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“I’m sure it doesn’t help what happened last week with the robbery.”
Mia’s brows furrowed. “I’m fine. That has nothing to do with this.”
“Seriously, woman, stop. It does.”
“It doesn’t.”
Gabby rolled her eyes. “We can go back and forth if you want or you can concede because I will win the fight. Someone pointed a gun at you. If that didn’t throw you back in time, I’d be shocked.”
Mia shuddered. She’d been bombarded with so many different emotions from Jaxson showing up, asking her to marry him, lying to her best friend, she didn’t have any time to ponder what happened in the store. That a man had held a gun at her. That the said gun went off. That it almost punctured her and not her bag.
“Fine. It was scary.” Beyond scary, but that was the most she could get out at describing it.
“I imagine it was. Having a gun in your face is always scary.”
Another shudder rippled through her. “I don’t know how you do your job. I honestly don’t.”
“Because I love helping people. Everything else just is. I deal with it because otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to help people the way I want.”
Gabby reached out and touched her hand. “It’s okay to let it out. Scream really loud or stomp your feet or whatever you need to do. You went through a traumatic thing—shit, another traumatic thing—in your life, and you can’t keep that shit inside. Let it out.”
Mia giggled, placing a hand over Gabby’s and squeezing in appreciation at her support. “My neighbor can be an asshole. I’m not sure he’d appreciate me screaming in the middle of the day. He works nights, so he’s sleeping right now.”
“Does this look like a face that cares?” Gabby laughed as she circled a finger around her face. “Sometimes you need to let it out. You haven’t let anything out. You haven’t talked about it, at least not with me. You can’t keep it bottled inside. Did you talk to Jaxson about it?”
Mia shook her head. She didn’t want to talk about it. Why did Gabby have to push it?
“So it’s building and festering and look what’s happening.”
“What?”
“You’re making a mess of the best thing to walk into your life. You’re pushing a good man away because you’re scared to face this shit head-on. You didn’t talk about your dad much either when it…” Gabby hesitated because she didn’t like to talk about it either. “When everything happened. I was there, too. It’s hard not to forget. I let the rage and anger over everything out in my job by helping people that need it when you never got the help you should’ve gotten. But what do you do to let it out?”
She didn’t do anything. She held it all inside, bottling it up like Gabby said.
“I feel like he’s had a hold on me my entire life. How do I get rid of that? How do I let it go? I don’t know how to let it out. It scares me just as much as a gun in the face did.”
Gabby started to frown, as if unsure of what advice to give, then stopped, a bright smile building. “I have the perfect idea to shed all that angst and fear and anger sitting inside your soul.”
Mia perked up. Because the eagerness and glee in Gabby’s eyes was hard to ignore. She was suddenly inspired and feeling renewed for the first time in her life.
“Tell me. I’m willing to do anything. It’s eating me alive. I don’t know how much more I can take.”
That was the plain simple truth. Before she could look to the future, she had to purge the past.
18
“So…”
Jaxson glanced up and looked across his desk to Gabby sitting at her own. He supposed it was inevitable to not converse with her. They were partners after all. They had cases to solve. Just because he didn’t know what to say or how to say it didn’t mean he could ignore her all day at work.
“So, what?”
Gabby rolled her eyes, scrunched up a piece of paper, and threw it at him. “How was your time with your brother? I need details.”
He chuckled, despite the turmoil running rampant through his system. He had no idea how he was going to get through the next two days without confessing he and Mia had been a thing.
And now they weren’t anything.
