AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He cupped her cheek with one hand and held her gaze, making her stop. This, too, was his fault.
“I’ve always been yours. Even when I wasn’t supposed to.”
She pivoted toward him and hid her face in the nook between his shoulder and neck. He buried his face in her hair and breathed her in.
“Jane. Jane, look at me,” he said, trying to unfurl her so he could see her face again. She didn’t look up. “Anne.”
She looked up, and it made him chuckle. It worked.
“Coming here, being with you, I want us to tell everyone. I’m not backing away from this.”
“How? We just go and tell everybody?”
“Yes. But we’ll do it wisely. I thought about this. I think you should tell your father first. He’s the most reasonable one, the least involved. He’ll be able to help with telling your mother. Then I’ll tell Avery. We’ll do it like that—a swift pull; rip it off. There’ll be some bleeding, some pain, but then it will heal.”
“What about Max?”
“That’s what I’ve thought about the most. He’s a smart, sensitive kid. He adjusted well to the divorce, to Avery moving away. We talked about this. Well, not about you, but in general. I think it will depend on how the rest behave. If we do it right, his mother might be reasonable about it.”
“Good luck with that.” She sighed. “I don’t know how everybody will behave.”
“Because of Avery being Avery?” He now knew her, too.
“Yes, especially. But her parents, as well. They’re … very protective, and mine just want to keep the family together. So that swift pull you talked about? It won’t be easy.”
He took a deep breath. “So, we keep this a secret? Because I’m not letting go of you again, Jane. And your parents, at least, would want you to be happy.”
“Did your mother know you weren’t happy?”
He averted his gaze. “When everything happened, I didn’t have the chance to tell her about us until it was too late. So, I never did. She thought I could be happy. She never said it, but I think that, deep down, my mother thought she already screwed me up, so she wanted to ensure any kid of mine would get what she didn’t give me. Which was wrong, because she was a great mom and marrying Avery was a mistake.”
She sighed. “Whichever way we go about this, they must never know about the past. It will make things worse.”
“Okay. But we have to tell them about us at some point.” He leaned back against the couch, and she leaned into him.
“I don’t know, Finn … What if … what if it doesn’t work?”
“Telling them?”
“Us.”
For a moment there, he was too stunned to speak. But he then caught her gaze. Looking into her eyes, he understood what she was doing. “It’s too late for putting up a fight, Jane. You know that we’re meant to be. Don’t give me the same bullshit we’ll be getting from others. I know the facts. We’ve only had a week. We’ve only met maybe ten times in a decade. But you and I know that time is not a factor when it comes to us. You know me. I know you. Don’t play devil’s advocate.”
She closed her eyes, then opened them and leaned in to kiss him.
On Sunday, they decided to risk it and leave the house. They got into his car and drove out of town. They went to the beach in Wayford then left the coastline behind and drove to a restaurant in a town farther inland. It felt great, like a date. Nothing to hide. Just be. Just the two of them, like normal people.
Things looked up even more when a text from Avery surprised him on Tuesday. She texted to tell him that she was seeing someone and that she wanted him to meet Max.
It was a glimpse of hope. Maybe she wouldn’t make things harder than they should be once they told her. Maybe.
He wanted to meet the guy first. He knew he’d give him a fair chance, although Avery wouldn’t do the same for the woman he was seeing.
“I’ll try to set it up and let you know,” Avery texted when he asked.
