Page 34 of Trusting a Warrior

With a sigh, she tilted her head back to stare at the ceiling. “As a friend, always and forever. I think he feels the same about me. As lovers, we never quite...worked. It’s hard to explain.”

“You don’t have to.” Wincing, Geo sank down next to her. “It’s none of my business.”

“Well, either way, it’s over,” she said firmly. “Ancient history. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.”

She could feel the weight of his gaze, but he didn’t say anything. At last she rolled her head along the back of the couch to look at him. “What?”

“Nothing.” He grimaced. “It’s just...”

“What?” She reached over and touched his knee. “It’s okay. Ask me.”

He shook his head, lips pressed tightly together, and then suddenly burst out, “What happened between you two? Together for ten years, and now you’re...”

He broke off, the horrified look that spread over his face causing an inexplicable giggle to rise to her throat.

“Now we’re broken up, and I’m pregnant by some other random dude I’ll probably never see again?”

“Oh, God.” He sounded downright agonized. “I’m so sorry, it really is none of my business.”

Lani gave his knee a reassuring squeeze, the feel of hard muscle and warm skin sending a renewed tingle through her. She pulled her hand away reluctantly before saying, “That’s why you’re here, though, isn’t it? For us to get to know each other?”

He shrugged, though she was gratified to see his jaw unclench a bit. “Yeah.”

“So I’ll answer, and then I get to ask you something. How about that?”

A wary look flitted over his face before he smoothed out his expression, and nodding, he said, “Okay.”

Hmm. What kind of secrets are you hiding, my friend?

After getting comfortable, she picked up her water bottle and took a long, slow drink. “So Rhys and I, we met when we were five. Instant friends, you know? By our freshman year of high school, we were almost inseparable, but it wasn’t romantic. Not then.”

Geo drew his knee up and mirrored her pose, his elbow propped on the back of the couch, head resting on his fist.

“This one day after school, he was supposed to come over and help me with my math homework, but he was late.” Remembered frustration tightened her lips. “Seemed like he was always running late, and it pissed me off. Besides, I didn’t like some of the people he’d started hanging around with, and he was doing stupid shit like ditching class, that sort of thing.”

“Sounds like a typical freshman boy,” he commented, grinning.

She shot him a sour look. “Well, it pissed me off,” she said again. “While I was waiting for him to show, my brother came home early from work. When I asked why, Tyler said he’d just quit. It floored me, because he’d been working at that restaurant for years, and it was part of the condition of my parents paying for community college, that he have a job to pay for his car insurance and spending money.”

“And he’d just quit?” His voice was hushed, as if not to break her train of thought.

“Yeah. I asked him what he was gonna do, and he goes, ‘Who cares? Let’s go have a snowball fight!’”

“A snowball fight?”

“Indiana in January, there’s gonna be snow, Geo.”

“Ah. Right.”

“I didn’t want to, but something—I’ll never know what—made me say yes.” Memories washed over her, of crisp air, a backyard full of powdery snow, and Tyler’s cold-reddened cheeks and happy grin.

“We horsed around throwing snow at each other,” she said huskily, “and made snow angels, and then we went inside and Tyler fixed me some Mexican hot chocolate.”

Bowing her head, Lani squeezed her eyes shut, those last images of her brother alive swirling behind them. “It’s surreal, looking back now. He’d seemed down for months, not himself, and that afternoon it was the old Tyler again. What happened next didn’t—doesn’t, will never—make sense.”

Geo’s warm hand came to rest on her shoulder, but he didn’t say anything, which she appreciated. “Tyler didn’t touch his hot chocolate, just watched me drink mine. Suddenly he got up, kissed me on the top of my head and whispered, ‘See ya, lil sis.’ Then he went down into the basement where his room was, and shot himself.”

“Oh, Jesus.” Geo’s whisper was heartfelt. “Lani...”