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“So you’re saying you and the rest of the guys at the station can’t protect her?” I ask him. “Or you just won’t?”
Ned meets my gaze. Then he sighs.
“She’s not ours to protect, Antonio. She just happened to come here. She’s an outsider. She’s not even related to you.”
“I wasn’t related to Mitch and Abby,” I remind him.
“You’re practically their son. Besides, you were a child.”
“Lara is a baby.”
“And she has a mother. It’s Triss’s job to protect her.”
I say nothing.
He pats my shoulder. “Look. I’m sorry, buddy. I wish I could help you, but there’s nothing I can do.”
He turns and walks away. I stay where I’m standing, silent as I rub my chin.
I’m not mad at Ned. I should thank him, actually, because he just gave me an idea.
I know what I’m supposed to do.
I go upstairs to look for Triss. I peek into my room first because I told Triss she and Lara should move in there after what happened last night. I don’t see either of them there. Instead, I find them both in their old room. Lara is asleep. To my surprise, Triss is busy packing her things.
“What are you doing?” I ask her in spite of the obvious.
“Leaving,” she answers as she stuffs one of her folded shirts inside her backpack.
I kneel in front of her and place my hand on her arm to stop her from grabbing another. “Why? You said you were staying.”
She looks at me. “But I can’t stay here, can I?”
At the sight of her face that seems on the brink of tears, my eyes grow wide. My hand falls off her arm.
Did she hear what Bernie said?
Damn it.
I pull Triss against my chest and wrap an arm around her.
“Antonio?” I hear the confusion in her voice.
“You can stay,” I tell her as I stroke her hair. “No. You are staying.”
“I don’t belong here in Summerset. You and I have always known that.”
“Neither do I.”
She shakes her head. “You do. You think you don’t, but the people here are your family and they treat you the same way. Summerset is your home.”
“You’re right. I’m their family. They’ve accepted me as one of their own. That’s why they’ll accept you.”
“They never will. Didn’t you hear what Bernie said? That I’m a curse on this town?”
I look into her eyes. “That’s not true. Bernie doesn’t believe it either. He just said that because he’s more wary of outsiders than anyone. But you won’t be an outsider anymore.”
Triss’s eyebrows furrow. “What do you mean?”
I touch her cheek. “Marry me, Triss. If you become my wife, you and Lara will be my family. Bernie won’t ask you to leave and Ned and his friends will protect us.”
Her eyebrows arch. Her lips part but not a single word comes out.
She’s in shock. That’s understandable. Still, I need to hear her reply.
I take her hand. “Trust me, Triss. This is for the best.”
“Is it?” She pulls her hand away and clasps it to her chest. “Do you really think it’s okay for you to marry someone just to save her?” She shakes her head. “I won’t let you do it.”
“Triss…”
“I know you always put everyone’s needs before your own, but this time, you can’t. This is too much. It’s not right.”
“Would you think it’s right if I told you I’m not just asking you to marry me so I can protect you?” I ask her.
She gives me a puzzled look. “What do you mean?”
I take her hand once more. “Triss, yesterday you told me you wanted to overcome the past and that it was only possible if I helped you. I want to do the same. I want to be free of the past that I can’t remember. I want to move forward. I want to live and not just survive. And you can help me do that.”
I already knew it before – that I was living aimlessly, that I was scared to live, scared to hope for a future because I didn’t have a past. Triss changed that. She taught me that the past shouldn’t keep me from the future, that the bad shouldn’t keep me from the good. All this time, I wasn’t sure why I survived or what I was supposed to live for apart from being a doctor. Triss gave me a reason. She is my reason.
“Let’s live together, Triss,” I tell her. “Marry me.”
Again, she looks shocked, maybe even more so than at first. I decide to give her some time to recover.
“Think about it.” I let go of her hand and stand up. “I’ll be waiting for you answer, Triss.”
Chapter Thirteen
Triss
Marry Antonio?
The idea of it is enough to make my head spin. I place my hands on it as I lie down on the bed. My eyes bore holes into the wooden ceiling.
