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I shook my head. “What?”
“I came to the bookstore and saw you leaving with her. So . . . I followed you to Mayberry.”
I felt like my heart stopped in my chest. My explanation was so simple, and even though it would ruin some of the surprise I had in store for her, I had to tell her to keep her from thinking the worst. But the thought that she’d followed us to see what we did, she’dassumedthe worst, then came crying to her grandfather instead of simply asking me about it . . . it fucking hurt.
I hadn’t done anything to betray her trust. Was she always going to hold it against me for pushing her away on that night four years ago? Would she ever be able to trust me?
I still held her shoulders, mostly because I couldn’t bring myself to let her go. I was afraid of the question I was about to ask her. I wasn’t sure I could handle the answer, but I didn’t feel like I had a choice.
If we were going to make this work, I had to know.
“There’s an explanation for what you saw. It’s not what you’re assuming, Sav. And I’ll tell you what it is. But first, tellmesomething. If I promise you that nothing went on between me and Melanie without explaining anything else . . . will you believe me?”
Sav swallowed hard. She blinked a few times. “Chris, it’s just that—”
“Sav? Don’t you realize that I would never hurt you? Don’t you trust me?”
She stayed silent long enough, biting her lip and trying not to cry, that I had my answer even before she blurted, “I’m trying. I want to.”
I stroked my hands down her arms and finally let them drop. “Melanie is an interior designer. She’s helping me renovate the Sparks for you. We went to The Brimstone so she could show me a lounge area kind of like the one you’re dreaming of for the bookstore. I only kept our meeting secret because I wanted to surprise you.”
I smiled sadly and thought about offering her my phone with all the photos Melanie had sent me over the last few weeks of her ideas for the design. But if she didn’t trust me, what did it matter?
Tears streamed down Sav’s face. She looked at me so full of regret that I wanted to pull her into my arms and tell her everything was okay. But even then, I wasn’t sure she believed me.
Sav didn’t trust me. There was no getting around that.
Sean brushed past me and pulled Sav into a hug.
He’d always been so protective of her, I wasn’t even really mad about him getting in my face. But it hurt that I’d been right about his reaction. I guessed he didn’t trust me any more than she did.
Jackson took my arm and pulled me aside. “Cooler heads will prevail, Chris,” he said softly. “You know Sean as well as I do. When he calms down—”
“Maybe,” I said. I appreciated him trying to comfort me, but at that moment, I really needed to be far away from all the Sparkses. I needed to lick my wounds and try to figure out where to go from there.
“I think it’s best if I go.”
“I’m not sure that’s true,” Jackson said. “Let’s try not to make any rash decisions while everyone’s upset.”
“I know. I’ve just got some things to do, and I need . . .”
I couldn’t explain it, and I didn’t want to say out loud that I needed the hell away from there. Jackson nodded at me as if he understood.
I drove off and tried not to look back to see if Sav was watching me leave.
34
SAV
I wokewith a pounding headache as little fingers slapped my face. I flinched and pulled back, slowly opening my eyes to find Penny’s daughter, Olivia, pulling back her hand to slap me again.
“Ouch,” I said, and she laughed.
“Olivia, what are you doing?” Penny said, sounding as if she were in the kitchen. I had crashed on the couch after splitting a bottle of wine with my best friend. And drinking most of another one myself.
Penny let me cry about Chris. She rubbed my back, and we watchedBridesmaidsuntil I conked out at some point, and she’d sweetly covered me with a blanket.
“She’s beating me up,” I groaned.
