Snowbound - Harlequin.com

90 SNOWBOUND
mother. I was afraid she’d see it on my face, so I bicycled
over to a friend’s house and begged to spend the
night. In the end, I never did tell Mom. I don’t think she
realized how much I’d heard and knew.” Fiona shook
her head. “And why am I telling you all this? All you
asked was if I wanted them to get a divorce. And here’s
the thing. When they finally did separate, I was devastated.
It was like the bottom had dropped out of my
world. Home wasn’t home anymore. It was supposed
to stay the same forever. Which I suppose answers your
question. I was self-absorbed. My parents existed to be
my bedrock, not as people with their own needs and
problems.”
“That’s normal.” Leaning against the lip of the
counter, he watched her finish chopping the last onion.
“Have either of them remarried?”
She gave a laugh that revealed more unhappiness than
he suspected she knew. “Oh, my father has. Twice. He
wasn’t faithful with number two, either. And probably
isn’t with number three, which is a shame. Shelly is a nice
woman.” She seemed to shake herself. “Mom hasn’t. I
think she might have a hard time trusting a man.”
“What about you?” he heard himself ask. “Do you,
too?”
She scraped the onions into the hamburger mix with
the knife, then set the cutting board back on the counter.
As if she hadn’t heard him, she said, “I need to go wash
my face before I start the garlic.”
John nodded toward the door to his quarters. “You
can use my bathroom if you want.”
“So I don’t have to explain why I’ve been sobbing