AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yeah.” His enthusiasm sort of confused her. She didn’t like to think of anyone getting robbed.
He sipped at his tea. “Shane didn’t want to go with you?”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but Shane did offer to go with me. I told him this was something I had to do by myself.” She flashed him a fake smile. Did he have to keep annoying her with his questions about Shane?
Trent frowned. “Shane was disappointed. Maybe he wanted to be your boyfriend.”
She glared at him.
“Hey, I just call it like I see it.”
“Do you, babe slayer?” She didn’t have any defenses right now, so she had to go back on the attack.
As if on que, her phone buzzed again, and she didn’t even turn it over to look who was calling her; she simply silenced it.
Their gazes met and held for a few seconds. Trent gave her a sheepish grin, then stood, moving back to the bulletin board covered with pictures. “These were good times.”
After a few moments, she moved to join him, enjoying a jaunt down memory lane. “Yes, they were.”
He snorted and pointed to a different picture, beneath some others, of the beach crew. “Can you believe it’s been—gosh, we were sixteen—so twelve years since that summer?”
“Time flies.”
He leaned in, smelling her.
“Did you just really do that?” She couldn’t help but laugh and push him away.
He laughed too. “Hey, you smell good. Like vanilla or coconut.”
The man was irritating, but butterflies swarmed in her stomach. It didn’t hurt her feelings that he liked how she smelled.
“Go on a date with me,” he pleaded softly.
She shook her head. “No.” How could she explain to him that she was … pretty much ruined from relationships. Even simple dates.
He held her gaze, and the butterfly sensation grew.
She turned back to the pictures, wondering how she’d begun to like this guy again. She wasn’t sixteen, and life was not so simple anymore.
He reached out and moved a picture. Another photo lay underneath—one that featured her, Will, and Ian. “Hold up, is this … Who is this?”
Pain hit the center of her chest, and she tried to push it away before it caught hold of the back of her throat. “That was my husband, Will, and my son, Ian.” She blinked back tears and turned back to sit at the table.
“Oh.”
She didn’t want to melt down, so she threw the truth out there like she was ripping off a Band-Aid. “My husband and son are dead. A car crash over a year ago.”
Trent’s face was sober. “I’m so sorry.”
She bristled at the sympathy in his tone. “Thank you.”
Again, neither of them spoke, simply stared into each other’s eyes. It was stupid, but it felt like Trent could actually … see her pain.
He frowned and then reached out, gently putting a hand over hers.
She looked at their hands. Gone was the butterfly feeling, now there was just this … secure feeling. Safety. She looked back at his eyes and she knew she was looking into the eyes of someone who’d probably lost a lot of people.
There was so much compassion there. She stood, yanking back her hand. “I can’t do this, Trent.” She walked over to the kitchen sink and gazed out at the pool and the rain still coming down in sheets.
