Page 138 of Romeo

“No.” Nash gave me a small smile. “But what if he can?”

I looked at him.

“What if you tell him everything and nothing changes?” he asked. “What if he looks at you exactly the same afterward?”

That possibility frightened me almost as much as the other one. I’d spent so long preparing myself for people to leave that I wasn’t sure I knew what to do with someone who stayed.

“You can’t build something real on secrets,” Nash said. “You know that.”

I did. That had never been the problem. The problem was putting the truth into words and handing it to someone who mattered enough to destroy me with what he did afterward.

“He texts me every day,” I said. “He showed up today when I didn’t even know he was coming.” I looked toward my phone. “Sometimes he looks at me like I’m…”

I couldn’t finish it.

Like I’m everything.

Nash didn’t need me to.

“And you’re scared he’ll stop.”

“Yes.”

For once, saying it aloud didn’t make me feel weak. It simply made the fear real.

Nash leaned back. “What if everything you went through is part of why he looks at you that way? You keep acting like surviving it somehow made you less.”

I looked down at Charlie.

His eyelashes rested against his cheeks, his lips parted slightly in sleep. Nothing about him felt like something shameful. Nothing about loving him did either.

Love.

My chest tightened around the word.

I wasn’t ready to ask myself whether I loved Jasper. Wanting him was already frightening enough. Missing him three hours after he left was bad enough. The possibility of losing him had somehow become something I could feel physically.

That told me more than I wanted to examine too closely.

“I don’t know how to tell him.”

“You just tell him.” Nash shrugged. “Sit him down. Tell him everything. Then let him decide what he does with it.”

“What if he decides wrong?”

“Then he’s an idiot, and you deserve better.” Nash’s voice turned firm. “But I don’t think he will. I saw him today, Fiona. That man didn’t ride across the country because he’s looking for an easy way out.”

I wanted to believe that.

Charlie moved in my lap, his eyes fluttering open. For a second, he looked confused, then his gaze found mine and a sleepy smile spread across his face. His hand reached up and landed against my cheek.

“Fi Fi,” he mumbled.

“Yeah, baby. I’m here.”

His eyes closed again, and he nestled into me as if there had never been any question that I would hold him.

My vision blurred.