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I took her face in my palms and brought her lips to mine. She returned my kiss with a soft passion I was grateful for.
“Let me have this, Trish. I know what you’re going to say,” I said. Her brows went up a fraction, but before she could say anything, I continued. “We can deal with it after.”
Her hand caressed mine on her cheek. “How can you possibly know?”
I shrugged. “I figure things out on my own.”
She took a breath. “I don’t wanna watch the movie.”
“What?”
She shook her head. “Can you just hold me?”
I nodded and led her over to where the pillows were set up on the blanket. Dragging her down with me, she sat between my legs with her head propped on my chest so I could rake my fingers through her hair while one arm was woven around her.
I enjoyed her warmth against me more than I was willing to admit. I savored it. Because I knew once it was gone, there’d be another waiting period for us. And at the end of that waiting period, it wasn’t even certain she’d be single. I knew I would. There was no other person in this world for me but her. I was certain about that now. If it wasn’t Trisha, it was no one.
“Is it bad I don’t this moment to end?” I asked her.
She shook her head. “You wouldn’t be the only person.”
I took a breath. “Does he still want to kill me?”
She laughed. “No, I don’t think so. Not unless you break my heart first.”
I froze. So, Zane hadn’t talked her out of being in a relationship with me? “Wait what?”
She turned her head to me and was clearly mirroring the confusion that was marked on my own face. “Yeah, we talked about it—”
“So he didn’t tell you to end this?”
“No.” Her brows went deeper. “Even if he did, I wouldn’t—”
“You didn’t want to tell me you’re backing out on this, then?”
“No, why would I do that?”
The unseen weight that had been sitting on my chest all day suddenly lifted. She was still leaving, I was certain of that. But I wondered what it was then she said she had to talk to me about.
“Then what did you…”
She sagged against me, a dark look overcoming her beautiful eyes.
I tipped her chin up to face me with my forefingers. “Talk to me, Trish.”
She took a breath then exhaled heavily. “I was an addict.”
What?
“I was addicted to alcohol at a point in my life—right when I moved out of Cedar Cove, actually. And it was really, really bad. The friends I did make got tired of me drinking my way through my first couple months of med school and so I stopped having designated drivers.”
I realized where this story was headed. “Trish…”
Her eyes started fluttering like she was trying to hold back tears. “There was umm… there was one night before a really big test that things just got so out of hand for me that I couldn’t take it anymore. And so, I went down to a bar and got absolutely wasted. When I was driving back…” She shook her head. “I barely even remembered getting into the car to be honest.”
My heart broke for what she must’ve done. It made sense then why she’d been destroying Zane’s alcohol cabinet. It also made sense why after that visit to his sister that one night, I never saw him drink again. The cabinet was there, but he never used it. Not even when there was something to celebrate.
And here I was being so inconsiderate by going down to the bar nearly every night. Not that I got drunk, but I was there. And I was usually drinking, even if it was just a couple of beers.
