“It’s Tanner,” he said through the door. “Hans found you. I asked him to get me here.”
The scraping of the deadbolt and the chain, and then the door pulled open.
She was okay. He moved into the room and hugged her so tight.
“Tanner.” She put her arms around his middle as the door clicked closed behind them.
“I’ve been so fucking worried.” He didn’t release her. Just held on while he could. While she let him.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I needed someplace to think.”
This is where he should lay it out that he would back off, but he needed to be sure she understood why it was so important that she—
“Don’t do this. Don’t disappear. I can’t.” He pulled back, shoved his hands in his hair. “I can’t lose you, Sam. I want to be strong enough to let you go, but I can’t. I’m not that strong.”
An odd calm descended over her. And a numbness hit him like the world was in slow motion, and the only two people going at normal speed were the two of them.
“Did you know Catiana figured me out that night at Brek’s? And you didn’t tell me?” she asked.
“I don’t want you to run,” he said.
“It’s not cool that I left without telling someone. I get that. I’d be pretty upset if it was you who took off. I’m sorry about that. I also need you to answer the question.” Her face pulled tight with pain as she spoke.
“Please, don’t do this,” he said.
“That’s not an answer,” she countered.
“It’s the only answer I have.”
“Please tell me,” she whispered.
“Yeah.” He nodded and his heart sank to the icky hotel carpet. “She told me she knew I’d found Sami Jo,” he continued. “I asked her to keep it to herself.”
“That was your solution?”
In hindsight, it wasn’t a smart solution. He knew that now. “That didn’t work out so well. I’m regretting that decision.”
She blew out a breath. “And then, on top of it all, you didn’t tell me.”
He shook his head. “I didn’t want to lose you.”
“I opened up to you. Let you see all of me! The messy and the gross and the—”
“I don’t want you to run,” he said again. This time, he moved to her. “Because I know how that can end. So I didn’t tell you about Catiana. I didn’t tell you that I knew your song because I was one of the idiots who made fun of you about it. God, Sam. If I could take everything back and do it differently, I would. I would, Sam. I would.”
She didn’t back away as he came closer and pulled her into his embrace.
“I’m so mad about this,” she said, her breaths uneven. “Mad at you for knowing that your exhad figured me out. Mad at Ashley.”
“I don’t want to be,” she continued. “Having you here makes me forget about the mad. But then I remember how you talked about the importance of honesty. Yet, you didn’t tell me any of this—not that you laughed at me or that you understood there was a risk in Catiana. No, you didn’t tell me until there was no other choice.”
“I know. I did that.”
“But it’s not your choice,” she said, holding his gaze with hers. “These are the things you tell someone when you’re in a relationship with them.”
“Sam… I was afraid you’d leave.”
“I would’ve.”
