“What kind?”she asked.
Brick shook his head, staring at the floor.“Doesn’t matter.Old shit.”
“Old or not, it clearly still hurts,” Tessa pointed out.
He looked up sharply, but she didn’t flinch.Tessa didn’t apologize for calling out the truth and she didn’t pretend the pain wasn’t there.
She took another step, and Brick tensed until she sat down on the edge of the bed, not touching him, not crowding him.Just close and simply there.
“You don’t have to talk,” she said quietly.“We can sit in silence.”
Brick swallowed hard.
He didn’t want to talk or bare the ugly parts of his past.
But having Tessa in his room, with Tessa being so warm, steady, and brave enough to face him despite his edges softened something in him.Softened, but didn’t break it.
He let his back rest against the headboard, staring ahead.She sat cross-legged beside him, hands tucked into her lap, patient and calm.
The silence wasn’t awkward.It was grounding.
Brick felt the nightmare fading, draining out of his chest, replaced by her warm presence.Her scent.Her breath.The quiet reassurance that she wasn’t scared of him.
She should be.He was a man carved out of violence and mistakes.She was soft where he was sharp.Light where he was shadows.Heart where he was hands.
He should push her away, but he didn’t.Brick found he couldn’t.
After several minutes, she spoke softly.“Was it about someone you lost?”
Brick’s stomach twisted.“Yeah.”
“Someone you cared about?”
“Yeah,” he rasped.“Kid.Patrick.He was a prospect.He was too young.”
Tessa moved her hand, her touch hesitant and curious, and settled lightly on the edge of the blanket near his thigh.Not touching him or crossing a line, but offering.
Brick stared at that hand like it was a grenade.
“You tried to save him,” she said, voice barely above a breath.“Didn’t you?”
Brick’s jaw flexed.“Didn’t try hard enough,” he finally said.
Her eyes softened.“Knowing you, you probably did everything you could,” she said.
Brick let out a harsh laugh.“Not enough.”
“Sometimes,” she said, “our best isn’t enough to change the outcome.Doesn’t make it less of our best.”
He closed his eyes.The honest and gentle words hit too close. He didn’t deserve gentle, but she offered it anyway.
Minutes passed, her presence slowly rewiring the panic inside him.Brick’s breathing evened out, shoulders lowering inch by inch.The darkness in the room no longer pressed against him and it finally eased.
Tessa shifted slightly, turning toward him.“Do you have nightmares often?”she asked him.
He hesitated, then lied, “No.”
She stared at him.
