3 Lies Read Online Free PDF

kids.
    Swing the bat. Hit the ball.
    Get married. Have kids.
    Simple.
    Louie pulled Clint along the dock.
    He and Paige lived in different houses for over nine months. Months before that, she started to keep her distance. How they landed in bed at all that night still baffled him.
    What a moron. He thought sex meant reconciliation. He asked her again to join him in marriage counseling. Her answer came to his door a week later as a summons.
    “Hey, Clint.” Merlin called from the other dock. “Wait up.”
    Louie stood at alert while Merlin huffed up to them. With a build from a routine of manual labor, he looked pretty good in spite of the lines and creases etched in his face by a life of poor decisions. A gold hoop earring spangled from his left ear when not covered by his charcoal hair. Include the fact that he routinely needed a shave, he was a parrot shy of looking like a pirate.
    “I’ve a phone message for you.” He searched the pocket of his stained linen trousers.
    “Who’s it from?” Clint said.
    “Don’t know. Don’t want to know.” He handed Clint the message and stooped to ruffle Louie’s head. “Trouble finds me enough without lifting her skirts.”
    The message was from Beth’s uncle, Abe Melinger. The time-stamp indicated the call came before the office opened for the day.
    Sorry. Can’t go boating. Where’s Beth? Only got VM when I called. Rain check, please. Abe.
    Beth. His anxiety returned. He tucked the note in his pocket. Merlin shook hands with Louie and tried to teach him to do it on command.
    “Say, what are you doing later?” said Clint.
    “I’m having tea with the Queen, mate. Why’d you ask?”
    “My fishing plans changed, and I’m on my own.” He glanced back at his boat. “I don’t feel like hanging around here today. You game?”
    “What time do we shove off?”
    “Meet me at the
No Moor
around noon.”
    “Aye, Skipper. Count me in.” Merlin chucked Louie’s chin and whistled off toward the parking lot.
    Clint and Louie sauntered on toward the shoreline past row after row of sailboats, motor yachts, cabin cruisers, and fishers. He considered the tidal wave now swamping his life. A promising girlfriend gone uncharacteristically AWOL and a damn-near ex-wife who tells him he’s going to be a father. And the day only hours old.
    He was almost glad Beth hadn’t been home, so he didn’t have to tell her about Paige. The pregnant part. Beth already knew about Paige. Beth had few expectations of him, and that was the sole reason he would want to tell her—her distinct lack of need: need to control, need to worry, need to manage, need to exact, need to be needed, need to need.
    Beth.
    She could genuinely lay claim to need. Her beautiful body required routine blood dialysis to keep her alive. An underlying infection had overwhelmed her kidneys, but they were improving. She said her nephrologist expected the treatments to be temporary. But it wasn’t over. Not yet.
    Louie bolted for the water as soon as they reached the end of the dock. Clint barely kept up, letting out fresh line as they ran. Louie pounced on waves tempered by the docks and the jetties at the mouth of the harbor. He barked at a crab snapping at his shiny nose. The dog played a while before they went for a short run.
    Clint made his way up to the chandlery and tied Louie outside. Merlin helped on a part-time basis in exchange for slip fees, but someone else ran the register today. Clint paid for some doggie biscuits and minnows.
    He and Louie walked past the parking lot on their way to the boat. A white van like the one he’d seen that morning pulled out of the lot from a back row. The V-8 engine noise was unmistakable. As it made the corner leading out to the street, he checked the license plates. He wasn’t sure what state it was from—possibly Maryland—but it was definitely not from Virginia.
    Odd.
    A V-8 swap for that van wasn’t unheard of, but it wasn’t common either. Now he’d seen two in