“That place is dangerous,” Willow said, sucking some still-warm chocolate from her finger.
He checked the urge to grab her hand and do it for her, then lick the last of it from her lips.“Worth the calories.”
“Yeah, yummm.”She wiped her hands on a paper napkin and took a sip of her iced coffee.“Look, I don’t want things to be awkward between us, so I’m sorry about last night.I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”
He stared at her in surprise.“You didn’t.”
“Pretty sure I did.”
“No.It was as much me as you.”
“Then why...”She paused, watching him.“Is it the timing?I’ll admit, it probably does seem like I’m on the rebound, but I promise my previous relationship was over a long time before it officially ended.And honestly, you mean too much to me to risk our friendship over a fling.So if it’s because you’re not ready for more, I understand.”
He felt like such a coward.She was so much braver than he was to speak from the heart and put it all out there like that.
But she’d also just given him the perfect excuse that would spare her feelings and protect them both from him having to tell her the ugly truth.At least for now.
THIRTY
“I
t’s not that,” he said instead.
He had to tell her.Hewouldtell her.Just not here and now.
Concern shadowed her pretty brown eyes.“Is it because of your...recovery program?You have to wait a certain amount of time before getting involved with someone?You don’t have to tell me the details, I just?—”
“Technically, I’ll always be in recovery.”Mentally.“But it’s not what you’re probably imagining.Did Mae tell you I went to treatment?”
“Rafe, actually.No details, though.”
He wasn’t mad about it.He wasn’t ashamed of that part of the story.And he owed her at least this much.
“I was in a dark place when I finally got discharged from the medical center in DC.For a long time, and I wasn’t getting any better.They had me on prescription meds, and I started drinking when I got here.But my dad saw the warning signs and intervened early on to stop things from going totally off the rails.He knows the guy who runs the recovery center here and called in a big favor to get me a place there right away."
Willow nodded, watching him silently.
