this way is like not treating an open, festering wound."
"Have you ever had a boil?" he asked, baffling her by changing the subject.
"No."
"I did as a kid, twice. They're ugly things, painful and full of pus. Eventually they come to a head. My mother put hot compresses on the one on my arm, but the other...well, it was in an area I didn't want my mother looking at." He chuckled softly. "I imagine this matter with your sister is something like an emotional boil. Eventually it'll come to a head, and it'll hurt like hell, but once the poison's out of your system, you'll heal, but not until you're ready."
"I don't ever plan on speaking to her again."
"I didn't want to deal with the boil, either. You can delay it, ignore it as long as you want, but it isn't going to go away. If you want to live with it, well, that's your decision. When the time's right to set matters straight with your sister, you'll know it."
How wise Seth was, and understanding.
"I wish I was with you right now," he murmured.
She did, too, although she'd opted to explain the situation over the phone. She needed him, and for a woman who'd insulated her life against needing anyone, this was a moment of truth. She did need Seth. Needed him in ways she was only beginning to understand.
"You've been badly hurt. Betrayed by your own flesh and blood, and by the man you were ready to commit your life to. You have a right to your anger, a right to your pain."
"No one understood that." She had to whisper the words because she feared if she spoke normally, her voice wouldn't hold. "My family seemed to think I was better off without John."
"But you loved him."
"Yes. I knew what they said was true, but that didn't make me hurt any less." Her voice shook, but she managed to keep the tears at bay.
"Of course it didn't."
"What happened afterward is beyond comprehension," she said. "That's what I find so crazy. No one faulted Vicki. My parents completely absolved her from any wrongdoing. Because she was sorry, I was supposed to look the other way and pretend this was nothing out of the ordinary. She kept telling me she never meant for it to happen. She sobbed and cried and pleaded with me to forgive her, and I couldn't. The irony is I felt nothing. Not hate, not right away. That came later. I just looked at her, unable to believe that she was capable of anything that ugly, that deceitful."
"I wish I could put my arms around you and take away the hurt," Seth said with such tenderness that she had to fight back the emotion.
"I wish you could, too."
"Close your eyes and pretend I am. Pretend your head's on my shoulder and my arms are wrapped around you."
She shut her eyes and did as he instructed. Caught in the fantasy, she could almost feel his fragrant breath close to her ear. Feel the comfort of his hands as he ran them up and down her spine. Feel the sweet pressure of his lips molding against hers, the taste of his tongue as he claimed her mouth and drove away the demons of the past.
"I think I could love you, Seth Webster." Reba didn't realize what she'd said until she heard the husky words leave her lips. She cringed at revealing her own vulnerability and tilted her head toward the ceiling.
"I'm beginning to think the same thing about you, Reba Maxwell. It's as if we're two of a kind, a matched set."
The line hummed with awareness. Reba would have given anything to actually be in his arms just then. "Thank you for not lecturing me about my relationship with my sister."
"You understood why I gave up playing the piano," Seth reminded her. "Plenty of people have given me grief over that."
"We've both been hurt," she said, realizing that it was this knowledge of pain that had drawn them to each other. They had come together like magnets, two of the world's walking wounded.
They talked for an hour longer, the barriers down, freely and without reserve, laughing and crying together. They shared secrets and dreams, and when she hung up, Reba had rarely felt closer to anyone, male or female.
A half hour later she crawled into bed. The sheets felt cool and crisp against her heated skin. She stretched out her arm and ran it along the wide-open space beside her.