when you look at Everett?” Her question was careful.
I swiped at the single tear that streaked down my cheek, huffing out a sound of disbelief. “Too much. Everything. Fear and jealousy and this bright, blinding love that I can’t stop.”
“You have to tell him,” she quietly urged, a supportive hand on my knee.
Sorrow gathered in my throat, thick and wobbly, and I struggled to swallow it down. “I know. I’m just . . . not sure I’m ready. Not sure that he is.”
Carly frowned. “You can’t keep it from him, Frankie. It’s not right. And with Everett . . .” she trailed off.
Guilt teetered around on unsteady feet.
“I’ll tell him. I will. I just . . . have to find the right time.”
The right way. The right words.
And pray they didn’t send him crumbling once and for all.
“You think there’s ever going to be the perfect time? That it will change how it will affect him? You’ve carried that around for years, Frankie, and it’s nearly destroyed you. You can’t keep shouldering all of that yourself. He needs to know.”
A tremble rolled through. “I know.”
“After that?” she pressed.
“We hope it doesn’t send him running across the country again.”
Milo came trotting out of my room, his nails clicking on the tile. He came right for me and burrowed his face in my lap. I petted him, fingers in his fur, a kiss to his head. “Hi, boy. You need to go outside? I’m sorry I was gone all night.”
He hopped around, all too excited for a pee.
Dog life.
If only ours could be that simple.
Carly waved me off. “Pssh . . . he didn’t even notice. I went in there to check on him a couple of times, and he was snoring away like an old man.”
“That’s because you are an old man, aren’t you?” I cooed as I rubbed both sides of his snout and kissed his wet nose.
I pushed to standing. “Come on, let’s go,” I called to him, heading toward the door where I kept his leash on a hook.
I hooked it to his collar and opened the door to the blazing morning light, the sun shining through the branches of the trees to warm the coming day. I led Milo across the porch and down the steps. He lifted his leg before my old boy went to sniffing away.
Movement startled me from behind, and I whipped around, a shriek getting free when I found Jack lurking ten feet away.
I scowled his direction, trying to look mad and irritated, praying it would cover up the creeping fear that slithered beneath my skin when I saw him leaned on the post of his porch.
“Mornin’,” he said, his hands stuffed in his pockets.
“I don’t want to talk to you,” I told him, turning my back.
“I’m sorry,” he said anyway.
I tossed a glare his way. “You threw a rock through my car window. I’m not sure apologies are accepted at this point.”
He heaved out a heavy sigh. “That was unacceptable. I know it. Surprised you didn’t have me hauled off to jail, honestly, or your dad over here to kick my ass.”
Gathering myself, I turned and stared at him.
Sure, he was a little burly and rough, but I’d never expected him to do something so explosive.
Did I not know him at all?
I wavered, taking him in like I might be able to see the guilt written on him. “Did you do it?”
He frowned. “You saw me do it, Frankie. Lost my temper. Know it was wrong. Like I said, I’m sorry.”
I didn’t see any flicker of recognition. No flash of guilt before it was tucked away.
I lifted my chin. “I’m not talkin’ about my window. I’m asking if you went over to Evan’s parents’ house yesterday.”
Genuine confusion filled his expression. “Don’t know what you’re talking about. If I go over there? You’ll know it because that punk will be getting his ass handed to him.”
Worry and disappointment shook my head.
Defiance lifted my chin, and I stared him down, showing no fear or submission. “Stay the hell away from him, Jack. I’m warning you.”
He laughed.
He took a step forward.
I took one back.
“You’re the one who always said never stop fighting for what’s most important to you. Never stop believing in what you want. Didn’t you, Frankie Leigh?” Thing was, when he said it, it was bitter.
Acid burning from his tongue. Apparently, he’d missed the memo on the meanin’.