Fiona wished she could kick Prentice.
Where was he going with this?
“Of course not,” Bella whispered.
Prentice was relentless. “It wasn’t you that played darts with Annie, Dougal and me? It wasn’t you who asked Gordon over for hamburgers?”
Bella shook her head.
Prentice kept after her.
“It isn’t you who’s teaching Jace how to play guitar? It isn’t you who stares into my eyes like you do, like you’re lost in what you see and you don’t want to be found. And it isn’t you who wraps your hand around my c**k like you never want to let it go and moans in my mouth when my tongue slides into yours?”
Okay, Fiona thought, overshare.
Bella’s face was confused and her reply was hesitant, “Yes, um… well, that all is me but –”
“So, tell me, Elle, if that’s all you then how the f**k am I confused?”
Bella didn’t have an answer for that, evidently, because she didn’t speak.
She just stared at him.
He let her go but didn’t move away. His hands slid down her forearms and caught her wrists. Bringing them up between them, his thumbs slid into her fists, pushing back her fingers. Then he stroked her palms.
Bella closed her eyes.
Prentice spoke and his tone was now gentle. “I’m not confused, baby, you are.”
Bella opened her eyes.
“I’m not that girl you knew,” she whispered.
God, Fiona thought, Bella’s stubborn.
“You are,” Prentice, Fiona knew, could be stubborn too.
“I’m not.”
“Baby, you are, then and now. But, now, with time and maturity, you’re even better.”
Her eyes filled with tears and Fiona worried her lip. She watched as Bella curled open her fingers and lifted her hands, showing him her palms.
“This is me, Prentice,” she said, her voice harsh. “This is who I am. This is who you’d have in your house. This is who I’ve always been, weak, trapped, useless. I saved you when I left you years ago. Don’t you understand? That girl didn’t exist, you made her. She was only alive for you. This,” she jerked her hands still in his wrists, “is who I am.”
“You can’t believe that.”
“I know it.”
They stared at each other.
Fiona hovered anxiously.
Then Prentice broke through.
His eyes went soft and he lifted one of her hands to his mouth. Touching her palm to his lips, Bella (and Fiona) watched him kiss the scars tenderly. He repeated this gesture with her other hand.
Then he dropped it and placed it against his stomach, holding her hand flat over it with his.