“And what if it shakes you all the way back to him?”
“Then I’ll own that too,” I say quietly. “But I’m standing here now. Not running. Not hiding. I’m trying to be the manyou deserve. I love you so much it hurts, Sienna. I never said those words to anyone before. Not until you.”
“But you felt them before.”
“Yes.” I nod, gulping. “Once.”
“For Jake,” she finishes.
I nod again.
“Do you like men, then?”
“Fuck, I don’t know. Only him. I’ve never even kissed a man until today. Never wanted to.”
“It’s okay. I get it. You can’t be labeled.” She sniffs. “No one can, really.”
She’s silent then, staring at me, her eyes glistening but hard. “Seeing you kiss him… It broke something in me, Brett. I could be back with Leroy right now. Back with someone who was ready to move the earth to love me again.”
“Ilove you, Sienna. That hasn’t changed.” The words leave my mouth rough, like they scraped against something sharp on the way out, but I feel them. I feel them so strongly in my heart and my soul.
I’m not even sure she hears them at first. She’s staring past me, jaw clenched, lashes trembling.
But I see the flicker. The way her breath catches. The way her fingers curl into fists at her sides.
She shakes her head. “I don’t know what to do. Ihatefeeling this way. Like I’m a wallflower again. Like I’m back home that morning when Leroy told me he was leaving, that he’d fallen for someone else.”
“I know.” My voice cracks. “I hate putting you through this. I love you so fucking much. You’re my dancing queen.”
Her eyes flutter at “dancing queen,” but silence stretches between us again.
Until—
“I need time,” she says.
“I’ll give you all of it.”
She nods once and walks away, heading for the path.
She doesn’t look back.
EPISODE 233
AGAINST THE WIND
River
“What the hell?”
I was ready to spill my guts to Emily, the woman I love, only to have someone pound on the door of my suite.
I sit up, my body still humming from release as the knock comes again. Louder this time. More urgent.
“Who could that be?” Emily asks. “And why so bloody persistent?”
“No one that matters,” I say.
Three hard pounds. Pause. Then again.
