around saying sorry.
    The last thing she needed was to remember all those horrible nights she’d lain sleepless in her bed, anguishing over the way he’d left and terrified he’d be killed in combat.
    On a hard sigh she said, “I get it. You knew I loved you. How stupid of me to think you’d be the only one in town who didn’t. Naturally, you found the fact that I loved you overwhelming, and that’s why you didn’t bother to say goodbye. That’s why I haven’t had a word from you in six years even though I was supposed to be your best friend.”
    “I didn’t write to you, Anna, because I wasn’t whole .” His face drained of color. With his free hand he tilted her chin, forcing her to meet his eyes. “I know you’ve heard about that bomb that took out most of my squad, and I guess maybe it seems to you like everything should’ve become crystal clear to me right then and there. They say your life flashes before your eyes, but it didn’t happen that way for me. I was just so damn sad after…but I did know one thing: I’d been spared when others had died, and I had damn