“I didn’t have anyone close by who I could ask to come to the hospital because my boyfriend almost broke my nose.”
Lee’s jaw ticked.
“So anyway, I filed a restraining order the day after, and a couple of the cops were nice enough to hang out at our apartment while I packed and Zach was still in holding. On my way out, one of his friends stopped by, asking if I knew where Zachkept things.”
“He stole from him too?” Lee arched a brow.
“Maybe. Or maybewithhim. The most embarrassing part of all of this is that I lived with a guy for two years whom I didn’t really know.” I rubbed my eyelids. “The police were there, so the guy didn’t press the issue, but I had the feeling if I had been alone, he might have done something. Hurt me…I don’t know.”
“Jesus,” Lee said, his mouth flattened into a hard line. “Has anyone else approached you?”
“No. Zach has other theft charges besides mine, and the assault just made it worse, so from what I know, he can’t leave Ohio if he ever makes bail and can’t come near me even if he could. I don’t have an address yet, so no one can look me up. I opened a PO Box to get my mail, but I suppose someone still could find me if theywanted.”
Besides all the humiliation, I didn’t know when the urge to constantly look over my shoulder would go away.
“And he never hit you before that?”
I shook my head.
“I was away for work a lot, and we’d fight whenever I was home. He’d get loud but never physical,” I said with a shrug. “It was good at first, but we’d been off for a while. We should have broken up long before that, but I was too busy to pack up and leave, and I kept putting it off. My fault.”
“No, it is not,” Lee said, leaning closer to the table.
“Getting hit, no. But I had no idea what he was doing because I was too busy to pay attention. So, yes, that part is my fault. It’s fine. I’ve moved on. Or at least, I’m in the process of moving on. I’m home with family—and friends.” I nodded at Lee, this time getting a ghost of a smile flitting across his face. “Still in one piece.”
Lee stood from his seat and crouched in front of me, holding my gaze as his chest rose and fell.
“I am so sorry that you went through all of that alone. I would have come to the hospital to stay with you if you had called me.”
I tilted my head, trying to smile despite the tears burning my nose.
“You would’ve flown all the way to Ohio to sit in an ER for a night? By the time you got to the airport, I would have been home.” A wry grin pulled at the corner of my mouth.
“If you’d called me, yes, and I would have stayed with you after and helped you get away from that asshole. What are friends for? You dropped everything for me a few years ago, remember?”
He squeezed my knee, triggering a lump in the back of my throat I couldn’t swallow away.
“You and Gary should know—you call me, and I’ll be there. No questions asked.”
Lee picked up my hand and gave it a squeeze. The humiliation burning my cheeks had cooled now that my attention was diverted to the charge from Lee’s palm grazing mine. He searched my face, so much concern swimming in his eyes, I didn’t know whether to cry or leap out of my chair and into his arms.
Both of which I couldn’t do here…or anywhere.
I broke out of my trance when I felt eyes piercing my back. People who didn’t know us or what we were talking about probably saw Lee almost on his knees and thought there was much more to it. I met the gaze of a very hopeful elderly couple, the woman clasping her hands under her chin as she beamed at us.
“Get up,” I whispered. “People are staring at us like you’re about to pull out a ring.”
Lee glanced over his shoulder. “That’s one way to make the Bats’ Instagram page again.”
“Again?” A soggy chuckle slipped out of me. “I thought that was only Silas.”
“Someone got a shot of me holding Bennie at a game, thankfully not of her face, and I had to set all my socials to private after the picture started to circulate with the hashtag DrDILF.” He lifted a shoulder. “I don’t have montages dedicated to my ass like Silas does, but that’s only because I’m mostly in the background.”
I laughed at his wink.
“The cost of fame,” I joked. “And for what it’s worth, thank you.”
My gaze snagged on his, that smile just as disarming as when I’d first seen it at sixteen, leaving me breathless while he made his way back to his seat.
