“What about Angelina? Didn’t you love her? Didn’t she love you?”
He searched my eyes, and I wondered if he was searching for jealousy. I still had a bad opinion of Angelina after what I’d heard about her, but I couldn’t erase the years they’d spent together. I wasn’t asking because of my jealousy. I wanted to know he’d had love during those years. I hoped he did.
“We…it’s complicated,” he ended up saying. He took another deep breath. “She and I were together, but it wasn’t for love or anything like that. She was in an abusive relationship at the time and needed help to get away from him, so she found thebig badin town, who so happened to be me. I wanted to help her.”
“Of course you did,” I said softly. I rubbed his cheek, and his beard tickled my palm. “You have the kindest heart I know. Going out of your way to help anyone in need.”
He shot me a soft smile. “I’m not as great as you make me sound.”
I shook my head at how he was still unused to getting compliments. I had to work on that.
“So you and Angelina pretended to get together to scare off her ex, then ended up in a real relationship?” I asked.
He nodded. “She had nowhere to go, so I offered for her to stay with me and help with the diner. We caredfor each other, I’m sure. I think we were both lonely and didn’t want to be alone…so we decided to stay together.”
“I’m surprised I didn’t hear about this from the town gossips. This sounds exactly like the kind of drama they live off of.”
“People who live in the light rarely pay attention to what happens in the shadows.”
The way he said that made me realize he considered himself to be part of the shadows. Someone to be forgotten and overlooked.
I twined our fingers together. “I see you.The real you.And I always will,” I told him.
He brought our entwined hands to his lips and kissed the tips of my fingers. We shared the silence with tender looks between us until I couldn’t curb my curiosity anymore.
“There was no love? You two never talked about building a family together?” I asked softly. It wasn’t jealousy speaking. It was fear that Hector had spent over a decade with someone without the comforts love gave you.
Hector shrugged. “She never wanted children, and I agreed to that when we got together. She had her own trauma, but that’s not my story to tell.”
He gripped my hand, his eyes bouncing back and forth between mine, as if pleading with me not to ask him about it. His shoulders were tense, probably warring between keeping his word and not wanting there to be secrets between us. Knowing him, he wouldn’t have toldme even if I did ask. That was the kind of loyal man he was.
I squeezed back. “I understand,” was all I had to say for him to relax.
His shoulders were less tense as he continued, “I think I loved her. How could I not, when I spent over a decade of my life with her? I think she loved me too. In her own way. Maybe. Probably.”
“She did,” I said with finality. I hated how uncertain he was about this. Nobody deserved to be in a relationship where they had to question if they were loved.
Hector’s smile told me he thought I was indulging him. “She cared for me, sure.”
“She loved you. I’m certain,” I said firmly. I didn’t believe anyone could spend that much time with Hector and not end up loving him. She must have seen his kind heart too. Otherwise, why else would she stay with him for so long? Why would she go to him for help in the first place? “Maybe it wasn’t the kind of love filled with romance and the fairy-tale happy endings that you see on TV, but I’m sure there was still love.”
There was another beat of silence between us. Hector just looked at me. The light caught the flecks in his dark brown eyes, showing me a depth of emotion inside them that made me want to pull him into a hug and shield him from the entire world.
His voice was rough when he said, “Thank you.”
“No thanks necessary. I’m just stating the truth.”
He chuckled, and warmth spread through my body.I loved hearing him make that sound. I loved seeing him like this, with his guard down and not having to be strong. Maybe, as he said earlier, true strength was knowing when to rely on others—and I wanted to be someone he could rely on.
“What I feel for you is different from what I felt for Angelina,” Hector suddenly said.
“It’s okay. I’m not asking you to compare the two of us. I’m not going to be jealous just because you loved someone else before me,” I told him, then added, “Okay, maybe just atiny bitjealous. I’m only human.”
Hector’s lips twitched, and I considered making him smile another win.
“It’s true, though. As you said, our love wasn’t the fairy-tale kind. We got together because of our circumstances, and our bond was based on that too. I loved her and wanted to take care of her, but it wasn’t all-consuming like…”
He paused and let his head hang. I didn’t let him off so easily and brought our gazes together again. “Tell me, please.”
