Everything will be okay,Everett. Trust me.
He’d been right.
Everything had been okay.
For a while.
Two years, to be exact.
I hadn’t been sure if Pierce had been talking about Reese when he’d said those words to me, or something else, but I hadn’t really cared. I’d held onto his words for everything they were worth.
Through Reese’s recovery.
During the continued decline of my marriage.
As my love for Pierce exploded into something I’d never known before.
It had been two years ofjustokay when it could have been so much more. Two years of stealing moments for quick kisses and rushed declarations of love. Even the first time we’d made love had been more about the fear of being discovered than about making our first time together perfect for one another.
But ithadbeen perfect.
We’d somehow managed that part, even if the circumstanceshad been less than ideal. Fumbling, eager hands, a nondescript motel room under a fake name, and Grady keeping my security detail distracted long enough for me to experience the perfection of Pierce’s heavy body pressing mine into cheap sheets on a too-thin mattress. He’d been the first man I’d ever been with… and the only one, since there’d been no one after I’d lost him. I hadn’t even been able to touch my wife afterward. A fact she’d had no issue with, since she’d long since found a lover of her own.
One of many throughout the life of our disastrous marriage.
But it hadn’t been my wife who’d suffered as I’d relished in my newfound freedom. No, Reese had paid.
Just like he had so many times in his young life as he’d been forced to grow up in the public eye.
“Everett…”
The sound of my name felt like the softest of caresses and I closed my eyes as Pierce’s voice washed over me.
It’ll be just us soon, Everett. Sitting on some porch somewhere, staring at miles and miles of your rosebushes while we argue over what to eat for dinner and who gets to pick what show we’re going to watch.
He’d made me that promise the morning he’d left for his final deployment. We hadn’t been free to kiss, since there’d been too great of a risk of discovery, but when he’d shaken my hand and drawn me forward just a bit so the security cameras wouldn’t pick up on what he was saying to me, I’d barely managed to keep the tears at bay.
Because he’d described nirvana to me.
The perfect life I’d always dreamed of.
With the person I’d been meant to share it with.
Less than a year later, nirvana was gone.
Everything was gone.
“Everett.”
The voice was a little louder this time and the part of my brain that I’d been trying to shut down – that little voice that had no problem reminding me what my current reality was – gleefully pointed out that it, in fact, sounded nothing like Pierce’s.
My limbs felt heavy as I sluggishly tried to move, but it wasn’t until a hand settled on my back that I finally felt a little bit of warmth.
Warmth that seeped through my thin dress shirt and lit up my skin.
Warmth I’d felt just two days ago when I’d made the mistake of touching someone I shouldn’t have.
Nash.
