Page 87 of Tell Me Something True

“Guess that secret, year-long relationship you had with her gave you some deep insight,” Verity said.

“Like I said. It wasn’t a secret. It just wasn’t important enough to tell anyone about.”

That, too, was a lie.

Maybe the biggest one he’d told he’d ever told his family.

But not the only one he’d told them.

“I think what is important,” Urban said, “is why she’s here. Not what she’s like.”

“She has a name,” Miles said tightly, for some reason not liking his brother reducing her to some nameless, faceless specter from Miles’s past, despite Miles trying to think of her in exactly that way for so many years now. “As you damn well know.”

Urban inclined his head, a concession Miles’s point. “Why is Tabitha here?”

“She got a job here,” Miles said.

“What does she do?” Willow asked.

“She’s a social worker.”

More looks, this time spread around the table. More silence, thick and heavy with insinuation.

Miles didn’t mind.

It was better than them all yammering at him.

Or worse, giving their opinions on his life.

“Uh, are you sure you’re a detective?” Verity asked. No surprise she was the one to break that lovely silence or that she’d be the first one to bust his balls. “Because all the clues are right in front of you, big as life and clear as day. And they’re pointing to one, and only one, conclusion.”

She went quiet, waiting, he knew, for him to ask what that conclusion was.

And he’d eat a second helping of green beans and the ones Ian dropped on the ground before he did.

Verity huffed out a breath. “She’s here because she wants you back!”

His breathing became more labored and that lump in his throat pulsed. Grew thorns.

“No,” he said, but the word came out strangled, like it had been torn to shreds by that lump. “It’s a coincidence.”

Or just shitty luck.

But he couldn’t believe it was planned. Refused to think, even for a moment, that she was in his hometown on some mission to win him back. That she wanted a second chance.

The tingling in his fingers grew stronger. He realized his leg was bouncing. Forced it to keep still.

Struggled to breathe normally.

His phone buzzed and he reared back so quickly to dig it out of his pocket, he almost tipped over his chair. He was on his feet before he even glanced at the screen.

It was a reminder of his dental appointment tomorrow.

It was also his way out before he lost his shit.

He pocketed his phone. “I have to go.”

“Everything all right?” Willow asked.

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