Page 66 of Secret Love

“Behave.”

“Do I have to?” I give her my most innocent expression and she giggles. “When you’re all sexy librarian like this, I just want to be naughty.”

I lean in and kiss her. Now that I’ve had a taste of her, I never want to stop.

A shriek startles both of us and I pull away to see where the sound came from. Cassidy stands on the other side of the island, staring at us in horror. She runs out of the room. I let go of Truand hurry after Cassidy. She’s going out the front door when I get there.

“Cassidy, wait?—”

She keeps going and runs to the car where Bree is waiting. Bree looks at her and then me in confusion.

“What happened?” she asks. “What is it?”

“Just go, Mom. Just go,” Cassidy says.

“Wait, Cassidy. Talk to me.” I lean down to see her better and she won’t look at me. Fuck.

Bree looks at me with wide eyes and I grimace.

“I’ll come pick you up in a couple hours for dance,” I tell Cassidy.

“I’m not going,” she says through her tears. She lifts up the book she must have left at my house. “I’ve got a lot of homework.”

“Will someone tell me what’s going on?” Bree says.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Cassidy says. “Please, Mom, just take mehome.”

“Cassidy, we need to talk about this,” I say. “When I drop Audrey off after dance, you and me…okay?”

She stares straight ahead and I feel like shit. I don’t regret a second of being with Tru last night, but this is exactly what Tru was worried about. It would’ve been so much better to ease the girls into this.

“All right. I love you, bunny. I’ll see you in a little while.” I tap the car and nod at Bree. “I’ll explain everything later,” I say under my breath.

When I get back in the house, Tru isn’t in the kitchen. I find her in my room with her clothes on and she’s fumbling around, holding Earl and trying to get her shoes on. She looks panicked. I put my hand on her arm and she jumps.

“Tru. Are you okay? I’m so sorry that happened.”

“I’m the one who should be sorry. I knew better than to let this happen. Cassidy shouldn’t have to deal with this and?—”

“I agree, I wish I’d talked about us with the girls first, but it’ll be okay. I don’t regret anything, Tru.” I try to meet her eyes and she won’t let me. “Hey, look at me.”

When she does, I’m concerned with what I see there. Or what I don’t see is probably more accurate. The walls are back up and she’s shut me out. The vulnerability between us all night is there, but it feels like we’re both on separate islands.

“Last night was—” she starts.

“Unbelievable,” I finish.

Her jaw clenches. “But it shouldn’t have happened. Not yet. I’m making such great progress with Cassidy and I might’ve just ruined it all.”

“No, I just need to talk to her. She was upset, but it’ll?—”

She turns and puts her hand on my chest, stopping me. Her eyes are glassy when she looks up at me. “I’ll never forget last night. Ever. It was…” She shakes her head. “Well, I’ve never experienced anything even close to that, so trust me when I say it was unbelievable for me too, but this is exactly what I was afraid of. Your girls are the most important people in your life and they should be. And I’m an important role in her life right now for this limited time, and I don’t want to mess any of it up.”

She turns and picks up the shirt of mine that she discarded in her rush to change. And then she walks toward the door, Earl still tucked close.

“Don’t go. Let’s talk about this. It feels like you’re ending things before we’ve even fully begun.” I follow her to the door and she looks at me over her shoulder.

“I’m pausing things…not ending…”

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