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“Tell me about this guy. Tell me what’s going on with you and him. Really.”
I sighed. Daniel wasn’t going to let it go. I had to cough up some rough details so he’d stop worrying about me. Just like Luke, Daniel had enough bad stuff going on in his home life. The last thing he needed was to worry about me. Maybe I had a thing for do-gooders. “His name is Luke, and I love him.”
Daniel’s lips quirked. “Of course you do.”
“No. For real this time.”
“It’s ‘for real’ every time, Minty.”
I knew I’d dug my own grave on this with my past obsession with romance, but it frustrated me that my best friend couldn’t see that this time was different. Truly different.
“We do more than have kinky sex. We hang out. We go on dates. We sleep over. We’re a real couple.” Not so much lately, with Luke in Johnson City, but…yeah.
Daniel’s eyebrows lifted, surprise and interest glinting in his eyes.
“What? You don’t think someone could love me?”
“Minty, of course someone could love you.Ilove you. You’re very lovable. Anyone in their right mind would love you.”
“Then what?”
“I’m surprised you’relettinghim love you. That’s all.”
I clenched my jaw. He was right, of course. I struggled with that so much. Even after practicing lovemaking several more times, each attempt was such a fight, and I could only do it if I was on top, fucking him, coming inhisbody.
“What?” Daniel nudged me with his shoulder. “What are you thinking about? You look sad.”
“I do have a hard time letting him love me,” I admitted. “I guess that’s why for all those years I always pretended to have romances with men I had no chance with, men who didn’t even know my name.” I licked my lips and pressed on. “And sometimes with men who hated me.”
Daniel’s lips rolled in, like he was holding back words.
“So, yeah. You’re right. It’s hard to let Luke be with me like that, and he wants it to be sweet between us more and more often.” I rattled my straw around in my cup. “What if I can’t? What if I never soften up enough to really let him in?”
Daniel put his hand on my knee. “Minty, you’re healing. Give yourself time.”
I frowned. “What if I don’t have time?”
“You’ve got the rest of your life.”
The sentence froze in midair. Both of us sucked in a breath.
Daniel jerked his hand back to cover his face. I didn’t think I had it in me to reach out and comfort him, but somehow I found myself doing just that. I squeezed his shoulder and said, “It’s all right. I forget sometimes too. Honestly, those are the best times. I can breathe then.”
“Minty, I—”
“Don’t.” I put my hand up to stop whatever he was going to say. “Let’s not talk about it. The point of it all is that Luke and I are a couple now, and I’m better when I’m with him. He knows how tohandle me.”
“Good,” Daniel said, voice gruff. “You’re slippery.”
He put his milkshake in his cup holder and admitted, “I don’t know how to cope with you being positive. I never wanted this for you, or me, or any of us.”
“I know,” I said, rubbing his back.
“I love you.”
“I know.”
“We were supposed to grow old together,” Daniel said vehemently, turning to me with wet eyes. “We were gonna be old men on a porch of some awful nursing home, drinking stale coffee, and talking about the pretty boy nurses.”
