Page 106 of Something Borrowed, Something You

I nodded, mostly because I had no idea what she was talking about. But she walked over to the car and spoke to her husband behind the wheel. Leaning into the window, she kissed him before he started the engine.

When she returned to where I stood, the car drove away. “Come on. Let’s go for a walk. Alan’s going to give us a little while to catch up.”

I started walking alongside her, unsure where we were going or what she might have to say.

“Are you married?” she asked.

“No.”

“Divorced?”

“No.”

“Kids?”

“No.”

She looked over, studying me. “You still have no idea, do you?”

The question could’ve referred to a million things, but I knew exactly what she was asking. “No. I told you, I don’t want to know.”

“So you still don’t have any symptoms?”

I shook my head. “Not yet.”

We walked in silence until the path came to a fork. We turned right.

“Have you fallen in love since we broke up?”

I didn’t have to consider it. “Her name’s Natalia.”

“How does she feel about your decision to not get tested?”

While I thought about how to answer, Summer came to the correct conclusion.

She nodded. “You dumped me because you didn’t want to put me through possibly watching you get sick. I tried for months to get you to change your mind. So I’m guessing your warped brain now thinks it’s easier to not even tell someone you care about. Just love ’em and leave ’em with no explanation so they hate you. Am I right? She doesn’t know you have a fifty-fifty chance of developing Huntington’s disease. Or that you’re too stubborn to get tested.”

“What good would it do? So she can worry about me?”

Summer stopped. “I thought you said you loved her.”

“I do.”

“Then doesn’t she deserve the truth and a chance to make the decision with you?”

“No. Sometimes lies save people a lot of pain. You knew, and it made it harder for you to move on. What if I told her and let her be part of the decision, and she convinced me to get tested? What if it’s positive and she won’t leave me, and then she has to watch me suffer and die at forty?”

“What if it’s negative and you’ve missed a lifetime with Natalia?”

I blew out a deep breath. “It’s too big a chance to take. She’s got history. You don’t understand. Every man has let her down in her life. I can’t do that to her—be another man who disappoints her.”

She caught my eyes. “Sounds like you already are, Hunter.”

The car was waiting again when we returned to Jayce’s grave almost a half hour later. Summer motioned to her husband to let him know everything was okay and held up two fingers.

“I gotta go. We have a doctor’s appointment in a little while. But I’m really glad I ran into you.” She gave me a hug and took two steps toward her car before turning to walk backward. “Truth or dare. Come on, one last time.”

I shook my head. “I’m not giving your pregnant ass a chance to pick dare.”

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