Her phone buzzed again.She looked at it automatically.
Kyle again.Two words.
Forgive me.
Her vision blurred.Forgive him?For what?She’d been the one in the wrong.How could he say this to her?Unless he was asking forgiveness for what he was about to do.Fear clawed inside.Like take Bella away.Is that what he’d meant?
She scrolled to his most recent message.
I’m sorry.Please, I need to see you.
Oh, he did.But she couldn’t see him.Not yet.Not until she found enough emotional fortitude to pretend his taking away Bella wasn’t going to kill her.
And as her phone clattered to the floor, new tears slipped past her fingers.This world was filled with hard, inexplicable things.
Including the fact that she knew she’d have to talk to him again.
Soon.
CHAPTER18
Forgiveness.It was another of those things that often showed a gap between theory and practice.Kyle had known that forgiveness was a central trait in the whole coming-to-Jesus thing, but it was another thing to be staring his betrayer in the face and be willing to do the same.How on earth had Jesus managed to wash the feet of Judas before that last supper?
A black cat—Bella had called her Betsy—eyed him, then hissed, her disdain as obvious as what Minnie had always displayed.
He swallowed, as the tension lining the Rivas living room thickened with the awkwardness between Gen and himself.
She was downcast, which was understandable, and nervous, avoiding his eyes.Considering his last encounter with her, he felt the same.Thank God that Minnie was at work.He couldn’t do this if she was here.It was hard enough to have Gen and Bella in the room.
He shifted awkwardly on the horrible couch, felt a spring poke his thigh.“You really need a new couch.”Hey, he had to say something to break the ice.
Gen’s lips pressed together, while Bella glanced at her, then back at him.“Mom hates it, but Grandma thinks it’s pretty.”
He raised an eyebrow.The garish flower pattern printed on vinyl sure wasn’t his idea of beautiful, but then he’d always preferred the understated to that which was in your face.
“Let me guess: she likes it because it means visitors don’t want to stay too long.”
Bella grinned, and his heart thudded at how she suddenly looked like her mother.
Her mother, who even now was shaking her head.“You don’t have to stay.”
“Aww, come on Mom.I want to hear what he has to say.”
“You’ve sure changed your tune,” Gen muttered.
Hurt rolled over him, but he refused to take offense.It was only natural that Bella would be unsure.He hated to think what they might’ve said about him, how Gen and her mom had likely discussed him in front of Bella.
And yet he didn’t know that for certain.Well, yes, he knew Minnie Rivas would certainly have slandered him, but Gen, well, he was not so sure.She’d loved him once, but whether that was enough to temper her words with their daughter he didn’t know.
“I’m glad you want me here,” he said to Bella.
She nodded, eyeing him as if she still wasn’t entirely sure what he would do.
And to be honest, he wasn’t one hundred percent certain either.Only knew that the longer this dragged on without speaking, the more room there was for wild imaginings that had no grounding in reality.And while he still didn’t have a plan, he knew he had to open the lines of connection.Especially before his parents arrived next weekend.
“So, Bella.What do you like to do?”
Her eyes lit as she shared about loving science and math.It felt strange, this meeting someone who his DNA had created.He could see how her interests had been flavored by Gen’s own.“Your mom used to love science and math, too.”
