“I’m not keeping you from anyone.” I shook my head. “I just know it’ll be a fight, and I hate that it will be. At least most people accept us.”
“Which I still have a hard time believing.”
I rolled my eyes. “We’re fine. I just want them to see it and not bother you.”
“Well, they already have, so it’s fine.”
I frowned. He froze, eyes wide as he realized what he said.
“What do you mean they’ve already bothered you?”
“I didn’t want to stress you out.” He said it slowly, like he knew I wasn’t going to be happy.
“Theo, don’t hide things from me. I promise that finding out later is worse.”
He sighed and scrubbed his face. I prepared for him to defend himself and tell me it was for my own good.
“You’re right, love. I’m sorry. I should’ve told you.”
“Thank you,” I said, my shoulders loosening. They tightened right back up when I remembered what we’d been talking about. “Now tell me what happened, please.”
“Joey ... may have picked up on us before.”
“What?” I hissed. “What did he do?”
“Just told me to stay away.”
“How dare?—”
Theo’s hand landed on my thigh. “Love, it is what it is. Some people will have opinions.”
“When did this happen?”
“When they visited.”
I huffed out a breath, my jaw tightening. I hated this feeling, but it kept coming back every time I thought of all that Joey was doing.
My brow pinched. “Why is he like this? This isn’t normal, right?”
“It’s not.”
Both he and Scarlett had told me that. I knew it was true, but I was so tired of dealing with it.
“This is gonna be a nightmare,” I muttered.
“Hey,” Theo said softly, his hand curling around my knee. I stared at it, tempted to shy away since I was so anxious.
But it was Theo. He was never going to hurt me.
“Yeah?”
“We’re in an unfamiliar city, and we haven’t even eaten yet. Let’s get breakfast and go home. Then we can work on how to tell Joey.”
“You’ll help me?”
“We’re in this together, love. Of course I’ll help you.”
Hearing that almost made me smile. I took a second to let myself dread it before I sat up straighter.
