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“Not at all?”
“No. I didn’t date, didn’t sleep around… didn’t do anything. Not because I’d loved Sadie, or wanted her back, or regretted what had happened between us, but because I needed to reassess my life. All of it. I spent a lot of time wondering why I’d behaved the way I had… questioning my judgement and my decisions, and trying to figure things out. What happened between me and Sadie and my dad… it wasn’t good. It made me doubt my relationships with everyone I knew. I questioned who I could trust. Not just lovers and friends, but everyone.”
“That’s not surprising, considering what your supposed best friend had done.”
I shake my head. “It wasn’t that. Obviously I was hurt and angry about Austin, but I—I’d always had problems with trust, ever since Mom left, and…” I stop talking and gaze into her eyes, then raise my hand and cup her cheek. She doesn’t flinch. In fact, she leans in to my touch. “Do you know? I think you’re the first person I’ve ever completely trusted.”
I hear her gasp, her lips parting slightly, and her eyes glistening. Is she gonna cry? Part of me hopes so, if it means she’ll let me hold her.
“Y—You…?”
“I trust you, Livia, with everything I have, and everything I am. It happened naturally, without me having to even think about it. Maybe that was because you understood me, straight off the bat, and because you’ve helped me to understand myself. I spent years trying to figure it all out, and getting nowhere, but you walked into my office and within days, you had it all worked out. You made me realize that looking back won’t get me anywhere. I’m never gonna know why Mom left, and even though Dad’s words are always gonna be there, they don’t matter. Whatever his motives, he was just being cruel. As usual.” I shift forward, getting closer to her. “Please believe me… I didn’t lie to you, Livia. I couldn’t. I love you too much to lie to you.”
She shuffles a little closer to me. “Do you have any idea how much I value your love and the trust you’re placing in me? It’s not unfounded, Hunter. I couldn’t lie to you, either.”
I lean over and pull her onto my lap. She comes willingly, raising her face to mine, and I brush my lips against hers in a gentle kiss. “I wanna make love to you so much right now.”
Her eyes sparkle, and she smiles. “I wish you could… but we’ve been up here for ages, haven’t we?”
“Yeah, we have.”
“And I guess we’ve still got a lot of work to finish.”
“Unfortunately, we do.”
She lets out a sigh, and I match it, kissing her again, before I lift her off of my lap and we clamber from the bed.
We hold hands all the way down to my office, and she takes her seat opposite me and opens the laptop, gazing at me across the desk. Something’s wrong, though. I know it is. I can feel it deep inside me.
“Are you okay?” Livia asks, tilting her head.
“No.”
She frowns. “What’s the matter?”
“I can’t work. Not like this.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m not gonna be able to concentrate. Something’s playing on my mind.”
“What’s that?”
“We didn’t get everything straight between us yet.”
She looks a little fearful. “We didn’t?”
“No.” I get up again, going around my desk, and I take her hand, pulling her up and leading her to the couch by the window, where I sit with her beside me. “Y—You were packing.”
“Yes. I’m sor—”
I hold up my hand, and she stops talking. “Don’t apologize. That’s not why I’m saying this. I—I just… you were packing. You were gonna leave me.”
“I was angry, Hunter.”
“You had every right to be, but you’re missing the point.”
“I am?”
