Page 53 of Risks

“Oh yeah?” I lightly run my thumbalong her jaw. “Tell me.”

“The night we met,” she says withcertainty. “When you held my hand at the top of the stairs.”

“Hm. How do you know?”

“Because that’s the moment I fell,too.”

I lower to plant a sweet kiss on herlips and whisper, “That was the start, but it wasn’t the moment when I knew.”

She playfully pouts. “Fine. When wasit then?”

“The first time we went to yourspecial place.”

“What happened?” she asks, curiositygleaming in her gaze.

I draw a deep breath beforeexplaining. “You shared that spot with me because you cared. Because you wantedme to know that it was okay to feel and stop blocking shit with drugs. Youopened my heart, and no matter how scared I was, I wanted a place in yours.”

Her eyes turn glossy as a smile partsher lips. “Varen…” She eases up for a soft kiss. “I love you.”

“Love you, baby. Happy new year.”

“Happy new year,” she murmurs inreturn, coming in for another kiss, then we resume watching the rest of the fireworks.

At this moment, everything feels atease.

25

Lisa’s phone call is no surprise,considering Toya didn’t say goodbye to her mom before leaving.

“Hello,” I answer after hopping intomy car in the airport parking.

“She’s gone?” Lisa confirms in a sadvoice.

I sigh before telling her, “Yeah.Toya’s gone.”

She sniffs. “She didn’t answer mycall. I wanted to wish her a happy new year and tell her I love her.”

“It’ll take a lot more than that forher to forgive you. She needs time.”

“I know.” She clears her throat. “There’sanother reason why I called you.”

I wrinkle my brows. “What’s that?”

“Um, I was hoping you could askJesiah to meet me.” She sounds nervous. “I think it’s high time I apologized tohim.”

The lie was so grand, though. Idoubt an apology will lessen the hurt. “I’ll see how he feels and let you know.”

“Thank you, Varen. You know...” Shedraws a long, shaky breath. “You’re a good person. I’m sorry for how I treatedyou. Sorry for accusing you of playing with Toya’s emotions. I see how much youlove and care about her. You’ve even made me see things about myself that I needto address.”

I blink profusely, amazed. “I’m notsure how to respond to all that, Lisa. Except, I’m glad you’re takingaccountability. My counselor says that is the first step to healing. We have toface things head-on.”

“Oh, I didn’t know you were stillseeing a counselor,” she remarks. “Good for you.”

“You don’t know much about me.”

Silence sits on the line until shesays softly, “I hope you’ll allow me the chance to fix that.”

We’ll see.

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