Chapter Nine #2
“Oh,” Charlotte said suddenly. “I meant to tell you, I called the Realtor who’s listing that house your academic friends told you about.
Showings don’t officially start until Monday, but she said the owners might be willing to let you come out this weekend when I mentioned that you could make a cash offer.
The current owners are moving due to an unexpected job transfer, and it sounds like they’re looking for a quick, easy sale. ”
“That sounds promising. I’m not sure what I’d do with Ember, though.”
“We’ll figure it out if the showing comes through. I don’t want you to miss out on the house because of logistics. I’ll ask around and see if one of my coworkers might be willing to sit in the car with her while you walk through the house or something.”
“I’ll ask Ji-Yoon too. She seems eager to earn some pet-sitting cash . . . or maybe just to play with a puppy. Maybe both.”
“Puppysitting would have been my dream job when I was a college student, so I can’t say I blame her,” Charlotte said.
The puppy in question wriggled out of Marin’s arms and leaped into Charlotte’s lap, then lunged up to lick Charlotte’s face.
Charlotte giggled, rolling backward so she lay on the bed with the puppy on top of her.
Marin felt so happy. All those lonely years with Andrew, she never could have imagined the simple joy of this moment.
Charlotte lay on her back with a soft smile on her face, Ember sprawled across her stomach. “You look happy, Marin.”
“Funny, I was just thinking the same thing. I spent so many years being unhappy, and now I’m just so glad to be here, building new friendships and playing with my puppy. So far, divorced life is exceeding expectations, that’s for sure.”
“What was your ex-husband like?” Charlotte asked quietly. “I mean, if you don’t mind talking about him. Is he supportive of your new life?”
“We’ve barely spoken since the divorce was finalized, so I doubt he knows much about my new life.
” She looked down at her hands, then back at Charlotte.
“He’s not the worst, by any means, but there’s no love lost between us.
Our marriage was on the rocks long before my accident.
We’d grown apart. Maybe he felt frustrated that I didn’t enjoy our sex life as much as he did, but eventually, he looked elsewhere.
He slept with other women for years, and I turned a blind eye. Our divorce was long overdue.”
A wrinkle appeared between Charlotte’s eyes. “I’m sorry. How did he react to your accident?”
“Ironically, he was so caring and attentive during my recovery, and thank god for that because I needed his help whether I liked it or not. It’s part of the reason I stayed married to him for another eighteen months.”
“That’s totally understandable, and honestly I’m glad you had someone to help you through your recuperation. No one should go through something like that alone. Did you have any close friends you could lean on?”
“Not really.” Marin reached out to rub Ember, careful not to touch Charlotte in the process. “I think because I was hiding so much of myself, I found it hard to have close female friends. I felt like I was wearing a mask. I had a lot of casual friends, but no close friends.”
“What about your siblings? You have four, right?”
“I do, and we’re pretty close, although my relationship with them is a bit unconventional since they’re so much older than I am.
We’ve become more like peers now that we’re all adults, but they’ve always considered me the baby of the family.
I’m close with one of my nieces, too, Jen.
In fact, I need to text her in the morning with puppy pictures because I know she’s waiting. I got so busy tonight I forgot.”
“And have you come out to them yet?”
“Not yet.” Marin blew out a breath. “I’ve been putting it off, but it’s on my to-do list for this year. I’ll be visiting each of my siblings to come out to them.”
“How do you think they’ll take it?” Charlotte was still on her back in Marin’s bed.
Ember had fallen asleep with her head nestled between Charlotte’s breasts, and the sight was enough to take Marin’s breath away.
How lucky she was to have a new friend and puppy in her life, even if she could never have Charlotte in the way she craved.
“I think most of them will be fine with it,” she answered, her stomach tightening.
“But my oldest sister, Nancy—Jen’s mom—is fairly conservative.
I’m worried she’s going to react badly, but I’ll tell her regardless.
No more hiding. That’s the promise I made myself when I left Andrew.
I won’t apologize for who I am, and I’m willing to lose family over it if that’s what it comes to. It’s that important to me.”
Charlotte reached out and gripped her hand. “That’s incredibly brave. You’re a badass, Marin Easterly, and I hope your sister surprises you . . . the good kind of surprise.”
