Matched For Love(57)

Lori sipped her cinnamon latte. It was warm and delicious, soothing almost. “Yeah. Joe was always big on fate. And things happening for a reason.” She’d almost forgotten that about Joe too. She’d been so busy burying the bad memories that the nice ones had gotten buried too.

“Joe would come over after school sometimes, flop onto my bed, and ask me a million questions about you. He wanted to know everything, all your likes, and dislikes, along with the simple things like what your favorite flowers were, what kind of earrings you liked. Years later, I even helped him pick out your wedding ring, but he made me promise not to tell you. He wanted you to think he did that on his own. It was always so important for him to please you, Lori. He even told me that you two had finally slept together before you did. That’s how close he and I were back then.”

Lori took another sip from her cup. It was a little unsettling to know those two were that close, and she never knew. “So being my maid of honor was one of the worst days of your life?”

“Yes.” Tears formed in Mel’s eyes. “But I loved both of you enough to want to go through with it.”

And Mel had done it all with a smile. She’d gone above and beyond that day.

Mel added, “I was reminded of how much I still love you when I saw you at the restaurant the other day. I was so happy to see you. I’ve missed you so much, Lori. But I’m not asking you to forgive me. I still don’t forgive me. I just thought if you could hear the whole story, it might help you forgive Joe.”

The hardened part of her heart, where she’d sent the love she’d had for Mel and Joe, softened ever so slightly. “So what happened that night, Mel? Why, after so many years of friendship, would you betray me like that?”

Mel took a long drink from her cup as if it contained the courage she searched for. She knew Mel well enough to see all the subtle signs of nerves. The slight twitch in her left eye was always a giveaway.

Finally, Mel laid her cardboard cup down and studied it as she pushed it back and forth between her hands. “I flew into town that day because I had some news I didn’t want to tell you over the phone. Bad news. About my health. So when Emily got sick that evening, and you stayed home, I figured I’d come all that way, so I’d tell Joe and then let him tell you later.”

Honest concern, coupled with the changes in Mel’s appearance, made Lori ask, “What was the bad news?”

She looked up and said, “It was cancer,” before she went back to studying her cup again. “They’d only given me a thirty percent chance to live. Being Emily’s godmother, I felt you needed to know that I might not be around to take care of her if something happened to you guys, like was our plan.”

Lori hated to think of Mel battling cancer. But she still didn’t understand. “So how did dinner at the restaurant end up with Joe back in your hotel room?”

Mel shook her head and closed her eyes. “I’d told him about how sick I was during dinner. Joe was upset that he was going to be shipped out in a few days and afraid he’d never see me again. And I was feeling sorry for myself, so I asked if he’d come back with me for a nightcap to talk some more.” Mel looked up and met Lori’s gaze. “You know how comforting Joe could be. Made you feel like you could do anything if he were on your side?”

Lori nodded. He had been good at that. “What happened next?”

“We’d put a big dent in my mini bar by the time I was drunk enough to confess my feelings for him. And I told him I didn’t want to die not knowing what it was like to make love to him.”

The picture was forming clearly in Lori’s mind. Joe had always loved Mel. He seemed to feel responsible for her, like a brother would. But what they’d done that night had nothing to do with being siblings. “Okay. I get it. You don’t have to go on.”

Mel’s hand shot out, and she covered Lori’s. “It was my fault. I was the aggressor. He turned me down, but when I’d cried, he held me until I stopped. Then I think it turned into pity on his part. But afterward, when we both realized what we’d done, Joe sat on the edge of the bed holding his head in his hands and cried because he’d let you down. He told me he had to tell you before he shipped out. That it wasn’t fair to you to keep what we’d done a secret.”

Joe had confessed right away. The moment he’d walked in the door that night after he’d had to take a cab home because he’d been so drunk.

She wanted to get up and leave so badly. Hated seeing the scenario in her mind that Mel had painted. The thought of her and Joe and what they did that night in her hotel room. And the idea of Joe crying. He never cried. It made her heart ache even worse. “So what was your plan? Just ignore that it happened and go on pretending to be my best friend? I would never do that to you, Mel.”