Page 41 of The Kidnapped

“I don’t know,” she replied, shrugging. “Wasn’t the only reason she left because she couldn’t get pregnant?”

“Not the only reason; just the biggest. And Millie is happy where she is. She has the family that she was meant to have. I’ll admit, I don’t exactly understand how she could be so adamant with me that she had to have our baby and nothing else would do, but then she meets someone else who already has a kid, and suddenly, she no longer needs to be pregnant, but it’s what happened. She’s happy now, so I’m happy for her, too, even when it hurts to think about sometimes.”

“Do you still love her?” Hollis asked, forcing herself to eat the carrot that basically melted in her mouth, and not in a good way.

“Not like that, no. But a part of me always will. She was my first real love. I thought I’d be with her forever. I think, whenever that’s the case, you lose a part of yourself in that person, and you won’t ever get it back.”

“I think you give it to them; you don’t lose it,” Hollis replied, dropping the fork into the fruit salad and stabbing a piece of cantaloupe, the world-renowned fruit salad filler of choice.

“What’s the difference?”

“You didn’t lose it and have to find it later. You loved her, so you gave her that piece of you that no one can touch. You chose her, and you chose to share your heart with her.”

“I guess,” Raleigh replied.

“Have you ever noticed that cantaloupe makes up, like, eighty percent of every fruit salad?”

Raleigh laughed and said, “What?”

“There’s literally one strawberry in here and, like, two grapes. The rest is cantaloupe.”

“Are you not a fan?”

“It’s fine. It’s just like, you come for the berries, but you leave with the cantaloupe.”

“Sounds like a night in a lesbian bar.”

“You go to lesbian bars looking for berries?” Hollis teased.

“I don’t go to lesbian bars. Well, I don’t go anymore,” Raleigh replied.

“Are there even lesbian bars here?”

“There’s a couple of gay bars. Not lesbian, specifically, but they’re not bad as long as you skip guys’ night.”

“I think I’ll skip all nights.”

Raleigh laughed again and looked up at her.

“That doesn’t surprise me.”

“No?”

“No,” Raleigh said.

???

“Can I have your keys?” Raleigh asked when they got back to the room.

“Keys?”

“And your address. I’m going to run by and pick up stuff for you. I’ll bring it back, and you can change into something to sleep in.”

“You don’t–”

“Hollis, you’re still wearing the jeans and, my guess, also your underwear from yesterday.”

“You assume I wear underwear,” she joked.

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