Page 25 of Give Me Perfect Love

“I don’t know why I did it, okay? I was young and stupid. I know what I did was wrong. Hell, I’ve been paying for it my whole goddamn life.”

“Not as much as me. I promise,” I say bitterly.

She looks at me with a pain I didn’t see before. “I’m aware of that now.”

She doesn’t even know why she left. I’ll never understand it. All the shit I went through—all of it was for no real reason.

She was young and stupid.

I shake my head slightly and move my whipping hair from my face. “Why did you look like you’d seen a ghost when you walked into the bar?”

“Bethany?” I twist back at the sound of Mills behind me. My eyes narrow and I step to the side so I can see both of them. She looks ripped in two and panicky, and Mills looks bewildered. “What…?” His tight eyes look from her to me.

“How do you two know each other?” I ask suspiciously.

Neither says anything. They just stare at one another. Eyes roaming and minds spinning.

“When did you get back in town?” Mills asks Bethany.

“Earlier today.”

“Why are you here?” he asks, his tone light, like he can’t believe it.

Shaken and looking sheepish, Bethany sniffs and her eyes dart to me for a splinter of a second.

I narrow mine as they rotate between the two.

“How do you know Kathrine?” Mills asks.

“She’s my daughter.”

I see him swallow as his head turns to me. Mills looks as though he’s been punched in the chest.

“I never left,” she says. “I stayed and I married Saw.”

“You what?” he asks disbelievingly, running a hand through his thick salt and pepper hair. The snow continues its wrath on all of us and I’m sure we’ll be sick as shit after this, but no one seems to be worried.

I look over at Bryce. Our eyes connect and he walks closer to me. Snowflakes land on his shoulders and his hands are protected in his pockets. His tall frame stands by my small one and I can feel his comfort without his touch. I don’t say anything, but having him close helps.

Mills and Bethany act as though I’m not here. My questions go unanswered. It’s like they’re the only ones in this damn parking lot freezing to death.

“I loved him,” she says.

“Bullshit,” Mills throws back. “You loved me.”

“What?” I say, staggered. They both look at me. “What the fuck is going on here?”

Bryce looks down at my outburst. “Maybe we all should go back inside? Or go somewhere that’s not in a snowstorm?”

“I’m not leaving. I need answers.”

Bethany looks distraught, and Mills looks angry.

“How could you lie to me? How could you break off

what we had and marry that motherfucker?” he asks.

Motherfucker is right, I think to myself.

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