Crossed Wires Read Free Page A

“I
don’t need to get dressed. I’ll just slip on my cover up. I can
dress after we go back.”
    Hank turned away quickly, ordering himself
not to look at her. He had to tell her the truth. He had stay
focused.
    Once he reached the back of the boat, he took
the tanks from the platform and laid them in a corner. Then he took
off his shorts, dried himself with the beach towel he’d bought and
put on his clothes.
    When he turned around, he saw Melanie,
thankfully wearing her cover up, staring at him. A cell phone
hugged her ear. He recognized it at once as his phone.
    He swallowed hard. He could tell by the look
on her face he was undoubtedly busted. He went to her.
    “Goodbye,” she said. She flipped the phone
shut and handed it to him. “Sorry. I thought my phone had fallen
out of my bag. Our phones look exactly alike, and yours was lying
next to my duffle. I answered it.”
    Hank took the phone and stuck it into his
pocket. “Who called?”
    “Lizzie.”
    He rubbed his hand over his face. As sure as
Satan ruled Hell, he was caught in his web of lies. “Did she leave
a message?”
    “Yes,” she said, sheepishly. “She said the
address she’d marked on your work order was wrong. You were
supposed to go to 741 Laurel Lane.” She lifted a corner of her
mouth and sent him a wry look. “I live at 714 Laurel Lane.”
    “So that’s what happened,” Hank mumbled.
    “I beg your pardon?”
    He stepped closer to her. “No, Melanie. I’m
the one who should be begging your pardon. You’re a smart woman.
You know now after speaking with my secretary exactly what I did.”
He folded his arms and gave her the most remorseful look he could
produce. “I’ve been dishonest with you.”
    She laid a hand on his arm, and she seemed to
be biting back a smile. “You have?” she asked with a look of
innocence so obviously fake a jury would give her the chair if
she’d use it as a defense in court.
    He leaned back, placing the majority of his
weight on one foot as realization began to set in. “You knew about
the deception all along, didn’t you?”
    She pulled back her hand and started to
chuckle. “I didn’t know until I saw your van. I knew the man
Cynthia had set me up with was a plumber.”
    Hank unfolded his arms and held out a hand
casually. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
    “Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked, lifting
her chin.
    He stared at her a long moment before he
returned the smile she continued to hold on her face. “Because I’m
a jerk. The moment you opened the door and I laid my eyes on you
for the first time, I felt a connection with you. That has never
happened to me before.”
    “Oh?”
    “Yes.” He reached toward her, almost touching
her before he drew back his hand.
    “So the second you saw me, you decided to lie
to me?”
    He shook his head. “No, it wasn’t like that
at all. At first I didn’t know why you were talking to me the way
you were. I’d just come to fix a wiring problem. When you started
talking about hiking in the park, I had no idea what was going
on.”
    “Of course, you didn’t.”
    “If you remember,” he said, looking at her
carefully, “I did let you know I had something important I needed
to tell you, and you said you knew what I meant.” He twisted the
side of his face. “That happened a couple of times, didn’t it?”
    She wiped a finger over her cheek as though
she were trying to wipe the persistent smile off her face. “Yes, it
did.”
    “The first time I tried to explain, you
thought I wanted to cancel our date.”
    “But we didn’t have a date,” she said
coyly.
    “You know what I mean. You looked so
disheartened, I lost the nerve I needed to go through with my
confession. The second time I tried to explain--”
    “I concluded you were trying to tell me you
were gay.”
    “Yes, you did.” The whole notion of her
thinking of him in that way had made him very uncomfortable. If
that’s who a man was, fine, but he was not gay.
    She released a