A hesitant smile crosses my lips. “I did okay then?”
“You did more than okay.”
I give her a nod and try to hide the satisfied smirk that’s tugging at the corners of my mouth. “Can I ask what happened? Or do you not want to talk about it?”
“I don’t think I’m ready yet. If I talk about it now, I’ll just spiral right back to where I was a few minutes ago.”
“Okay, then how do we help you get to a place where you can talk about it without panicking again?”
She chews on her lower lip. “Could you just talk to me about other stuff? Tell me about you.” The look on my face must show my hesitation and dread because she adds, “You don’t have to tell me all your deepest, darkest secrets but tell me something about you. I don’t know much. Where’d you grow up?”
“I grew up in a small town outside of Austin.”
“Did you have siblings?”
“No, I was an only child like you.”
“Were you close with your parents?”
“No,” I say simply.
“Well damn.”
I furrow my brows. “What?”
“I just can’t seem to get anything out of you. Why weren’t you close with your parents?”
“Do you want more water?” I quickly stand from the bed again, causing Maverick’s ears to perk up.
“No, I’m fine. Rhett, please. This is helping me.”
I sigh and sit back down. “My parents got divorced when I was ten. Their relationship was rocky for as long as I could remember though. They always put me in the middle of their stupid fights, which made it pretty hard to bond with them over anything else.”
“Did it ever get better though? Do you still talk with your parents?”
“I think it only got worse. I was relieved when they split, but it turned out they were holding themselves back when they lived together. Once they had a taste of being apart, it was impossible for them to be in the same room together. Growing up around that, it makes it hard to believe in love, you know? Then I had to go and make some decisions that only drove a bigger wedge between me and my parents.” I stop, not willing to go any further. I’ve already said more than I ever planned to tell Olivia.How’d she do that?
She reaches out to me, gently tracing her finger across the top of my hand, over and over. Somehow the action relaxes me. “Is that why you said you haven’t been so lucky to have unconditional love that lasts… because your parents couldn’t set aside their differences to stay together?”
I open my mouth and then quickly clamp it shut, casting my gaze down to my lap. “Yeah, for starters.”
“What else?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
Silence falls over us like a wet blanket. It quickly becomes too much for me to handle. Clapping my hands together, I say, “Okay, well that’s enough of that Debbie-downer shit. Is there a different way I can help you?”
“Will you watchDexterwith me?”
“Really? That show?” Any other time I might agree because I’m slowly getting sucked into the show, but I’m worried it won’t help her. “We should watchFriends. That’ll get you laughing and help your anxiety.Dexterwill just get you amped up.”
She tosses her hand out as if to sayduh. “But it’ll get me amped up in adifferentway than before.”
I bark out in laughter and roll my eyes, the shadow of a smile gracing my lips. “How about we try one episode ofFriends? It’s just twenty minutes of your time. After that, if you don’t feel better or still want to watchDexter, we can do that.”
She crosses her arms. “I thought I got to choose what was going to help me.”
“Not anymore.” I sweep her off her bed, throwing her over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes and carrying her up the stairs to my bedroom. That’s where the good TV is.
