AllFreeNovel
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Guitar in hand, I moved back to sit on the sofa and put a hand on her leg. “Hey, you don’t owe me any answers. Or explanations. I gave you the song for you. It doesn’t have a time limit or a requirement. Just like me. I’m here. I’m going to be here. This is where I want to be.”
She lifted those lashes and studied me. It was like she looked right through me. “Why now?” The question came out so quiet, I almost missed it.
Not playing dumb, I turned so I could face her, and when she didn’t reject my hand on her leg, I left it there. “Do you want the whole answer right now? Or is it enough that this is where I want to be?”
Was she ready to have the whole answer?
“I want the whole answer,” she said slowly. “I…you hurt me, Ian. When you pulled away, and then when you said I didn’t know what I wanted or needed.”
“I know I did.” Admitting it hurt, too. “It was the one thing I didn’t want to do, and I did it. I told you shit you probably didn’t want to hear, and I can’t tell you if I did it to sabotage them or to sabotage myself.” Blowing out a breath, I focused on her. “That was the worst part of it. I hurt you. I hurt them. I didn’t… It wasn’t your feelings I was questioning, Frankie. It was my own.”
She straightened a little. The frown tightening her brows worried me, but I didn’t flinch under that laser focus.
“I didn’t know if I could handle it. All I’ve ever wanted was to protect you. Protect you from everyone and everything. Even us. Maybe even especially us.” Exhaling, I forced myself to meet her gaze and stay there. “I’m not proud of what I did over the summer, of who I became. I wish… Some days, I really wish I could take it all back.” Especially the parts involving Sharon.
“And now?”
“Now that’s my problem, and I shouldn’t make it yours.”
“Wrong.”
I blinked. “What?”
“Even if we were just friends, friends talk about problems, don’t they?”
I didn’t want tojustbe her friend, but I nodded. “Always.”
“You’ve told me I could talk to you about anything.”
“Yes.”
“So, it would seem fair you should be able to talk to me about anything, too.”
“I have,” I told her. “You’re the only one I ever shared my music with. You’re still really the only one I share it with.”
“That should change,” she told me. “Because you’re really good.”
I chuckled. “I’m all right.”
“No, Ian. You’re more than all right…you’re amazing.”
“You just might be biased.”
The corners of her lips twitched. “That doesn’t make me wrong.”
“No,” I agreed slowly. “It doesn’t.”
We sat there for a beat, and she shifted her legs to stretch them out, and then her feet rested against my thigh.
“Think whatever you practice can help me read through here and find the pieces I need to cite?”
I grimaced. “That’s a tall order. Especially if you already think it’s boring as fuck.”
Her grin lit me up. “Well, I’m prepared to be entertained.” The dare in her eyes made me smile.
Challenge accepted.
“All right then,” I said, and settled the guitar as she adjusted her feet. When she would have pulled them away, I caught one. “You can leave them there.” At the flicker of doubt, I added, “Trust me?”
