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“I wonder sometimes if I did right by you. If I could’ve found someone like Mrs. Quinn, maybe she’d have been better for you than I have been.”
I choked on the sob that threatened to escape. It couldn’t have been easy being a young man saddled with a broken little girl. Never once had he made me feel like he wished he’d never found me. Until now.
“Muriella, you mistake what I say,” he backpedaled. “I—I just couldn’t have been easy to live with. I fumbled my way through, trying to figure out the right thing to do. But it never occurred to me until much, much later that you’d have been better off with someone who could have been a real parent to you. You saved me far more than I ever did you.”
I covered my mouth with my hand. He became blurry on the screen. “Would you do it all again?” I swiped at my eyes and gained control over my tears.
“In a heartbeat.” He ran a hand through his hair. “This distance between us…I know I’m at the root of it, but I can’t stand it.”
This new version of Daniel who was more open with his feelings was something I was still getting used to.
“Now tell me what else happened.” The intensity of his stare bored into me, even through the screen.
“How do you know there’s more?”
“Because I know you.”
“I freaked out yesterday. He grabbed my wrist. It was innocent, but I went straight back to the past.” I closed my eyes as it happened all over again. “Daniel, it was so real. I thought I was there.”
“And Stone handled it—”
“He was perfect. When I came out of it, he was scared, but he handled it well.”
He gave a satisfied nod. “That’s a good thing. You’re finding your way together.”
I slumped in my seat. “I thought I had these things under control. That intimacy would be the biggest hurdle.” I covered my face with my hand. “I can’t do this to him. It’s not fair.”
Daniel was quiet a minute, his gaze drifting past the tablet.
“You didn’t particularly care for it when I made a choice for you without giving you the opportunity to do so for yourself.”
“No, I didn’t. That was wrong of you to do.”
“Yet you’ve already decided for Stone that this relationship is impossible.”
“It’s different,” I protested, then immediately snapped my mouth shut.
“Maybe it is,” he conceded. “I know you, and I know exactly why you think you have to let him go. Maybe you’re not ready for a life with someone else.”
“I am,” I said stubbornly before I’d even had a chance to think about it.
“No relationship is easy. But if Stone is what you want, you’ve got to learn to lean on him. Take it from the stubborn schmuck who almost lost everything.”
I snorted. “When you make a point, you really make a point.”
“I want you to be happy.”
“What do you think I should do?” Just then, the door creaked open and Stone’s sleepy face appeared. I turned the tablet so Daniel could see him. “I have to go. Give Vivian my love.”
“Don’t make the same mistakes I have,” Daniel said.
My finger hovered over the red button to end the connection. “I’ll try not to.” And I hung up.
Stone remained in the doorway. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“It’s okay. I couldn’t sleep.”
“Nightmares?”
