Page 105 of Trust Again

At three a. m. my cell phone rang. Bleary-eyed, I sat up. When I tried to reach for the phone, I banged the back of my hand on my bedside table. Cursing, I swiped the display and answered the call.

“Hello?”

Silence. Then: “Tristan is an asshole.”

Suddenly I was wide-awake.

“He doesn’t deserve Mackenzie. The way he treated her, she should be looking for someone who treats her better,” Spencer continued.

In the background I heard the rustling of paper. My heart was banging in my chest. “But that’s not what Mackenzie wants.”

More rustling. “Dawn… it’s a great book. Really. You made me feel everything that Mackenzie was going through. I… had to read it twice to get everything. Especially what’s between the lines,” he continued softly.

“And?” My heart was in my throat.

“Now… I kind of get her. Sometimes I’m a little slow.”

“Slow isn’t bad. I’m slow myself,” I blurted out.

“Okay.” He cleared his throat again. “A few things caught my attention.”

I sat up a bit straighter. “Shoot.”

“Why does Tristan have to get into the pants of so many women? I mean, he’s loved Kenzie for years but still sleeps around. Sometimes this makes him a little less believable.”

“Some guy once told me he’d only had one-night stands,” I murmured.

“Banging ten women in one week is just not realistic, Sweetie. Even if Tristan is amazingly hot, with a body to die for.”

With my eyes closed, I could see his smile, sly and loving at the same time.

“Besides, I think he would change his ways after they met,” he added, softly.

I swallowed. “Think so?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because she means something to him.”

My throat was dry. “And the same for her.”

Hearing his calm breathing through the phone, I wished suddenly that he were here. Or that I were there.

“I didn’t know how you felt about it, Dawn,” he said after a while, his voice husky. “Of course, I heard you, when you said you… couldn’t… but didn’t really understand until now. You described Mackenzie’s feelings so… realistically. I was too blind and stubborn to imagine what you were going through. And I didn’t want to pressure you or hurt you.”

I twisted the corner of my blanket. “I know.”

“Anyway I wanted to tell you again.”

The silence made me nervous so I tried to bring the mood back to the lighthearted beginning of the call. “So, fewer women for Tristan; check. Anything else?”

The rustling of paper came through the phone again. “Okay… I don’t like the first sex scene.”

Now I sat bolt upright. “What? My sex scenes are top notch!”

“I’m not saying they’re bad. But the way you describe it, he’s throwing himself at her in a blind passion. When really, she wants him just as much,” Spencer said drily.

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