Page 116 of Love In Hiding
It was what she wanted to do this morning, but he beat her to it.
She stepped back. “Come in.”
He stepped in, then moved past the door to Paris’s room the furthest away he could get to not wake her sister.
Being considerate as always.
“I was wrong last night. About…everything.”
She’d expected defensiveness, half-apologies, excuses. Maybe even a line of reasoning on why he was right and she wasn’t.
Not this quiet, broken honesty.
And that beat through her defenses.
He stepped closer. Just enough so she could see how red his eyes were. “Have you been crying?”
“Looks like you’ve been doing it,” he said, his hand reaching for her cheek. She stepped back, not ready to let him avoid again.
“You didn’t answer me.”
It was as if he couldn’t. Or didn’t want her to know even when the evidence was there for all to see.
He held her stare, then said, “I was. I hate fighting. I hate feeling as if I don’t have control.”
“You rarely lose it.”
“Because of the way it makes me feel. But you weren’t wrong,” he said.
“What was I not wrong about?”
She noticed he didn’t say she was right. She wouldn’t harp on that.
“You were trying to protect me. And instead of appreciating that, I made you feel you were the problem.”
She blinked. Slowly. Carefully. “Yes, that’s what you made me feel.”
“I know,” he whispered. “And I hate myself for it.”
The crack in his voice made her stomach twist. She’d never heard him sound like this. He always had control. This confidence in the height of it. Always kept himself restrained, steady and composed.
But now?
Now, he looked unraveled.
He lookedhuman. Not the perfect crafted calm responses that always came out of his mouth.
He looked like someone who was finally willing to let her see the feelings he’d always kept hidden deep down.
“What you said was hurtful. I opened up to you and it’s like you shoved it down my throat.”
“I’m not good at being called out,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Especially not about things I already know I’m failing at.”
Her chest softened despite herself. “You’re not failing. Not at your career.”
He let out a broken laugh. “I’m not talking about my career. Not right now.”
“Then what are you talking about?”
