Page 63 of Safe With You

Kelly freezes, eyes wide, glancing at Jenna before answering. “Jenna’s right, you should talk to Lainey. It’d be better to hear it from her. I shouldn’t have said anything. It’s not a big deal anymore. She’s fine.” Her hands flail as she rambles on.

“Tell me what the fuck is going on.” My blood is boiling. I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but I don’t like the run-around, especially from Kelly.

“Ryan!” Corey scolds, “Watch your mouth!”

“Don’t get mad.” Kelly reaches for my forearm, but I move it out of her grasp. “It was nasty. She tried to help him but … okay … he beat her up pretty bad. Right, Jenna?” Jenna’s eyes briefly drop shut and she remains silent. “I think she ended up in the hospital?”

I freeze, my stomach plummeting to the floor. Sweat gathers on my back as I clench my beer bottle so hard the glass might shatter.

Corey’s jaw drops. Brad wipes his face and leans back in his chair. No one knows what to say to the bomb that detonated at our table.

Kelly is the first to talk. “Ryan, can I call you that? Er--Dr. Ryan, it wasyearsago. She’s fine now. She’s moved on, in a much better place.”

Kelly keeps talking, I think, but I don’t listen. I’m ready to rip this table off its fucking screws and throw it across the room. Kelly’s words keep ringing in my ears. I’m a helpless kid again, hearing my mom make excuses for the guy who was mean to us or beat her up; always trying to help them and not help herself. Lainey knows about that.

Fuck, Lainey knows almost everything. I confessed so much shit to her in the dark confines of her bed. When she had her arms wrapped around me, legs tangled in mine and I could trace patterns on her skin with my fingertips, thoughts came pouring freely from my mouth.

She shared things with me. Or so I thought.

I thought for the first time I had found someone who could see my ugly parts and love me anyway. I thought I had found someone who wouldn’t lie. Turns out, even the best keep secrets to themselves.

Chapter Thirty-One

Lainey

Something’s wrong. The second I pushed through the bathroom door, my eyes found Ryan. Except he isn’t the same Ryan I left a few minutes ago.

The man I arrived with tonight has disappeared. His knuckles are white from his grip on the edge of the table. He’s staring ahead, eyes fixated across the room, jaw clenched as Kelly rambles a mile a minute, her arms flailing above her.

Everyone else at the table is silent.

“What’s going on?” I curl my hands around Ryan’s bicep, ushering him to look at me. He takes a step to the side, his arm falling out of my grasp.

“Hey?” I grip his arm again, trying to get his attention. No answer.

I survey the table. Corey has a lot of utter shock on her face. Kelly looks scared.

The only person at the table to lock eyes with me is Jenna. Emmett has a hand up, grasping her shoulders. Whether it’s to soothe her or restrain her, I don’t know.

“I’m sorry,” Kelly finally says. “I thought he knew.”

My heart sinks when her words set in.

She told him.

Them.

She told the entire table about the past I keep locked in a box with no key. Told the man who holds a twenty-year grudge against his mother for her relationships with abusive men.

I take a step back and cross my arms, wishing the floor would swallow me up whole.This can’t be happening. I can’t bring myself to look away from Jenna. If I look away from her, that means I’ll have to see the look of betrayal written all over Ryan’s handsome face. I know it couldn’t stay a secret forever, but I wanted to tell him on my terms.

I thought we had more time.

I feel a nudge at my arm and look down to see Ryan handing me my coat.

“Let’s go,” he says coldly.

I muster the best smile I can to his sister and Brad as I tentatively pull my coat from his grasp and slip it on.Ryan leaves the bar a few paces ahead of me with steam radiating from his shoulders as he enters the cool night. I stand outside the bar’s entrance for a few minutes, wondering if I should even follow him as the familiar, icky, anxiety-inducing feelings creep up inside.

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