Page 90 of Ruled Out

“About Will?” I ask.

He wraps his little finger around mine, closing his eyes. “Yes. About my mom. I’ll give you every answer to every question you have. But I also don’t want you to worry. My dad doesn’t know who you are.”

“I know,” I whisper. “There’s no way he could’ve just from a photo of my hand and a stack of blueberry pancakes.”

He huffs out a weak laugh. “You mean everything to me, Mia. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

JESSIE

“Tara not home?” I ask, scoping the place out when we walk in. A single floor lamp is lit in the corner.

She shakes her head, pulling off her jacket and boots, and I do the same with my coat and sneakers.

“No, but she will be soon.” She turns to me, uncertainty in her eyes. “Wouldn’t matter anyway. She knows.”

I throw my coat over one of the barstools, it’s pointless hiding my stuff in Mia’s room. “You told her?”

Standing in the center of her living space, looking like everything I want, she twists her hands around in front of her. “I, um … I got a bit upset today in class, and with that and my mysterious disappearances, she kind of demanded to know. She had given me an alibi when my dad started questioning where I was the first night I stayed at your place, so I felt like she wouldn’t say anything. I should’ve checked with you before I told her, I know. Just with Saturday night and your dad and everything, it all got a bit too much, and I blurted it out.”

I make my way over and rub my palms up and down her arms. “If you trust her, then so do I. You have nothing to be sorry for. We both know your dad has to find out. It just needs to be at the right time.”

She presses her lips together and takes a seat on the couch. Holding one of my hands in hers, she pulls me down next to her. “We need to talk about the right time to approach my dad, but I’m not ready yet.”

Releasing her hand, I pick her up so she’s sitting across my knees, and she wraps her arms around my neck. “When you give the go-ahead, we’ll tell him together. Preferably in public so there are witnesses.” I chuckle before bringing my mouth to her lips.

I have no idea how long we make out for like that. Ten, maybe twenty minutes? Not long enough.

I break the kiss and rest my forehead against hers, our breathing heavy and mingling. “I came here tonight to tell you everything. To lay it all down for you, Mia. I want you to know everything about me, about my past. Zero secrets. Some of the things my dad did to me and my mom are pretty bad. But I want you to have it all before you decide whether you truly want this with me, with us.”

Bringing her hands to the sides of my face, she cups my head between her palms. “There’s nothing you can tell me that would ever make me want you less. There’s nothing in your past that will ever make me love you less, Jessie Callaghan. There never has been.”

By the time I squeeze my eyes shut, the tears have already started to fall down my cheeks, and my hands begin to tremble. “I’ve never told anyone before. Not all of it.”

“I know, Jessie. Take your time.”

Picking her up off the couch, I walk us through to her room and kick the door shut behind us.

After I lay Mia on the single bed, I peel off her jeans and then pull her black T-shirt overhead, leaving her in only her underwear.

When I reach behind my head and pull off my hoodie and shirt in one go, I watch as Mia’s eyes fall to my chest, slowly traveling to the deep V protruding above my sweatpants.

Crawling over her body, I pull the duvet up and around my shoulders, forming a cocoon around us.

I swallow back the nausea as I will my brain to do something it never truly has.

Remember.

“When you came over to Kate and Jensen’s, you asked me if I was an only child. I told you I was because I didn’t know what to say. Jensen and the group know I had a brother who died, but I knew if I told you, then I’d want to tell you about his death and how it affected my mom. The trouble is, I’ve never been ready to talk about Will. I’ve never been ready to say it all out loud. I didn’t want you to see me as the broken boy with so much sadness in his life. Because you make me anything but sad, Mia.”

“I don’t see you as a broken boy, Jessie. I see you as a phenomenal person who makes me happy.”

I close my eyes, letting her words wash over me as I prepare to share my past for the first time. “Mom went into spontaneous labor, and Will was born twenty minutes after she delivered me. We were twenty-six weeks.” I blow out a shaky breath and focus on Mia beneath me. “At that many weeks old, we both needed neonatal care. But Will was smaller and weaker than me. He needed more help with breathing.”

Reaching out, Mia runs a gentle hand through my hair, encouraging me to keep going.

“I haven’t had many chances to speak to my mom about what happened to Will, but on the few occasions I have, she told methat after a couple of days, I was strong enough to come home, so she and Dad brought me back to the house.”

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