Her back stiffens. “Because of what happened this morning?”
I hear the hesitation in her voice, the twinge of guilt, and I shake my head immediately, unwilling to let her think she’s the reason for my mood.
“No. Because of something you don’t need to worry about.”
That lip disappears beneath her teeth again, and I watch as she realizes she did it and releases it with a quick glance my direction. I can’t help but grin at her, and she flips the sandwich, one side now golden brown and perfect, just like the woman in front of me is.
She glances down and swallows thickly. “Was it…because you were up on the far side of the mountain beyond the gorge?”
Hell.
The fact that she used that phrase immediately stiffens my spine. Because she’s been talking to someone. “Why do you ask?”
She gives me a hesitant look. “Fuck. Okay, umm, so Willow told me some things today.”
Shit.
I swallow through my heart lodged in my throat. “What did she tell you?”
Her nervous glance and the way she’s trying to focus on the sandwich instead of look at me tells me exactly what she’s going to say before she even opens her mouth again. “She told me about what happened last year. To her and Niall.” She looks up at me. “And you.”
People often talk about wishing they could disappear, that they want to crawl into a hole and never come out. I never really knew what they meant until the last several months. And standing here looking at her now has amplified it by a thousand.
I’ve never felt so exposed, so naked while completely clothed as I do knowing she knows who I am. What I am.
“Is that what you were alluding to last night that you didn’t want to tell me?”
I nod slowly. “Yes.”
She snags the sandwich out of the pan and slides it onto a plate, then turns off the burner and twists to face me, resting her hip against the counter. “But you don’t want to talk about it.”
Fuck no.
Not with her.
Not with anyone.
I shake my head. “No.”
“Why not?”
“Why do you think?”
She glances down at her bare feet, then back up at me. “Because you think it’s going to scare me.”
I shake my head. “No, because it scares me.”
LUCKY
I can hear how much he means it, in his words, how his voice wavers, and I step forward, closing the distance between us, and wrap my arms around him, burying my face in his chest.
“You have absolutely no reason to be scared, Liam.”
He reaches up and cups the back of my head, running his fingers through my hair while the other hand settles around my waist, holding me to him tightly. A few moments pass as he presses his lips to the top of my hair, breathing me in, like somehow the scent of my shampoo calms him. “Why do you say that?”
“Because you’re the kindest person I’ve ever met. That man was a sperm donor. Nothing more. What’s in your blood doesn’t make you who you are; the people around you do. And you’ve been surrounded by people who have loved you your entire life, who taught you right from wrong, who turned you into this incredible person.”
He chuckles lightly, his chest vibrating beneath my ear. “You barely know me, Bluebell.”
