Charlotte watched as the beautifully suntanned Dawson went utterly pale. Ah, so Janet wasn’t a sister. Not his mother. Definitely a woman from his past, and he’d just made a mistake mentioning her.
He hadn’t sounded choked or like it was hard to say her name. She couldn’t be that big of a deal.
“An old girlfriend,” he said, reaching for the Diet Coke again and sucking down half of it.
“Yeah, I think she’s more than that.” She’d told him about Hunter. Well, kind of.
“She was.” Dawson put his arms on the table and leaned into them. “I guess you want the whole story?”
“Yeah, I guess I do.”
“Then you’ll tell me more about your ex-husband.”
“Was Janet your wife?” He’d said he’d never been married.
“No, but I loved her, and she loved me, and we were talking about marriage.” A ghost of so
