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“No,” he insisted, dragging me up against him. “What is it going to take for you to believe that shit can just… be okay? We were fine –youwere fine – and now you’re switching up on me. What the hell is going on?”

I tried to get out of his hold, but that clearly wasn’t happening. So I just glared at him instead.

“You’re right. Iwasfine. But thenyoustarted being weird, and I started worrying, and once I started worrying, it just… spiraled.”

He sighed. “Well… unfurl, damn.” He took a step back, scrubbing a hand over his face. “You can’t jump to worst-case scenario every time I’ve got something heavy on my mind.”

“How about you tell me what’s going on, so I don’t have a reason to?”

“Fuck,” he muttered. “I was still trying to figure out how I felt about the shit before I told you, but… I talked to your sister’s people, about the DNA tests or whatever. To find out where I’m from. I didn’t tell you at first because I wasn’t sure I was going to do it, but Tam thought it was a good idea.”

“Right.”

“Don’t do that shit,” he warned, and I pressed my lips closed, waiting on him to finish. “Yes, I talked to her about it, but not you—because she’s closer to my experience, of not knowing. You have your family,rightnow. You know your history. And… just honestly, she and I have a history that you and I don’t. So… I talked to myfriendabout this. And she encouraged me to do it, and I did it. And I’ve been on edge about it, and maybe you felt that. But I didn’t want to burden you with it, when you’ve been on edge yourself. Then the results came. And… I got contact info, and all that. But I still didn’t—don’t—know what I’m going to do with it. So… that’s what’s been on my mind.”

I just… stood there for a bit, with my lips parted, before I shook my head. “What do you mean, you don’t know what you’re going to do? You’re not going to reach out?”

“I mean exactly that,” he said, turning to walk away, with me following. “They don’t know me, and I don’t know them—what the fuck am I supposed to say?”

I nodded. “Right. Well… where are they?Whoare they?”

He grabbed a glass from the cabinet, filling it with water and taking a drink before he answered. “Israel. And Ethiopia. Apparently, I’m the son of foreign service officers—diplomats. They were killed, at a conference. Suspicious circumstances I’ll probably never get proper answers about. According to what I found, I was in the car too, but was pulled from the wreckage, no injuries. And then… I just disappeared.”

“My goodness,” I whispered, pressing my hands to my chest. “I… I’m sorry you won’t have a chance to know them. And… I’m sorry to have made you feel you couldn’t tell me this before.”

He frowned. “Dee… you have nothing to be sorry about. It wasn’t so much that I couldn’t tell you, I just… I didn’t want to burden you with it. You were knee deep in writing your book, and you helping Pen, and then you had your trip. There was nothing you could do to change any of it, so I didn’t see the point of putting it in your lap.”

“The point would’ve been you not having to carry the weight of that by yourself!”

Except…

Right.

Hewasn’t.

Because Tamra knew.

That realization must’ve been written all over my face, because Zay put his glass down and started toward me.

“Hey,” he said, stepping in the way of me leaving the kitchen before he cupped my face in his hands. “Let’s not turn this into something it doesn’t have to be.”

I forced a smile to my lips. “I hear you, but… easier said than done. And I think… maybe we need some space?”

“No.”

My eyebrows went up. “No?”

“That’s what I said, Dee,” he shrugged. “I don’t need any space. Andyoudon’t need any either – you just want me to agree with whatever sabotage you have going on right now, and I’m not doing it.”

“Excuse me?”

“I was clear. As fuck,” he added, his gaze not wavering from mine. “I’ll cop to being preoccupied, because Ihavehad a lot on my mind. Now how about you tell me what’s up withyou?”

My eyes narrowed. “What? There’s nothingupwith me.”

“Dee, you were bubbly and starry-eyed, couldn’t get enough of me just a few weeks ago. Now you’re talking about needingspace. You really expect me to believe there’s nothing up?”

“Youjust admitted to being distant.”

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