Page 15 of Love Me Gently

“Wait.” I pulled out a business card. “If you change your mind, or need anything, Trina?—”

“Katrina. It’s Katrina now.”

“You’ll never be that to me.” Besides the fact she’d always hated her name and hadn’t even used it when she modeled, thisKatrinain front of me was definitelynotTrina. “Take the card. Call me. If you need anything. Help. Or want to talk.”

She kept her arms crossed. “I’m fine.”

I ignored her. “I’ll drop everything and be here. Swear it. You need me, I’m here.” I focused on her bruised cheek again. It was hidden well, and a couple days old, but no makeup could make it vanish completely. It only told me she had practice doing it.

Which meant she’d had one before, and there were few ways a woman repeatedly got bruises on her cheeks.

Valerie reached out and plucked it from my fingers before she tucked it into a side pocket in Trina’s purse.

“Goodbye, Cole.” Trina spun on nude heels and looked back. “Valerie. We can’t be late.”

“Right.” She pushed out her lips, looked at Trina, then back to me. “It was nice meeting you.”

And as the woman hurried to catch up with Trina, slipping her arm through Trina’s, she looked back once… genuine worry on her face.

Something was wrong. Something big and dark. I didn’t need to be a police officer to put the pieces together.

It wasn’t until she was gone that I realized I didn’t have the chance to say goodbye.

Which was probably good, because I wasn’t sure I had the strength to say it to her again. Instead, before they vanished down the sidewalk, I cupped my hands around my mouth and called out, “See you again, soon, Trina!”

She didn’t respond, but the friend lifted her hand in the air in acknowledgment.

It was something. At least I knew she heard me.

My phone buzzed on my hip and suddenly, the noise of the city returned, yanking me out of the last few minutes. I grabbed it without paying attention to the name or number. “This is Paxton.”

“Hi, Daddy! Mommy said I could call you before school!”

I glanced at my watch. Nine. Her bus would be coming any minute. “And I always love to hear from you, Junie bug. You ready for the bus?”

“Yep! When will I see you?”

“Tonight, pumpkin. I’ll be back home tonight, but it’ll be late, so Grandma’s going to get you from Mommy’s, and I’ll come and tuck you in when I get back okay?”

“Or you could come tuck me in at Mommy’s.”

I could…but I wouldn’t. “But then Grandma will miss seeing you, too. So let’s go with Grandma nicely today and tell your sister I love her, too?”

“Do you love me?”

“With everything I have and everything I am, sweetie pie.”

“Did the conference not go well?”

My mom, Bridget Paxton, could know everything about me with a look. Today, it didn’t take her mother’s intuition to sense anything considering I held a glass of bourbon in my hand. I rarely drank, and yet ever since my run-in with Trina I’d been craving one. Fortunately, I’d held out until I finished the conference, got on the road, and got home and tucked June and Ella into bed.

Both were sleeping, but their murmuredlove you’sand soft, sweet hugs had managed to dampen my fury to a simmering anger.

“The conference was fine.” I sighed and scrubbed a hand down my face before gathering the strength to meet her concerned gaze. “Ran into Trina on the street.”

“You did? How? What? How is she?” My mom clasped her hands together in prayer. Ever since her parents weren’t invited to her wedding and essentially cut off, they’d been desperate for her to return home. Something wasn’t right. We all knew it.

Trina might have gone to New York to chase her dreams and managed to catch them against all odds…but she’d changed. Now I suspected why, and it was worse than what her parents thought.

---