Page 44 of Sleeping with the Dark (The Righteous 3)
“You may ask.”
Cody laughed, his body rumbling with the sound. “Don’t think I didn’t notice how you didn’t say if you’d answer.”
His lip pulled up in a lopsided smile. “A lawyer never promises to answer the question.”
Cody’s eyes fluttered open, and he shifted so that they could look at one another. “Okay, fine.” Cody looked away from his eyes. A nervousness was surrounding him and changing the mood of the room.
Not wanting them to go back to the way things had been before, he broached the subject again. “Ask what you want to ask. I will answer as much as I’m comfortable with.”
Cody bit his lip, his thick lashes shrouding his silver eyes as he spoke. “Who is Mel?”
Trev sucked in a deep breath, totally unprepared for that question. It was like a gut punch, and he looked away from Cody to stare out the gap in the drapery at the deep golden hues of the sun just beginning to rise. Of all the questions Cody could’ve asked, that was the only one he didn’t know how to answer.
“Did Arek tell you about her?” he asked tightly, still not looking over at Cody. The muscle in his jaw twitched as his teeth ground together at the thought of Arek betraying his trust.
“No, you kept saying her name when you were out of it. In fact, it was the only thing you said after you passed out.”
“Oh.” He rubbed his eyes and then slowly turned his head to stare into Cody’s liquid silver depths. Why was telling this part of his past so hard? Even as fucked up as Arek was, he was still able to share his pain easier. “I don’t know how to answer the question.”
Trev could read the insecurity in Cody’s eyes, and he wanted to set his mind at ease that there was nothing to worry about, and yet he couldn’t help feeling like telling him all about Mel wasn’t going to help.
“Just tell me the truth.”
Trev pushed himself up, his stomach muscles screaming with the movement. Okay, getting stabbed sucked ass. It was up there on his list of unfavorite injuries, especially when it was performed with a knife the size of a fucking machete.
He waited until Cody got comfortable, laying on his side staring at him. “Mel was my everything.” He noticed the subtle flinch that Cody did, but to his credit, he didn’t interrupt. “I’d known Mel my whole life. Our parents were friends, and Arek, myself, and Mel all grew up together. Riding the bus together, helping do farm chores together, I mean, we might as well have all been born of the same parents. We were that close. Other than Arek, she was my best friend and sometimes my only friend.”
Cody laughed. “Why do I find that hard to believe?”
“Seriously, Arek has always been the social butterfly—the popular football star and the woman magnet. I was a geek that preferred my books and a good conversation. At sixteen, that was not exactly popular.”
“Alright, I’ll give you that, but I’m sure it’s not as dramatic as she was your only friend,” Cody said, a twinkle of a tease playing across his face.
“Believe what you will, but it is the truth. Mel was like the west winds, wild and free-spirited, and yet so grounded in her beliefs. She’d run you headlong into a fire and save you all at the same time.” He stared at the far wall and pictured her amazing smile as she’d run through the wheat, her hair blowing around her face. No matter what, she’d always own a part of his heart and soul.
“She sounds amazing.”
“She really was. We started dating in high school, her idea, of course. I wanted to ask her out, but I never would have. She knew it and took the initiative. She was also the one who said we should experiment with other lovers and each other at the same time. It was also her that realized before even I did that I was not just into girls. I mean, I realized it but didn’t want to face it. She was having none of that. She talked me into our first threesome at eighteen with another guy that I didn’t know. Hell, I didn’t even know his name.
Man, she was…I don’t have the words.” Trev paused to take a steadying breath. “She helped me explore myself. If it wasn’t for her, I don’t know if I would’ve been that brave. She helped me find my brave.” He looked to Cody. The truth of how he really saw himself felt good to get off his chest.
“I don’t know anyone else that would’ve been so open or free spirited, especially from the small town we were from. It was all, you get a job, get married, have babies, and it better be in that order,” he mocked his father’s voice and laughed hard, and Cody smiled along with him. “She was unconventional and did what she wanted when she wanted and always called you out on your shit. You either learned to accept that or you couldn’t be friends.”
“I have a hard time picturing someone like that and Arek getting along,” Cody grinned and it made Trev laugh.
“Oh they had some epic fights, words, fists, you name it they would endlessly pick at one another.”
“Anyway, you should’ve seen the look on my father’s face when one dinner she randomly decided it was time my parents knew that I was bisexual. I told her I was too scared to open up to them, so she took the proverbial bull by the horns. I was mortified. I wanted to run from the room like I was born as this huge sin and I was sure that they were going to have me flogged in church the next Sunday in front of the whole town.” Trev looked at his hands as the memories flooded back like it just happened yesterday. “She told me that I shouldn’t be ashamed of who I was and ordered—yes, ordered—my parents to be understanding.” He rubbed his face and looked over at Cody. “Was it her place to do so? No, but I’ll be honest I can’t say when or if I ever would’ve told them if it wasn’t for her.”
“I can’t picture you that shy or insecure, you’re so…you.”
Trev let out a laugh. “You’d think so but trust me I wasn’t always this man you see now. The man that can take control and be in charge or save a life. I could barely save myself from myself.”
Cody stared at him, his face passive. “So what happened?”
Trev lifted his shoulders and sighed. “Have you ever met someone that can sell ice to you in the middle of a blizzard when it’s negative twenty out?”
“I know the type.”
