Page 29 of Keeping You

“You care about her.”

I grip the back of my neck. “Yeah, I do.”

“How long have you loved her?”

My head whips back, and my eyes widen. That’s a brazen question. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about?”

She shakes her head. “Oh, cut the crap, Grayson. We both know you’re in love with her. You not annulling this marriage right away and trying to protect her from her own mother, prove that. I’m also guessing that this incident she’s spent the last two years being pissed at you about is a case of her not having all the information?”

I turn my head towards the bar and remain silent.

She nudges me under the table and leans as far over the table as she can without her ass leaving the bench. “Grayson, how long have you been in love with my best friend?” She nudges me again. “How long?”

I snap. Leaning forward, I say, “Since the beginning, since the first week I met her. Are you happy now?”

She grins. “Yup. Now explain the shitting on love thing then. If you’ve loved her for years, why have you spent the last year shitting on the love your friends have gotten to experience?”

“Because I told myself when I was eighteen I wasn’t going to put myself in that situation again. I wasn’t going to allow my heart to be pulled out of my chest and stomped on. There’s a reason I let her spend the last two years hating me and did absolutely nothing to stop it, but now that she’s my wife, that I get to legally call her mine, I’m saying fuck it and showing her that I care.”

My chest is heaving from my rant. It feels good to get that off my chest, to finally have someone else know how I’ve felt about Hannah over the years. Caleb now knows about the incident and that I haven’t touched anyone in two years. Liz knows I’ve loved her the entire time. It’s kind of freeing to not have it all bottled up anymore.

“How do I know you’re telling the truth?”

“What do you want?”

“I want to know my friend is safe with you. You broke her heart. How are you going to put it back together?”

I lean back and run a hand through my hair before dropping it to the table. “I don’t know what is going to put Hannah’s heart back together. All I can do is try. I’m trying to spend as much time with her as possible without smothering her and sending her running for the hills. I hate the night shift. I don’t mind working it occasionally, but I have seniority over a good portion of the doctors and chose to take mainly morning and day shifts. For Hannah, I have taken every shift I can to match her schedule. To be able to drive to and from work together, to spend breaks talking to her. Her schedule has been mainly night shifts, and I’ve worked them. I’m going to keep showing up for her.”

“You need to tell her the truth about whatever happened.”

I straighten in my seat. “No. She’d never believe me anyways. She has this image of me, this view that she believes to be the absolute truth. If I say something, she’s going to think I’m lying, and that’s just going to make it all worse.”

“You know she won’t fully be able to accept your marriage until she gets the truth, right?”

I know she’s right, no matter how hard that is to accept. It hurts knowing I probably won’t be able to keep her, but all I can do is try.

“When I told her ninety days, I was telling her the truth. If when the ninety days are up, she wants out, I’ll sign the papersno fight. I love her. I’m not going to keep her trapped in a marriage she’s not happy in. I just want her to give it a shot.”

“I’ll help you with her mom and getting her to give your marriage a chance.”

That surprises me. Isn’t Liz supposed to be on Hannah’s side?

“She deserves to be happy and be with someone who loves her. So if you continue to show that, I’ll help you. What do you need?”

There’s one thing that she might be able to help me with, so I give it a shot. “I invited her to go home with me for the week of July 1, my family is doing a big thing. I told her to take some time to think about it. I’d like her to go with me.”

“Okay. I’ll work at convincing her to go, but know the minute you fuck this up, I won’t hesitate to fuck up your life in any way possible.”

I know all four of the girls would, so I was prepared for that. “She’s lucky to have such good friends.”

“We’re just as lucky.”

I nod. “Thanks for meeting me. I’m going to head home and make sure that Hannah’s still all good.”

“Take care of her.”

With that, I leave the bar and head home.

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