“That.” She pointed at him. “Right there. You can’t do that. You can’t protect me from something that happened years ago, something I’ve dealt with in my own way. If I tell you this story, you have to let it be.”
“I can’t promise you—”
“If you can’t agree to let it go after I tell you, then I won’t tell you.” He just glared at her until she prompted, “Yes or no, Jameson? Will you keep my confidence about this or not?”
“Damn it, Vanessa.”
“Yes or no?”
He blew out a hard breath. “All right. Yes, I’ll keep your confidence. You have my word.”
She rose and poured herself yet another cup of coffee. When she held out the pot, he nodded. Once she’d topped him off and put the pot back, she took her seat again.
How to even begin? “When I was thirteen, I fell in love with my best friend...”
Taking care not to use any names, she told him about her love for Donnie Bell. Jameson sat there, barely moving, his gaze holding hers, as she spoke.
“I believed,” she said, “I really did, that he and I were forever. That nothing could rip us apart...”
Jameson listened, eyes locked on her, never once glancing away, as she told him everything, how the boy she loved betrayed her for a prettier, more popular girl, a girl with a rich dad who could offer him a better future. She told how Donnie came back to her—for one night—and then betrayed her all over again the next day.
“The new girlfriend andherfriends, they were brutal. They called me a lot of ugly names, said I was a cheat and a man stealer, a lowlife, a loser and, well, you know—all the awful words they use on girls sometimes. They tripped me in the halls, scrawled really disgusting things on my locker, even broke into it, tore up my stuff and then lit it all on fire.”
He asked why the school hadn’t done something.
“Nobody talked and nobody got caught. I knew who did what—they made sure that I knew—but that doesn’t mean I could prove anything.”
“What about the guy?” demanded Jameson, his eyes hard now, angry, a muscle ticking in his jaw. “Seems to me like he was the lowlife.”
“Jameson.” She adjusted her black-framed glasses on the bridge of her nose. “It was high school. I was an idiot to go back for more with him, to believe him when he swore he’d made a big mistake and he would never, ever hurt me again. I should have learned my lesson about him when he dumped me the first time.”
“Just give me that douchebag’s name.”
Had she known that was coming? Yeah. “Not going to happen. You gave me your word that you would stay out of it.”
“Who else knows about this?”
“A few of my closest girlfriends, a therapist I saw a few years later—and now you. Other than that, no one.”
“What about your mother, your grandmother, your brother?”
“No way. Evan would have hit the roof and gone after my old boyfriend just the same as you want to do right now.”
“A man needs to protect the people he—”
“Stop. Look, my family knew it hadn’t worked out with that boy and that I was heartbroken over it. But that’s all they knew. It was my battle. I fought it. And it’s long over now.”
“It’s not over if you won’t ever even consider living in Bronco again because of what happened back then.”
“Stop. I mean it. You’re just proving to me why I never should have told you a thing.”
Silence. A bleak one. They scowled at each other across the suddenly yawning span of the tabletop.
Finally, his expression softened. He asked gently, with care, with respect, “Tell me the rest?”
“Not if you’re going to go all caveman on me.”
“You’re right. I gave my word, and I will stick by it. I’ll keep my shit together.”
