Page 59 of Always Be Mine

Was she…dammit, she was.

Lucy was crying.

“Hey.” Craig jumped up from the chair and grabbed the only thing he could find at hand. “Don’t cry.” He thrust the towel at her, dabbing awkwardly at her face with the towel. He knew he was handling the situation completely wrong. He usually did when it came to women and tears, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself.

The tears had come out of nowhere. But the moment she’d started to cry, Lucy couldn’t seem to stop. She probably should have jumped down from the counter and run back to her room before Craig could see her, but it was too late.

He’d noticed her.

“Don’t cry.” He swiped awkwardly at her face with a tea towel. “Lucy, I’m sorry.”

“No.” She managed to say after a moment. “It’s not…” Mortifyingly, sobs swallowed the rest of what she was trying to say.

What was wrong with her? She hadn’t cried in months. Not since she’d discovered the truth about Ross…oh shit.

She should have known better. She’d been doing her best to suppress her feelings and ignore the fact that her life had been falling apart that she hadn’t even seen the emotional breakdown coming.

The realization only made her sobs come harder and faster, which only made her feel worse. She was in a vicious cycle and the only way to end it was going to involve chocolate and a hot bath.

“I’m sorry.” She tried to speak, the words coming out in a garbled mess. “I should go.” She tried to jump off the counter and flee, but Craig stopped her.

He stood directly in front of her with a tea towel in his hand, and he didn’t look as if he’d be moving anytime soon.

She shook her head, unable to speak again.

Undeterred, Craig used the corner of the towel to wipe her tears, more gently this time, from her cheek. “It’s okay, Lucy. You don’t have to run away. Whatever it is I said, I’m so sorry. It’s not that I don’t want you here. That’s not what I was trying to say, and I’m sorry if it sounded like that.”

He looked genuinely concerned that she was upset. Maybe she should have been concerned about crossing a line with her boss so soon after moving into his house, but his proximity didn’t feel wrong. Exactly the opposite.

Craig wiped her other cheek, and when she tried to take the towel from him, he gently shook his head. “Let me. Please.”

She didn’t have the energy to fight him on it, and more importantly, she didn’t want to. Having Craig wipe her tears and speak gently to her was calming in a way she didn’t even realize. Soon, her sobs quieted, and she felt more like herself.

“Thank you,” she said softly, suddenly embarrassed. “I’m not a crier. Honestly. I don’t know what…no.” She shook her head. “I do know what happened. And, it had nothing to do with you. It was just bad timing.”

He didn’t look convinced.

“Really.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

She shook her head.

“You’re sure?”

She wasn’t sure. And now that she’d just sobbed and snotted all over the place, wasn’t as if she could be any more embarrassed than she already was. Lucy took a breath. “It’s just that I left a lot when I came here, and I don’t think I ever really dealt with any of it.”

“The guy?”

She nodded.

“Ross.” For the first time when she said his name out loud, she didn’t feel anything except disappointment. “It was…well, it was a bit messy and I…well, I’m over it all now, but I…”

“Sometimes you just need to let it out or it stays inside and builds up until?—”

“This happens?”

He chuckled. “Exactly.”

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