Page 82 of A Lesson for Laurel

“Did they tell you that?” she asked.

“They don’t have to,” he said. “I can tell.”

She grabbed his hand and pulled him to the couch. “Can we talk for a minute?”

“Is this where you tell me that something is wrong?”

“It’s not wrong,” she said. “I just think different and I want to know if we are both doing the same thing.”

“What’s that?” he asked.

“Overcompensating for the long-distance relationship now when we aren’t next door to each other?”

He processed her words and realized she hit it on the head. “Yeah,” he said. “I didn’t realize it. I guess some of it felt natural though.”

She got up and moved to sit on his lap. “Like this?”

He wrapped his arms around her. “Yes,” he said. “Is this something you don’t normally do?”

“I’ve done it before. I do these things when I’m comfortable. If it feels right, then do anything you want. I don’t want you to feel like I need it, or want it, or you have to force it. This is new between us. We’ll figure it out.”

“I like that you’re so upfront and honest about things,” he said.

“I like it too. I’ve always been this way and then dialed it back some. I learned that isn’t me. I have to be who I am and if it doesn’t work, then it’s not meant.”

“Yeah,” he said. “People compromise and they should. I’m not saying that.”

“Me neither. I think what we have is the making of something good. We’ve had a few ups and downs already. Maybe what we’ve got wouldn’t work for other people.”

“Maybe,” he said.

“But if it does for us, that is all that matters,” she said.

“See,” he said. “That right there. I know you were nervous meeting them.”

“And I shouldn’t have been, but I think it’s only natural. They are important people in your life and I know if they didn’t like me it’d be hard for you.”

“It would be,” he said.

“They liked Rachelle, didn’t they? You said you were together a lot. Rachelle and Nicole were close.”

“They did like her. I don’t think they loved her.”

He didn’t remember Nicole ever thinking to ask Rachelle for fashion advice and Rachelle was always put together. Just in a different way than Laurel was.

“Like is normally good enough,” she said.

“But it’s not always enough. Nicole felt just as blindsided as I did about everything. She felt betrayed too.”

“Because girl friends tell each other things too.”

“That’s right. And Rachelle had been confiding in other friends,” he said.

“Of course she wouldn’t tell Nicole because then it would get to you.”

“Nicole is the type to talk someone out of that behavior anyway. If Rachelle was another one of her friends and going through the same thing, Nicole would advise her to sit back and work it out or walk away before it continued.”

“That code of honor and loyalty that you and Liam have that she was looking for?” she asked.

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