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“I can’t even begin to describe the weight I carried every day. Weight that I put on myself because I was trying to live up to some fake image of some fake person who I thought had everything. A person who was successful. A person who was successful in everyone else’s eyes. But in the end none of that matters. None of it should matter.”
Her voice trailed off for a moment. “In the end the only thing that matters is that we need love to survive in this world. We need to love and be loved.”
Something warm trickled inside Bobbi. She loved. She loved a lot. She had never stopped loving Shane. Never.
“Some of us aren’t capable of that.” Betty looked surprised that she’d spoken out loud. She cleared her throat and looked away.
“What happened to you, Betts?” For one moment, the plastic shield her sister had constructed melted and something moved within the depths of her eyes. Something painful. Something ugly.
It was gone just as quick and Betty, always good at deflecting, rested her elbows on her thighs and leaned forward. “Have you told him yet?”
She knew what Betty was talking about. “No,” Bobbi whispered.
All those years ago, Betty had been the one to take care of her when her world was falling apart. When her heart felt as if it had been ripped to shreds. When she was hurting so badly she couldn’t get out of bed for days.
Betty had been the one who had found her curled up on the floor in t
he bathroom, bleeding, crying hysterically, wounded and alone.
Betty had been the one to comfort and soothe her when she had lost her baby. The baby she hadn’t realized she wanted until it was too late.
The baby Shane thought she’d aborted.
Her heart twisted and she balled her hands into fists as the wave of emotion inside her threatened to unravel.
The baby she had told him wasn’t his.
“Bobbi, are you alright? You don’t look so good.”
Before she could say a word the door opened and Shane strode into the room, eyes on Bobbi, and so damn sexy her heart twisted some more. He didn’t stop until he pushed his way between her legs, slid his hands around her waist and opened her mouth with his own.
His kiss was tender and warm and exactly what she needed. His lips skated across hers and they spoke without words, pushing aside the pain in her heart. He kissed her long and with exquisite finesse and when they finally came up for air, Shane rested his forehead on hers and grinned. “Hey.”
“Hey,” she managed hoarsely. There was too much emotion inside of her and all of it was caught at the back of her throat.
“I just had to do that. I hope you don’t mind”
She shook her head because she still couldn’t speak.
“Jesus Christ, if I’d have known I was going to be treated to a nooner I would have charged my phone and taken video. I could make a fortune selling that shit.”
Shane turned around, his arm still around Bobbi.
“We can wait if you want to run home,” he said silkily.
Bobbi pushed him and hopped off the desk, straightening her shirt a little as she did so. Her lip gloss was gone, no doubt inside Shane’s mouth and because she’d been running her hands through her hair all morning, she imagined it looked a mess too.
The heaviness of her conversation with her sister was still there, but Bobbi pushed it aside. She couldn’t deal with that right now.
Betty was on her feet as well. “I’m going to head back and wait for Dad with Gramps.”
Bobbi glanced at her watch. “Are you sure? Billie’s going to be—”
“Billie’s going to be what?” The third Barker strolled through the door, long hair pulled off her face in a ponytail. She crossed the room and grabbed a green Gatorade out of the fridge, unscrewed the cap and took a good long drink.
She wiped her mouth, grinned at Shane and turned to her sisters.
“I thought we could all do lunch,” Bobbi said hesitantly.
