Page 48 of Then Came You

He sat on the couch where they’d lain the night before and expected her to sit beside him. Instead, she perched on the leather chair across from him. Cocoa looked at them like he wasn’t sure which one to side with and ended up lying on the floor between them.

Gillian clasped her hands in her lap and gave him a tight smile. “Sorry I didn’t answer. I wasn’t up to talking.”

“But you let me in.”

“I didn’t want to be rude.”

Sam crossed a leg over his opposite knee and then remembered he was still in uniform. Was that why she was acting so distant?

“I promised I’d be honest with you, and now I want you to be honest with me. What happened between last night and tonight that has you acting like this?”

“Like what?”

He cocked his head. “Like we weren’t just making out on this couch last night.”

She clasped her hands even tighter and shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know, or you don’t want to say?”

“Stop badgering me.”

“I don’t mean to, but I’d like an answer.”

She studied him for a long moment, and he maintained eye contact with her. He wasn’t leaving until she fessed up or kicked him out, and he hoped it wouldn’t be the latter.

“Is this about Stella? Did she say something this morning that upset you?”

Gillian stiffened, and he felt like he’d hit the mark. He hated to make things worse, but he needed to know what was wrong so they could fix it. At least, that was what he wanted.

“This isn’t about Stella.”

“What’s it about, then?”

“Me. Us. This.” She motioned between them.

“I thought you enjoyed kissing me last night.”

“I did.”

“You agreed to a date. Is that off the table now?”

“Sam…”

“Whatever it is, just tell me. Tell me so we can get past this.”

She inhaled deeply, and then she blurted it out. “My last boyfriend, my fiancé, was a cop. He was killed when he responded to an armed robbery. His name was—”

“Owen. I know.”

Instead of feeling like a weight had been lifted, it felt like a weight had been dropped in the center of the living room. Owen’s name hung in the air, and it was like a giant invisible wedge between them.

In that moment, Sam wished he’d told her before, but that was the thing about hindsight. He forced himself to sit still and waited for her to continue.

“You know, as in you heard about what happened, or you knew him?” She leaned forward, and it seemed like the fate of their relationship hinged on his answer.

Since he’d gone this far, there was nowhere else to go but forward.

He swallowed hard. “I knew him, but not very well. I had recently transferred to Holly from another police department, and he died shortly after.”