Page 61 of As Long As You Kiss Me

“You don’t have to do that,” Sully said. “I can tell them. I know it was hard on you to tell me what happened.”

“I want to make it better. I know you’re upset that I’d been keeping it from you.” He reached over and took her hand. “I love you and I want to make it better.”

She pulled her hand away. “I don’t know, Jackson. I’m still processing things.”

His face was stricken at her rejection. “You’re not going to let me be the one to tell them?”

“You can do that, but it won’t mean things are fixed between us.” She was being stubborn, but she couldn’t help the twisted feeling in her stomach when she thought about him being so secretive about something so huge.

“I understand.”

It was hard to look at his heartbroken expression. Her own heart twisted in her chest. Because she loved him too. But she couldn’t let go of the fact that he’d kept Tyson’s death a secret from her. All that time they’d been dating, er, fake dating, he’d known and hadn’t told her.

She struggled enough as it was with trusting men. After Mason, it didn’t take much to break her trust again.

When her cookie was finished, she scraped her chair back across the kitchen floor. “Well, I’m going to head over there before it gets too late.”

Jackson stood too. “Right. You want to ride over in my truck?”

“That’s fine with me.” She followed him out the door. Hopefully, she wasn’t making a mistake riding with him. She was already starting to feel her resolve slipping. It didn’t help that he was so willing to tell her parents. Why did he have to work so hard to be noble? He was starting to shatter the image of him she’d created of him in her mind. The guy who kept secrets.

Just like Mason. He was always sneaking around, doing shady stuff like cheating on his taxes or stealing money and then hiding it from her. She found out about the tax thing when they discovered it and she got a letter about it. She had to go back and repay what was owed.

She really hated it when men were secretive. But now Jackson wanted to make it right, and she couldn’t deny that it was making her even more attracted to him.

She’d almost been the one to break the news to her parents, and she’d been terrified. How much worse must it be for Jackson?

He drove them over to her parents’ house. “It still looks just as I last remembered it,” he said.

“They haven’t really changed much.”

He stepped out of the truck, and she climbed down too. When they got to the front door, Sully walked right inside without knocking. It smelled amazing, like fresh-baked cookies. She’d just had cookies, and now she wanted more. That wasn’t bad, was it? She was only a little addicted to sugar.

Her mom was folding laundry in the living room with a movie playing. “Hey, Mom.”

“Oh, hi, Sully. Hi, Jackson. What brings you guys over tonight?” She folded up a hand towel and set it on the stack beside her.

“Can I talk to you and Dad for a minute about something?”

Jackson cleared his throat like he was saying, “Hey, don’t forget me.”

“Actually, Jackson has something to tell you.”

Her mom looked between them with a confused look on her face. “I thought the two of you were broken up.”

Did her mom think they were going to announce an engagement or something?

“We are,” Sully said. “This doesn’t have to do with our relationship. It’s something else.”

“Steve,” her mom called. “Sully and Jackson are here to see us.”

Her dad came out from the bathroom, buckling his belt as he came down that hallway.

“He likes to stay in there a long time after dinner,” her mom said.

“I don’t know why it takes men so long to poop,” Sully said.

“Hey, these things take time. It’s important not to rush it,” Jackson explained.

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