AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My hesitation is answer enough, and she turns her back on me with a wretched groan, putting more distance between us.
“I can’t believe this. You were just going to keep me in the dark forever? How could you think this is any kind of real relationship with that hanging between us?”
“This is real. We’re together. This is serious.” I can hear the panic in my voice.
“Obviously not!” Her hands wave in the space between us. “Not when you’re withholding huge things like this.”
That has a spark of unfairness flaring in my chest.
“I’m not the only one.”
She whirls to stare at me.
“Are you kidding? You think I have a secret arrest record I’m not telling you about?”
I grind my teeth, not sure if I’m helping or hurting my case with this next question. “Why haven’t I met your mom?”
Summer looks like I slapped her. “What?”
“Your mom. She lives in town. You see her regularly. So why haven’t I met her?” The insecurity, the hurt I’ve felt these past few months scratches into my voice.
“That’s not what we’re talking about.”
“It’s exactly what we’re talking about. You’ve met my family because I’m all in. I haven’t met yours because you keep expecting this to end.”
“That’s not why!”
“Does she even know about me?”
From the way Summer avoids my eyes, I have my answer. She paces away, agitation shaking through every inch of her body. When she returns to the space in front of me, I find myself staring into determined eyes.
“Okay, Cole. I’m demanding honesty from you, so I’ll return the favor. Here’s the truth. A few years after my dad died, my mom started dating someone new.”
I lean back against the front door, my arms crossed, feeling defensive as I finally get the answer to a question that’s been eating at me for months.
“She fell for him hard. And you know what? I liked him, too. He was charming and wild, and my mom was in love with him. She was laughing easier, smiling more, and for a while, I had the happy version of her back.”
“And he broke her heart?” My hands clench and unclench in frustration. “Just because one guy didn’t stick around doesn’t mean I won’t.”
Summer gives me a look that lets me know just how ridiculous my assumption was.
“Yes, Cole. He broke her heart. They got married, just a small ceremony. And once they set up a joint bank account, he emptied it out and disappeared. All the money from her savings and my dad’s life insurance, gone. Along with the first man she let into her heart since my dad passed.” Summer straightens a stack of books on the card table, then picks them up as if the weight in her arms is comforting. “We had close to nothing. For years we struggled to get by, all because she trusted the wrong person. She loved the wrong person. Needless to say, she’s got a lot more walls up now when it comes to men.”
Summer stares down at the books in her arms, as if surprised to find them there. Dropping the stack with a frustrated huff, she turns back to me.
“So, you’re right. I’m hesitant about introducing her to someone I’m dating. I never have, and I don’t plan to unless I think it’s something serious.”
Silence fills the room, a heavy guilty presence.
Her reasoning makes sense, and I want to commit violence against the man who took away Summer’s happiness. Took away her safety. No wonder she’s so financially savvy. She and her mother had to be when that asshole bankrupted them.
“Did they catch the guy?”
She shakes her head, her fingers reaching back toward the books without her seeming to realize.
“He used a fake name. Fake ID.” Her glare comes back to me then. “Sound familiar?”
Fucking shit. Yeah, it sounds familiar. Seeing as how making fake IDs, forging false documents, is exactly what landed me behind bars. And I started up with that shit when I was eighteen, so for all I know, I helped the guy who first tore away Summer’s sense of safety.