Marin squeezed her fingers, reluctant to let go. “Me too.”
A high-pitched whine yanked Marin from sleep, and she lurched upright in bed, momentarily disoriented. She felt a hazy sense of contentment from whatever she’d been dreaming about, but . . . there it was again. A whine.
The puppy.
She reached for her phone on the table beside the bed and squinted at the time.
Just past one in the morning. Oh, this should be fun, taking a puppy outside in the middle of the night in January .
. . in Vermont. “You chose this,” she reminded herself, and despite her groan as she slid out of bed and reached for a hoodie, she had no regrets.
Already, she loved Ember with a sort of fierce protectiveness that was new for her. She was responsible for this tiny life in a way she’d never been responsible for anything or anyone before. She didn’t take that responsibility lightly.
Marin knelt before Ember’s crate. The puppy stared at her with big pleading eyes and let out another whine. “Gotta pee, huh?”
She opened the crate and tucked the puppy under her arm, then stumbled toward the living room, feeling a bit delirious after having only been asleep for about three hours.
In the living room, she froze when she saw the pullout couch extended, containing a sleeping Charlotte.
For a moment, she’d completely forgotten Charlotte was here.
Warmth spread through her belly. Marin hadn’t had many sleepovers as a child, or as an adult for that matter, so seeing Charlotte in her living room, knowing she was here as a show of friendship and support, really meant a lot.
Marin clipped Ember’s collar around her neck, fumbling awkwardly to avoid putting the puppy down, where she might pee on the floor, and then she opened the door. “Fuck,” she hissed as the icy air hit her face.
She hurried down the steps to the walkway and set the puppy in the snowy area she’d designated as her unofficial potty spot. Ember circled in the snow and then squatted. “Good girl,” Marin murmured. She watched until she was sure Ember was finished, then scooped her up and carried her back inside.
As she closed the door behind her, Marin shivered, having realized belatedly that she’d gone outside in her sleep shorts despite the single-digit weather. Her legs felt like ice. She could only hope it didn’t cause her nerve pain to flare up.
“Potty call?”
She jumped at the sound of Charlotte’s voice, shivering again for an entirely different reason. Charlotte was sitting up in the sofa bed, blinking at Marin out of sleepy eyes. Her hair was messy, curls sticking out in every direction, and god, she looked good.
“Yes,” Marin answered. “Hopefully she starts sleeping through the night soon, because . . . brr.”
Charlotte laughed quietly. “Maybe next time you should consider putting on pants.” Her gaze lingered on Marin’s bare legs in a way that sent another shivery jolt through her.
“Next time I’ll definitely remember pants.”
Charlotte laughed again, then lay back down. “Night, Marin.”
“Night.” She returned to her bedroom, tucked the puppy into her crate, and climbed into bed. As she drifted back to sleep, her last thought was of Charlotte on the sofa bed, staring at her legs.
She woke in a daze a few hours later to repeat the process.
When Ember woke for the third time, it was nearly six.
Marin decided to go ahead and get up, hoping Charlotte wouldn’t mind the early morning.
Decision made, she flipped on the light in her bedroom so she wouldn’t have to get dressed in the dark.
Aware of the puppy waiting impatiently to go outside, she grabbed her flannel pants and had them halfway on before her gaze caught on the pink scar that ran up her right thigh.
She’d had surgery to repair a broken femur, one of many surgeries she’d endured in the days after the accident.
But her stomach dropped as she realized this was what Charlotte had been staring at last night.
In her sleepy haze, Marin had romanticized the middle of the night encounter, but of course her straight friend hadn’t been staring at her bare legs for any nonplatonic reasons.
She’d been looking at Marin’s scar, probably remembering the way they’d met.
Suitably chastised for her inappropriate thoughts, Marin knelt before the crate and lifted Ember into her arms.
The puppy whined again, squirming against her grip. Marin stood and rushed through the living room, grabbing Ember’s leash on her way outside. When she returned to her apartment a few minutes later, Charlotte was waiting with arms outstretched.
“Let me take Ember for a minute. You’ve been running in and out with her all night. Go take a few minutes for yourself.” Charlotte tucked the puppy against her chest and lay back with her. Ember immediately started kissing her face.