PART 10, SECTION 16

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I thought back to that mortifying moment when Lindsay had caught me and Bryce on my parents'  couch. Then I thought about how, afterward, she'd actually brought me coffee on the porch to commiserate. And I thought about my dad, and how understanding he was with my mom in the face of this bizarre disease. Why shouldn't I be understanding, too? I'd been the one who'd just interrupted Lindsay's private moment on the bluff, after all.

I sat on the rock ledge, gave Lindsay a shy, disarming smile, and gestured for her to sit beside me. For a moment we both just sat and watched the sun's incremental descent.

"I'm really sorry—" we both said, at exactly the same moment.

Lindsay smiled at me, and I smiled back.

"Why are you even apologizing?" she asked. "I mean, all you really did was sleep with your own husband."

"You know what happened last night, then?" I asked.

Lindsay nodded pensively. "He told me everything."

"I didn't know you two . . . had a thing," I said. "I had no idea. He didn't say anything about it last night. I'm sorry."

She gave me an earnest glance. "Which is why you shouldn't apologize," she said. "You didn't know. I'm the one whose been sleeping with your husband. I'm the one who should apologize." She glanced at me apprehensively. "I just hope you don't think this has anything to do with getting back at you for Bryce. Because it doesn't."

A chilly breeze passed over the bluff. The sun was almost gone.

"Do you love Shawn?" I asked.

Lindsay looked out at the sun's lingering sliver at the horizon. "He loves me." She shrugged, obviously not intending this statement as a challenge. It was just a simple fact. "And, yeah," she said, "I'm falling in love with him, too. Plus he's really good with Jake."

"I've seen that." I nodded. "You shouldn't apologize either. I mean that. Shawn and I haven't been together as a married couple for a long time."

Lindsay looked at me with a sad, pleading expression. "Do you love him?"



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