Page 2 of Loving You

I didn’t feel his hands on me or hear his cruel laugh.

I didn’t wince when someone outside my bubble touched me.

I didn’t say no to social events because I was worried someone would ask me how I was, and I’d have to lie.

And thenboom.

One minute, I’m on my way to a meeting, thinking about the hot and annoying guy I was hoping to distract with sexy heels—fuck, I think I might be sick thinking about that part—and the next, I see the source of all my nightmares, right there in the flesh.

“Where is he?” Sammy ducked his head out of the alley and then came right back, his protective instincts on high alert.

“In the coffee shop,” I whispered.

“Okay, good. Here’s the plan.” Sammy nodded once, then held up his finger between us like he was about to say something serious and profound. “Don’t go into the coffee shop.”

I snorted as the corner of his mouth pulled up.

Oh, Sammy.

Bless him for trying to make me laugh. Jokes were his default when shit got real, though that didn’t make him any less intimidating when he needed to be. But since the threat he’d tried to steer me away from wasn’t actually on the street ready to make a grab for me again, here he was just being …Sammy.

He’d been there the last time I’d seen Cliff, though, and he’d seen him manhandle me that day as we’d stood in the grass between my family’s B&B and Walker’s Brewery. If Sammy hadn’t walked up to us and scared my ex off, I have no idea what would have happened. So even with the smiles, I could tell he was trying to figure out if he could help me again.

“You’ve told someone other than me about this, right?” he asked. His face told me he hoped to god my answer would be yes, and when I merely wrinkled my nose, he hung his head. “April, seriously?”

“Sammy, I told you to forget what you saw that day because I could handle it myself.”

“And are you?”

“What?”

“Handling it?”

I stiffened, trying to bring back the confident, sassy chick who was enough of a baller to answer emails while walking in four-inch heels—well, attempt to, anyway. But Cliff’s sudden reappearance months after I thought I’d gotten rid of him had me unable to call that girl back to the surface, and I slumped against the wall behind me with a sigh.

“If it makes you feel any better, I moved out of my apartment and into the attic at the B&B.”

“Uh… no. Crazy as it might be, that doesn’t make me feel any better. In fact, it tells me this is some serious shit.”

I blinked back at him, no idea how to respond. It wasn’t like he was wrong, and yet, what more did he want me to do? Did he think I wanted to give up mya-freakin’-dorableapartment and move into the one room at Granite Springs B&B that didn’t look like it belonged in a magazine?

Sammy scratched his head, looking awkward as hell. “April, you told me not to tell anyone what I saw that day, but you didn’t tell me who the fuck that guy is or what happened. I’ll be honest, I’m not sure what to do here, but somebody has to do something. You can’t live like this forever.”

That got through to me. Sammy was my friend. He and his family were great people to have as friends because they looked out for the people they cared about. And so did Kate, Rachel, and Ellie, who were all happily married into his family.

And none of themknew.

I had to keep it that way, and if I stood here in this alley looking like some broken, sad little girl for a moment longer, Sammy would try to convince me to tell them so they could help me.

Or, worse, he’d take it upon himself to tell them for me.

I straightened and pasted on the same big smile I’d used the last time Sammy had seen me nearly fall apart at the sight of my ex. “You’re right, I can’t. And no, I didn’t tell you what happened or who he is, and I’m not going to.”

“April—”

“It’s fine. I promise. I’ll figure it out. It just startled me to see him in the coffee shop because I’m supposed to be meeting Eric, and I didn’t wanna deal with it.”

My voice was calm, and I punctuated my lies with a little self-deprecating laugh and a wave of my hand. Even though my pulse still raced and my head ached, I prayed he’d believe it was as simple as that.

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