Shattered Hearts

Chapter 3

"So," Darlene said as she contemplated Louis. "What brings you back here? If I'd know you were coming around I'd have tidied up." She bent down to retrieve a teddy bear from the floor, throwing it into a pile in the corner of the room.

"It's fine, honestly," Louis said looking around, his eyes resting on her pictures displayed on the mantelpiece. "Your wedding seems a long time ago."

Darlene glanced at the picture of her and John on their wedding day. "Yeah it does, it's like another lifetime."

"That's true, we were barely out of high school."

Darlene winced, taking the comment as a dig before telling herself not to be so stupid. Their school days were only months behind them when she'd got married, they had been hasty. However she'd thought that she'd hit the jackpot with John, she hadn't considered what the realities of married life would be like.

"You didn't answer me," she said turning her attention back to Louis. "How come you're home?"

"I guess I got shot one too many times," he said with a laugh.

"Well it's good that you came home in one piece," she said unsure if he was being serious or not, she'd never quite been on his wavelength. "I'm sorry Lottie was here, that must have been awkward for both of you."

He shrugged. "I guess it was. I mean I went to a warzone to avoid that girl and here she is in your living room."

"I heard you were drafted," she said raising her eyebrows.

"Something like that." His eyes fell on a photograph of her and Charlotte with their sons. "So what's Lottie doing back here?" he asked his eyes lingering on the picture. "She was kinda vague about it?"

Darlene paused, unusually reticent. "I suppose it isn't a secret," she said hoping she wasn't betraying any of her friend's confidences. "She's getting divorced. I don't think she ever really settled in Ohio, she missed her family terribly. Anyway, she convinced her husband to move here but it didn't work out."

Louis laughed without humour. "So she uprooted her husband and then dumped him anyway? That sounds like Lottie!"

"You have no idea what you're talking about," Darlene snapped. "It wasn't like that at all. Nick, her husband, he..." She swallowed down her indignation. "Look, Louis, I can't go into details but she isn't at fault here, not at all."

"Okay," Louis said holding his hands up. "I didn't mean to upset you."

She took a couple of deep breaths. "Sorry, I overreacted."

"So is she back home with her mom?" Louis asked looking more closely at the picture. "I take it the boy in the photo is her son?"

Darlene sighed. "Yes, Jamie is her son. He's about six months younger than Junior so it's nice that they can play together." Louis nodded. "Junior's my son," she added in case he had forgotten.

Louis laughed sounding more genuinely amused than he had earlier. "I know, Darlene. I didn't get shot in the head."

"Sorry, it's just that I have to keep reminding myself that my child isn't half as interesting to other people as he is to me." She could well remember how she used to bore Rosalind stupid with her baby talk. "Anyway, after Lottie left her husband, she took Jamie and moved in with her brother. Her mom's embarrassed by the whole 'broken marriage thing' so it was never an option for her moving back home."

Louis frowned. "That sounds like Mrs Harper, she always was judgemental."

Darlene laughed. "Yeah she hated me, she thought I was a bad influence." The ignorant bitch!