Page 50 of Willow Vale

I leaned forward and covered my face with my hands. I don’t know how long I stayed there, crying in silence, before a strong hand gently touched my back. “Delilah?”

Travis. I hadn’t heard him come in. He was the last person I wanted to see right now.

“Talk to me, darlin’. What’s going on?” I heard him say as he came around the chair I was sitting in.

I shook my head but that didn’t seem to convince him to leave me alone.

“Delilah, you’re scaring me.” He curled his fingers under my chin, forcing me to look at the worry etched across his face. His deep voice shouldn’t have been so gentle, as comforting as it was in this moment. But it was. “Did someone upset you?”

The fact that his mind immediately went into protector mode at the thought of someone upsetting me would have made me laugh if I weren’t such a mess right now.

“No…”

He reached up and wiped away another tear that rolled down my cheek.

“I just need a second,” I said through my tears before a small sob escaped me.

“Okay, take all the time you need.” His hand started to rub my back, and he remained crouched in front of me the whole time. Letting me cry it out. It took a few minutes, but eventually my shaky hands stopped trembling in his. I must not have noticed when he’d started holding my hands.

“I hate seeing you cry. Always have,” he murmured.

“I’m not a fan of it either.” I tried to make a joke, but he didn’t smile. Just watched me, keeping his hold on my hands gentle. “Travis?”

“Yes?”

We were leaning toward each other, so close we could share a breath.

“Can you…can you hold me?” I almost started crying again when, without a moment’s hesitation, he pulled me to him. His arms wrapped around me, letting me melt into him completely. I pressed my cheek against his broad chest, listening to his heart beating with heavy thumps.

After a beat of silence, he asked, “Do you want to talk about it?”

I thought about saying no. Not wanting to unload my baggage that was practically overflowing at this point. Continue to carry it all on my own like I always had.

Except, I didn’t want to carry it anymore. I was tired of feeling like my head was constantly being pushed under water, slowly drowning in my own loneliness and sadness. For once, I wanted to take the hand desperately trying to reach out from the surface.

I said against his chest, “I’m just…tired.”

He took a deep breath, chest rising and falling. “Of what?”

“Failing. Trying. All of it. I don’t know…” My voice cracked and his hold on me tightened. “I’m trying so hard, and it doesn’t feel like it’s enough.”

“Hey.” Travis made me lean back so he could look at me. His entire expression looked helpless when he noticed there were more tears.

“You’re not failing, Delilah.”

I forced out a dry laugh. “I have so much I have to do, and I can barely get it together on a good day. What do you call that?”

He ran the back of his knuckles across my cheek. “Your mother called you again, didn’t she?”

“How did you?—”

“River overheard you last night.”

My shoulders dropped, mortified that my brother heard any part of my conversation with Irene. I tried to put some distance between us, but Travis said, “You’re not failing. But you are running yourself down. I don’t want to imagine what you would have done if my parents hadn’t insisted on babysitting River for you. I don’t know how you managed todo everything on your own up until this point. You do so much for that little boy but nothing for yourself.”

I tried to deny it, but he leveled me with a look that challenged me to try it.

Damn him for knowing me so well.

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