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“I tried to warn you. That when you love someone, you know what they are going to do and trust them. Trace didn’t have to tell me where he was going. I’d figured it out.”
“Can we talk?” Knox asked her.
“Trace and I are going upstairs,” Violet said. “Right, Trace?”
“I guess,” Trace said. “I got him here and that is good enough. Don’t make me regret this.”
“I won’t,” Knox said.
Sage looked at him and crossed her arms.
She was still mad at him but then upset too.
“What do you have to say?” she asked.
“I’m sorry. That is first and foremost. I shouldn’t have said any of what I did. And I sure the hell shouldn’t have walked out the door the way I did.”
“Nope,” she said. “You shouldn’t have.”
“I want to explain why. It won’t make a difference. It doesn’t take it back in the least, but I owe you the reason why.”
“You do,” she said.
“My father never got mad. Never got upset. When he realized Blaze wasn’t his kid and all those rumors he’d heard were true, he told my mother to leave. There was no talking. No explanations. Nothing. My mother screamed and yelled at him and he did nothing. Just walked out the door and said he expected her to be gone when he returned.”
“He had his reasons even if I feel that is cold. The truth is, I feel for him.”
“Because you know what it’s like,” he said. “Those words hit me square in the chest. Before I even made it to my truck I had a light bulb moment of why I did what I had.”
“What is that?”
“I reacted the way I thought my fathershouldhave. I saw my mother’s face on your body trying to explain something that made no sense. It was like my father didn’t care in the least. He’d been shut off for years. Almost like he’d been waiting for a reason to kick her out.”
That was the last thing she wanted to hear. “That doesn’t make me feel any better,” she said, going to get a tissue and blowing her nose.
“I didn’t say it for you to feel bad. I said it as my reason for reacting that way. Not an excuse either. Just what caused me to do and say what I had. It’s wrong every day of the week and I know it completely. I can own up to it when I’m wrong.”
“I’m glad to know that,” she said. “I didn’t do anything wrong. Everyone spent months, a year even, telling me that. They still tell me. The one person I thought would have my back didn’t. And, as we know, that was only half of the issue going on.”
“I’m sorry for that too,” he said, pulling her closer to him and hugging her.
She didn’t want to let him at the same time she probably needed it as much as him.
“I’m sorry my emotions are all over the place.”
“Don’t be. I got drunk last night. That is my version of crying.”
She let out a not so funny laugh. “Would you have sought me out if Trace didn’t go get you?”
“I did seek you out. I texted Trace this morning and told him I messed up and asked if he had any advice on how to fix it. I knew this had to be my step and I took it.”
She wanted to grind her teeth and pushed out of his arms. “He didn’t tell me that.”
“He wasn’t so happy with me, but I figured he knew anyway.”
“He did,” she said. “I looked like I’d been crying all night Thursday, and Friday at work it was obvious.”
“I know why you didn’t tell me about Henry,” he said.
