Page 137 of The Complete Truth Duet
But before I had the chance to get mad, he quickly amended his statement. “And I’m not saying that was wrong.” Holding the coffee out to the side, he moved around in front of me, his fingertips trailing over my throat and to my shoulder, sending a thrill down my spine.
My breath hitched when he rested his forehead against mine, his hand finding its home in the curve of my hip.
“You believed that people not knowing she was yours was best for her. And you were willing to sacrifice whatever you had to, including hearing her call you mom to make sure that happened. I respect that, Cora. And one-hundred-percent God’s honest truth, I do trust you. You’re the strongest woman I’ve ever met. But I am begging you to please take a step back and objectively look at what I did. Lisa was crazy about you. She told me numerous times how selfless and kind you were and how much you helped the girls and encouraged them to strive for more in life. But I had no idea what I was getting into when I met you. You were so much more than all of that. The only thing I ever wanted for you was to make your life easier. It didn’t matter if that was fixing the plumbing or hanging ceiling fans or changing the lights in the breezeway. I wanted to give you enough slack to breathe again. I will be the first to admit that I fucked that up. But only because I fell in love with you.”
I swallowed hard. He was making sense.
I hated when he made sense.
Hated it. Hated it. Hated it. Because I knew I wasn’t overreacting, but I still felt guilty.
On one hand: Yes, I’d kept secrets. But there was no rule about having to air your dirty laundry on the first date. Yet, he wasn’t wrong. In his own way, he’d been trying to spare me. Which, honestly, any other man, any other situation, I would have happily taken the out.
But on the other hand: All he would have had to say was, “You knew my wife as Lexy Palmer,” and I would have been on board. She was one of my girls regardless that she was his wife. If she had told him how much I cared about the women who lived in that building and all that I tried to do for each and every one of them, he should have had a little more faith in me as a person.
But hindsight was a bitch. Knowing didn’t mean changing.
I couldn’t travel through time and shake sense into him before he’d left.
This is where we were at this point.
Him standing shirtless and holding a cup of cooling coffee after he’d spent hours waiting for me to wake up.
Me staring into the blue eyes that had once captured me in their depths—and if I was being honest with myself, I still hadn’t escaped. If only I could figure out who I was lost in—Penn or Shane.
“Truth or lie,” I whispered. “Which do you want?”
He grimaced like he didn’t want either. “Truth.”
“I’m really mad at you. And not because you did anything wrong necessarily.”
His eyes fluttered shut. “I know.”
“I still don’t understand a lot of what happened between us. Or how I feel about it. Or how I’m going to feel about it tomorrow. But right now…” I took the coffee from his hand. “Assuming this is still warm, I’m willing to listen to you tell me about who you really are while you cook me breakfast.”
His eyes popped open, the sweetest mixture of surprise and relief swirling within. His mouth split into a giant smile that had to have belonged to Shane because I’d never seen one that big in Penn’s repertoire of lip twitches.
In one swift movement, he folded his arm around my waist, crushing me against his chest, and then lifted me off my feet. I laughed as coffee sloshed everywhere. And then I laughed harder as I dangled in his arms while he carried me to the kitchen, rumbling, “Woman, I’ve got a microwave. I can keep that thing warm for the rest of your life.”
While scrambling egg whites and frying bacon, Penn started at the beginning—Lisa. Where they’d met. How long they’d dated. It made me a masochist considering she had been the wife of the man I was in love with, but she was also Lexy. Part of me rejoiced in the knowledge that, regardless of how it had ended, her life had been beautiful. He told me all about her sneaking into my room and planting that hidden camera in my stars. I was shocked—and felt a little violated to be honest. I mean, really, who did that? But the way Penn seemed lighter with every detail he divulged made it impossible for me to harp on it. I’d never seen him talk so much or so fast—even through the painful stuff.
