“He must have loved her very much,” I said, turning to him. “To feel like he could tell
her everything without being afraid of what she might think. Takes a lot of guts and trust.”
He seemed to consider this while he surveyed my face. “Carly’s a tough cookie. She can handle
a lot more than most girls.”
“How would he know if he never tried?”
“Before Carly came around, your brother had been with lots of girls, and he left a path of
destruction behind him. Spider tried to warn Carly about his … bad habits. She didn’t listen.
” Cameron’s voice turned sharp. “Spider was right.”
The next thing that came out of my mouth I hoped with every fiber of my being that he would
negate. “He cheated on her, didn’t he?”
“Yeah,” he confirmed solemnly. “Except that it was much worse than that.”
I couldn’t imagine what was worse than cheating on someone you loved and who loved you … until
Cameron told me, “He got the other girl pregnant.”
He was right: this was much worse.
“Who was she?” I demanded.
“The other woman?”
I nodded.
He gazed ahead. “You’ve already met her and her son. The kid is Bill’s spitting image.”
From a corner of my mind, I dredged up the picture I had of my brother as a child: blond, curly
hair, sun-kissed skin, gray eyes. He had kept these traits as an adult … and I had seen these
same traits very recently.
“Daniel,” I gasped. “Bill fathered a child with Frances.”
“Spider confronted him once,” he told me. “When your brother was acting … weird, Spider
accused him of cheating in front of Carly and me. Bill denied it, and Carly believed him. Hell,
I even believed him—not that it had anything to do with me.” He smirked darkly. “Bill could
be pretty convincing when he needed to be.”
It started drizzling again, but we kept a very slow pace. “After he died, we found out about
Frances when she came looking for money.”
“Did Bill know she was pregnant?” I wondered.
“He must’ve. Her belly was already out to here when he died,” he said, rolling his arms in
front of his stomach.
“Spider must have felt vindicated,” I guessed, unable to keep the irritation out of my voice.
“Not really—he was too busy bringing Carly back to worry about being right,” he answered and
his voice became grave. “When Bill died, Carly was devastated. Then when Frances came around,
she still wouldn’t believe that Bill cheated on her. But when the baby was born and he looked
so much like Bill, Carly was …” He took a second and brushed his hand over his face. “We didn
’t think that she could take anymore.”
While my brain took a moment to recoup, my mouth asked, “Are Spider and Carly related?”
Cameron burst out laughing. “What? God no! It would be pretty sick if they were!”
His eyes narrowed. “Why do you ask?”
“He seems very protective of her. I just thought …”
“There’s nothing platonic about Spider’s need to protect Carly.” His laugh cooled to a
chuckle, and he explained, “Spider has been in love with Carly for at least as long as I’ve
known him—probably longer. They don’t like to talk about their childhood, so I don’t know a
whole lot. From the bits and pieces I’ve heard, they grew up together; Carly had a creep for a
father and Spider has been watching over her his whole life.”
He leaned in and lowered his voice, in case the trees heard us. “When Bill and Carly started
dating and they got really serious, I thought Spider was going to snap. I figured he was either
going to kill Bill or himself. Instead, he spent his time trying to prove to Carly that Bill
wasn’t good enough for her.”
Something didn’t fit. “Bill has been gone a long time, and Carly seems okay with me now,” I
assessed. My interactions with Carly had grown from her deathly glares and her screaming
profanities at me, to civilized, almost friendly.
He grinned proudly. “Spider and I are just as surprised as you are. We both thought she would
have been mad longer than that.”
My head shot up.
“You talk to Spider about me?”
His brow furrowed, and he glanced ahead.
Thunder roared, and new rows of black clouds hoarded in. The mist had dropped from the treetops
to the ground, making the gravel road barely discernible beyond two feet. Cameron and I walked
closely and silently for awhile. Questions still colored my thoughts. For one, my brother’s
stupid and idiotic mistake had nothing to do with me. Second, if Carly wasn’t as perturbed by
my being there, why did Spider still feel the need to scowl every time he saw me?
“There’s more to this than what Bill did to Carly,” I said and watched him carefully. “There
’s another reason why Spider doesn’t like me.”
He slowed our already slow pace while he deliberated. When he looked up, I could see the
struggle. “He doesn’t trust you, and he definitely doesn’t trust me with you.”
“Why?” I challenged.