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Her lips pressed flat then tipped up at the edges. “Yeah. And it’s a pain in the ass.”
His mom so rarely cursed that it shocked a laugh out of him.
“I really am sorry,” she whispered.
“I’m okay, Mom,” he said. “I swear.”
“I know you’re okay,” she muttered, rubbing her hands on her thighs again. “But I don’t want you to just be okay. I want you to be happy. I want you to be with someone you love.”
So did he.
But she didn’t want him, not as he was.
And that—
“What is it, baby?” She cupped his jaw, turned his head toward her. “What’s eating at you?”
Besides the earthquakes continuing to strike his mind, rattling everything and making him think way too much?
He could lie, like he might have before this conversation.
He could pretend he was fine.
He could tell her about Teresa.
No.
He couldn’t do any of that, not right then.
But he could take a baby step forward, could let those words sit inside his mind, store them to consider later. And he could do that later, but still be open with her now. He could step outside of his comfortable, safe box andshare.
So, he told her about work, about Bianca. He should have probably talked to her about Teresa, about what she’d said, whatMelhad said, and how those talks had mirrored their conversation from the other day.
But that…was an open wound.
He needed time to heal, to think, todream.
For now, though, he slid back the lid and peeked out.
Eighteen
Teresa
She clicked her pen and tucked it into its spot on her trusty clipboard.
Had one of the guys stolen it last night and returned it surreptitiously with her name bedazzled on the back?
Yup.
Was she rocking the sparkles today anyway?
Also, yup.
Also, she was kind of liking the sparkles. They went with the chipped glittery polish on her fingernails.
She hugged it to her chest, an unconscious action she knew she did regularly because Rafe had pointed it out more than once. So now she was aware she did it but still couldn’t stop herself, mostly because she was keeping her list safe. It was all backed up, of course, something she printed out every morning and updated in the evening before she shut down for the night.
But there were her notes from the day that could be lost.
