Page 86 of Nothing to Deny
He loved Kelly, or at least claimed to. She needed to spend more time in his company to figure out if she could trust him to stand by her cousin, to support and love her. But was it enough? He could love her, but as long as the secret existed between them, the guillotine was waiting to fall, wasn’t it?
It hung there over those in the know, invisible to the oblivious.
“I’m sorry about this.” She turned to his voice when Baer joined her. “If we weren’t here, none of this would be happening.”
That didn’t mean it was their fault. If they were assigning blame, everyone had a little of their own. As to living with private guilt, that was something a person had to figure out for themselves.
And he had to remember, it didn’t start with him, or them. “If Holly hadn’t lied about her boyfriend, we would never have come to Squires.” Wearing a smile, she ran her fingers into her newly dried hair. “I’m not sorry we visited Squires.” Because it brought them together. “Are you sorry?”
Flipping it around, the guys wouldn’t be dealing with the mess if they hadn’t been dragged along. It worked both ways. Now was the time to find out if maybe some part of him wished they’d never laid eyes on each other.
“You know the answer to that,” he said, moseying over to prop a hip on the vanity next to her, capable arms folded. “We can get Nickson to tell Kelly the truth, if that’s what you want.”
“We force it out of him, he could out you too.”
“And you don’t want that?” he asked. “If you and me can’t get past this—”
“You and I are fine,” she said, her fingers leaping to his arms. “My worry is Holly, I told you that. I don’t want her embarrassed.”
“You’re with an escort too.”
“Not that, that’s not the embarrassment.” Not as far as she was concerned. “She lied about the boyfriend, told stories and—I don’t want her to be humiliated in front of her family, it will never leave her. Even if no one talks about it direct, you know how these things are whispered about in the background.”
“Then we don’t force it out of him. We’ll get him to keep his mouth shut.”
She groaned, her head falling between her hands. “But I want Kelly to know the truth. We’re all lying to her now. That’s humiliating too. How can we let her marry him? Imagine how she’ll feel when she finds out? As if it wouldn’t be devastating enough to learn that your partner lied to you, she will also have to find out the rest of us did too. Who will she trust then?”
Was there a resolution that would keep everyone happy? Not one she could think of. She needed to have a conversation with Holly as soon as possible.
“Well—”
“I’ll leave you to it.”
When she started to pass him, he put an arm out to stop her, scooping her against him. “This getting to you? Is it causing problems between us? We were good before Donoghue showed up, real good.”
“We’re still good.” She sighed. All this talk of honesty, she had to give it. Their relationship might depend on it. “It shouldn’t be so difficult. Relationships. If they start with stress and upset, what does that say about their stability? How secure can a future be when your relationship starts like that?”
“Tell me if you’re stressed, baby. Our relationship isn’t—”
“Not us. No,” she said, grabbing for his upper arms to boost a little onto her toes. “I was talking about them, not us. Living this with them proves how important honesty and openness is in a relationship. Can we promise we will always have that? No matter what, we have to be honest with each other.”
“Okay. Then you should know I have little patience for this shit.”
“Squires guys not confessing their profession?”
“No, that’s a guy’s own business. But he shouldn’t be getting in deep with a girl without telling her the truth. That’s bullshit. There’s never a need for it. I don’t want my girl hiding things from me, no reason I should hide things from her. If that’s the relationship setup, it’s not forever.” Oh, swoon. As if he wasn’t already delicious enough. “Sure, if she’s a short-term deal, no problem, keep it to yourself. But meeting the family ain’t no short-term deal.”
No, it wasn’t, he was right about that. “I’m going to talk to Holly. She wouldn’t want Kelly embarrassed either. Maybe we can figure something out. Get ready and come downstairs for breakfast, don’t be too long.”
“‘Cause you’ll miss me?”
His swaggering smile was funny, but the smugness was warranted, genuine or not.
“Yes,” she said, catching the door handle on her twist to look over her shoulder. “I will.”
Already, she didn’t want to be without him. Unfortunately, her own relationship was taking a backseat to the trials of another.
Family. Helping others was her life’s purpose, didn’t people say that started at home? Maybe Holly had come up with a plan of her own. Fingers crossed they could deal withthis swiftly. Someone had to figure a way out of this for all of them. Maximum results with zero collateral damage, preferably no broken hearts, was that too much to ask?
