Page 13 of Heal Me, Love Me

“I panicked,” I admitted. “I shoved Keaton away and pretended he’d tried to kiss me. Like I didn’t want it. Like he’d come onto me.”

“Ro,” Mom said, and the hurt in her voice nearly broke me.

“I know.”

Dad didn’t say anything.

“Ridgway believed me. Or maybe he wanted to. I don’t know. He went after Keaton, and they fought.” My voice dropped as the memory came back too vividly. “Keaton kept looking at me. He was waiting for me to tell the truth, to say something, todoanything.” I swallowed again, but the lump in my throat didn’t budge. “I didn’t. I just stood there while everyone assumed the worst about him. He lay there bleeding, and I still didn’t say anything.”

Dad closed his eyes and breathed out slowly. When he opened them again, he didn’t look angry. He looked heartbroken for me, for Keaton, and maybe for the kids we’d been.

“Oh, honey,” Mom whispered.

“Don’t comfort me. I don’t deserve it.”

“I’m your mother,” she replied, tears slipping down her cheeks. “I’m going to comfort you even if you don’t think you deserve it.”

“This was more than a mistake.”

“I know.”

“I hurt him.”

“I know,” she repeated softly.

Dad’s gaze stayed on mine. “What you did was wrong, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise.”

“I’m not asking you to.”

“But you were seventeen,” he added. “Scared, drunk, cornered by people whose opinions mattered too much. That doesn’t excuse it, but it explains why you panicked.”

“I didn’t just panic.”

“No,” he agreed. “You lied.”

The words landed where they were supposed to.

Mom wiped her cheek. “Did Keaton ever know you were sorry?”

“I tried to tell him.” My voice sounded hollow. “I texted. I called. I went to his house. I knocked on his window. I found him at work. He wouldn’t talk to me, and I don’t blame him.”

“And then you left for the Air Force,” Dad said.

I nodded. “He stood in his room as we drove away, watching through the window while I left.”

Mom’s hand slid down to mine and held on.

“I thought that was the end,” I admitted. “Then I came home, moved into that house, and there he was.”

Dad’s brows drew together. “And you two started again?”

“Eventually.”

“And Devon?” Mom asked.

I pulled away and rubbed my palms over my thighs. “Devon kissed him after Keaton’s fight tonight. I saw it.”

“Did Keaton kiss him back?” Dad asked.