my daughter,” her dad added, his serious tone offset by his smile.
“I’ll kiss them if she doesn’t want to,” Maureen offered, which got another round of laughs.
Damn it. She didn’t want the flash of jealousy that nailed her at the thought of another woman kissing Henrik’s bruises. Or the worry that’d set in on if he was really okay and if there was another woman waiting to comfort him.
She managed a smile for the expecting faces and somehow didn’t crack in front of the twenty-five people who were squeezed into her uncle’s basement. The hockey game had followed football, which had followed the noontime meal. Another day filled with family that had been both torturous and soothing.
Would this be her last Thanksgiving?
She jumped to her feet, needing to flee before the swelling emotions got too big to contain. “Anyone need a beer?” she asked, finding an excuse for her departure.
A couple of hands went up, and she charged up the stairs before questions could follow. Sure, the downstairs fridge was full of beer, but no one called her on it before she reached the top of the steps.
She stopped in the kitchen, heart racing too fast. Another group of people were hunkered down in the family room. Kids’ laughter filtered in from a bedroom, but for now, the kitchen was empty.
That lasted a whole five seconds until Colin stepped out of the stairwell. Great. At least it wasn’t Aiden. He’d hovered at her side the entire day until he’d had to leave for work. She’d guiltily cheered his early departure, but the look on Colin’s face suggested Aiden had handed the hover-baton off before he’d left.
“You okay?” Colin asked, bracing his bottom on the counter next to her.
Would people ever quit asking her that? “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Well—” he shrugged in a casual but not way, “—maybe because you dumped Henrik on Sunday, told no one and everyone’s been raving about him all day while you pretend you’re still dating.”
Her stomach twisted around the persistent pain even as a relieved laugh escaped her lips. God. Did her brothers miss anything? “How do you know I broke up with him?”
“By the look on his face when he came inside on Sunday.” He raised his brows and gave another shrug. “He didn’t need to say a word. The devastation was clear for the brief moment he allowed the pain to show.”
She squeezed her eyes closed, willing herself to let go of the image Colin had created. But she’d seen it herself on Henrik before he’d turned away. It’d haunted her dreams and hammered at her heart in a relentless attack manifested by her growing guilt.
Was she doing the right thing?
“Any chance you want to talk about it?” Colin ventured.
Had Aiden said something to him? Shared their conversation last night after she’d sworn him to secrecy? It wouldn’t be the first time.
She eyed Colin, assessed his expression and open-ended question, and decided Aiden hadn’t blabbed about her cancer fears. Colin was being supportive without pushing or judging and that was so like him.
She leaned into his side, tilting her head to rest it on his shoulder. “Not really,” she said, her head and heart too full to parse out words without purging everything she kept trapped inside.
“Any chance you need to talk about it?”
She huffed a laugh. “Probably.” She was sure there was a therapist somewhere who’d have a field day with the messed-up logic in her head. Yet she’d stopped seeing one of those after her five-year all-clear checkpoint.
His arm came around her shoulders to hug her closer. “He seems like a solid guy.”
“He is,” she agreed, going with his gentle prodding.
“Different than what I’d expected.”
“Yeah.”
“He treats you well, right?”
She thought of all the things Henrik had done for her, the gifts she’d rejected and the tenderness he’d bestowed on her. “Very.”
“Don’t tell me he sucked in bed.”
“Colin.” She jabbed her elbow into his side, stifling her laugh. “That wasn’t an issue.”
He chuckled with her before going quiet again. “So what happened?”
What happened? She fell in love, got scared and pushed him away for his own good. “What if my cancer comes back?” She whispered the fear. After a day of churning through everything she’d purged with Aiden, her angry certainty had been replaced with questioning doubts.
“What if it doesn’t?” He hugged her tighter, cheek resting on her head. “You can’t live your life fearing its return.”
“And I can’t knowingly dump that dark cloud on somebody else.”
“What if he wants it? Did