Page 54 of Furever Loyal
Kincaid, his features already looking better as he finished off his second can of tuna, nodded. “Yes.”
“I swear, if you say ‘you’, I’m going to lose it.”
The big man just shrugged, then stood up, facing her. “Haley, I want you to answer me something.”
She eyed him up and down, instantly wary at the soft tones, and the way he took a step closer to her. But only one.
“What do you mean?”
“I want you to tell me why you’re so scared?”
Another step.
She backed up this time, trying to keep distance between them. “What do you mean?”
“I want to know.”
“Know what?”
They both moved again, him coming closer, her backing up. Haley knew she was running out of real estate, and a moment later her shoulders bumped up against the wall. Kincaid was between her and the stairs. She doubted he would stop her if she was determined enough to leave, but for now, he was back in her personal space.
Just like he’d been in the tunnel…
“I want to know why you’re so scared of breaking the rules. Whathappenedto you Haley? Let me in there,” he said softly, reaching up to caress the side of her head. “Let me help.”
She looked away, crossing her arms in front of her. “What makes you think you can help?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted, taking one of her hands and peeling it back without letting go. “But I want to try. I want to…I want to be there for you. You’ve done so much for me. Let me do something for you.”
Looking the other way as he took her other hand, Haley stayed quiet. She didn’t want to let him in. To tell him why. It was so embarrassing.
“Please.”
He was right on top of her now, looming over her even as he held both hands tight. Nothing about it threatened her, however. If anything, she felt safe with him nearby. Safe and comfortable. Kincaid might be guilty, though she was beginning to heavily doubt there was any truth to that, but one thing she believed strongly was that he would never let anything bad happen to her.
Maybe she could trust him, even just a little bit. Especially if it would stop him being so close and making her heart do all sorts of weird things.
“It was in college,” she said quietly.
Kincaid only nodded, staying silent so she could talk at her own speed and comfort level. He did, however, give her hands a gentle squeeze, using pressure to let her know everything was okay.
“I told you, I wanted to go into politics. Well, I was heavily involved. Student Council, working with local and state elections. I knew most of the people involved, and I was, in a way, an aide to the governor. Unpaid intern really, but it was myin. All I had to do was keep working at it, and when I graduated, I could get a job, and eventually run for office of some sort myself.”
Falling silent, she relived those days, some of the good times, both with her school friends and then on the campaign trail. She’d truly enjoyed doing that in her spare time, even while she studied business.
“What happened next?”
Shaking herself from the memories, she continued with the story after a minute or so.
“We were within months of graduating,” she explained. “My friend convinced us to go out. I wasn’t a big partier, but it was also my birthday, and they wanted to celebrate. So, we went out. We drank, a lot. I’ve been drunk before, but this…this was one of those nights.”
Kincaid nodded, letting her know he understood what she meant. Everyone had nights where they drank and had a good time. Every so often though, the night lined up perfectly, and it became one ofthosenights. There was no drama, no tears, nobody puked, they danced, flirted with boys and drank champagne from bottles bought by people they’d never see again. It was a good night.
“Then the end of the night came, and we walked home.” She looked down, embarrassed about what happened next. “I made the mistake of not going to the washroom before we left, and about halfway home, I had togo. By this point I was absolutely wasted. It was like three in the morning, we were full of booze and late-night pizza. I just decided what the hell, it’s fine, I’ll go in the bushes over there.”
She hiccupped once, trying to fight back tears as the memory of what happened next burned its way back into her memory, pouring heat into her face as shame she’d forgotten about resurfaced.
“Someone caught you,” Kincaid supplied when she couldn’t go on.
