Page 66 of Unraveling Rain
“Is it okay if I sit on the bed? Or do you want me to bring the reclining chair closer?”
My heart melts a little more. This man. This thoughtful, gentle man.
“You can sit with me,” I say, patting the space beside me.
He smiles and joins me, leaning back against the headboard and stretching his legs out. I guess when you’re six foot three, sitting crisscross applesauce isn’t an option.
I glance down at my hands, then force myself to look at him again.
“Okay,” I whisper. “There’s something I need to tell you.”
And this time, I won’t run.
Chapter 18
Rain
It takes me a moment to find the words.
Xander waits beside me, silent but present, his warmth a steady comfort in the low glow of the bathroom light.
I trace a line on the blanket with my finger and say quietly, “You already know my family means everything to me.”
He nods, notrushing me.
“And you’ve probably guessed by now that I had a good childhood. My family has always been loving and caring. Neither Mama or Daddy ever used force to teach us a lesson.”
I take a breath and shift back against the headboard, mirroring his posture.
“But everything changed the summer before my senior year of high school.” I pause. “That’s when I started dating a guy. Dennis.”
I see Xander’s hands curl into fists, and my eyes begin to sting.
“At first, he was great. His family owned a small cow farm in town. My parents knew his, everyone got along. It was nice. We’d go to church together, then he’d come for Sunday lunch. We would spend time walking through the orchard, riding our horses from his place to mine. Everything was very innocent, you know? The kind of first love that makes you feel like you’ll die if you don’t see them, but all you ever do is kiss?” I pause, but I don’t need a response.
“We started dating in junior year. But it was the summer… everything changed.”
Tears begin to pool. I swipe them away quickly, but Xander notices and grabs a box of tissues.
“I’ll be right back. I’m getting you some water,” he says, disappearing through the door.
I rest my head against the headboard.
Fuck. This is hard. But if I want this to work, I need to show him the ugly parts too.
“Here,” he says, returning with a bottle of water.
I smile as I open it and take a long sip. When I place it on the nightstand, I notice he brought one for himself too, still cradled in his hands.
“Anyway… that summer, Dennis started talking a lot about how all our other friends had already had sex—and how badly he wanted to.”
I pause, swallowing hard. “I usually just ignored him, tried to change the subject, but he wouldn’t drop it.
“I thought about talking to Ruin. We have no secrets, you know? We talk about everything.”
He nods, a small smile on his face, silently encouraging me to keep going.
“But at the time, she was in a rough patch with her boyfriend. She thought he was cheating on her. So I felt bad going to her, complaining that my boyfriend wanted to sleep with me when hers was sneaking around with other girls.”
