Page 20 of Brandishing Betrayals

He shook his head sadly, “We fell apart after you left, Maya.”

Tears welled in my eyes and I had to look away from his beautiful face.

“Maybe if we knew why you left in the first place,” he said softly, running a knuckle over her cheekbone.

I could see what he was doing, how he was hoping to lead intothatconversation, but I couldn’t do it. Not yet… not today. I needed more time. I shook my head sadly and stepped away from him, letting his hand drop from my face. “I can’t, Nic. I can’t.”

“One day, Little Dreamer, you’re going to have to tell me. Even if it rips out my heart, you’re going to have to tell us why.” He spoke gently, but firmly. His voice was deep and melodic as it rolled over me.

I knew he was right, but I couldn’t tell him. One day maybe, but not today.

“Alright babe, take your shower. Get ready for the day, I’ll get Luke up.” Nico left the bathroom after that, closing the door behind him.

I sighed and turned to the shower. I didn’t have any more time for self-pity. I needed to get in the shower and get moving. I needed the morning routine to appear as normal as possible to my mother. The last thing I needed was my mother screeching on about ‘those boys are bad news’.

Maya

“Bye Mom!” Luke yelled as he jumped out of my car at day camp.

“Bye, love you!” I called after him, before the back door slammed. I wondered if he even heard me, as he ran toward his friends near the elementary school the day camp was held.

A horn honked behind me and I cursed and drove forward. “Alright, alright,” I grumbled.

“This is intense.” Nic commented with a laugh as he glanced around the coned-off area that was the drop off lane.

“You should see it during the school year. It’s a cut-throat business, drop-off line,” I smirked.

“I bet,” Nic laughed. “Is this his school too?”

“Yep.”

“He looks like he made friends pretty easily.”

“Yeah,” I sighed. “Moving here in January might have helped. It was the middle of the school year, so he was able to meet people. We got lucky that he was in the same class as a couple of the kids from the neighborhood. It was the mom of one of his friends that told me about the day camp, which was godsend, because my mom really isn’t able to do much more than take care of my dad…Luke would have been so bored at home.”

“I’m glad you’re back,” Nic said, as I slowly pulled out of the parking lot and onto the street.

I gave him a tight smile and nodded once. “Me too.”

Nic reached over the center console of my Civic and rested his hand on my thigh. He gave it a gentle squeeze and left it there. It was a warm weight on my leg that made concentrating on anything, let alone traffic, more difficult.

“Make a stop at Buttin’s, will ya?” Nic asked, referring to the local grocery store.

I nodded and pulled into the parking lot.

“Great. I won’t be long,” Nic said as I found a parking spot. “Stay here.”

I nodded absently and waited, my mind playing over the events of the night before for the hundredth time. How Jason’s gray eyes had glared at me with such hatred and contempt. How he hadn’t batted an eye when I had tears running down my face, and how it took me stabbing him with a goddamned fork, for him to not kill me.

For the thousandth time, I wondered if I made the right choice a decade ago, if I had stayed, what would have happened? There was a flash out of the corner of my eye, and glanced to my left. When I didn’t see anything, I looked away, messing with the radio.

It was another ten minutes in the car, before Nico finally walked out of the grocery store, his arms laden down with plastic grocery bags. I popped the trunk for him to load everything into, listening to the bags rustle as he set everything down.

A moment later he was climbing back in the passenger seat again and had a bright ass smile on his face. I raised an eyebrow at his jovial expression, not really feeling it myself. “Ready?” I asked.

“Absolutely, Little Dreamer. Let’s go!” He slid his hand onto my thigh again, as I started up the Civic.

I rolled my eyes and backed out. “Where am I going?” I asked, as I drove through the parking lot toward an exit.

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