Page 170 of A Matter of Time

I nodded.

“You get it, right?”

“Yeah,” I told him, staring down at my shoes.

“I think you should⁠—”

“Not get shot,” I said to the ground.

“Yes. Try hard.”

“Okay.”

There was a long silence.

“So you knew all this that night when you took me to Dom’s and hung out with Maggie.”

“Yes,” he answered flatly.

“You were upset when you came home that night when I fixed you dinner because of what you’d seen earlier in the day.”

Quick nod.

“But you took me to Dom’s house for a party anyway?”

“There were two of us there, I figured it would be safe.”

“But you left me while you flirted with Maggie?”

He shook his head. “It was stupid. I have no excuse other than you were still safe in the house with both me and Dom there.”

“You didn’t tell me then about the murder.”

“Again, I was with you. Even talking to other people, I had an eye on you.”

Talking to other people being Maggie. “You should have told me about the murder.”

“There was no reason to scare you when I was there.”

I nodded. “So since you’re not with me, that’s why you came clean?”

“Yes.”

I let that all sink in. It made sense. When he was with me, I was physically safe, nothing could get me. He hadn’t worried about my safety because he was standing between me and the world.

“From now on, anything that comes up, you should let me know, yeah?”

“Yes,” he agreed.

We were both quiet again.

“I saw you last week, out with Dominic and your girl, Maggie,” I commented to change the subject, raising my eyes to his.

“You did?”

“Yeah.” I smiled at him.

“Why didn’t you stop?”