Page 91

I sat on the sofa across from her, nursing my own coffee between my hands. “How are you feeling?” I asked, watching the way her eyes darted from one end of the room to the other.

“I’m okay,” she lied. “Just feeling a little tired, I guess.”

“Who is Donnie?” I asked, unable to keep the question to myself any longer.

Mia flinched. Hard.

I hated myself for pushing her, but it had gone on long enough. “You’ve been in a state for a while,” I continued. “Something happened the day you came back from your family’s place and almost got black out drunk. I’m not stupid.”

“I know you’re not stupid,” she pleaded, her fingers flexed around her mug. “But there isn’t that much to it. D-Donnie is just a friend from school, honestly.”

“I know enough Portuguese to understand a threat when I hear one,” I told her, and she swallowed.

With a quick glance down, she took a sip of her tea, stalling. “Please, Reid,” she begged. “I don’t want to talk about this.”

“And I don’t want to force you to,” I said. “But this has gone on long enough, and I’m worried to hell and back over what might actually be happening.”

“I can’t,” she sobbed, tears slipping down her cheeks and smearing her mascara.

My heart squeezed tight and I fought the need to wipe her tears, the air punched out of my lungs.

Shit.

Shit, shit,shit.

“If it’s too much, Mia,” I said, backtracking immediately. “You don’t have to, I just can’t stand seeing you like this and I want to help.”

“You can’t,” she sniffled. “And I’m so tired. I can’t keep doing this.”

“What do you mean?”

She lifted her shining eyes to mine, her lips trembling. “I can’t keep lying to you.”

Chapter 29

Even If It Hurts

MIA

Myentirebodyshook,trembling from head to toe. I stared at Reid, panic stealing away my voice and ripping a small sob from my lungs.

“Lying to me about what, Mia?”

“Just… give me a second, please?” I wobbled out. “I just need to get things straight.”

Reid nodded, leaning back on the sofa, her face open. I could barely remember how we’d gotten back to the hotel, my senses had been blanketed by blind panic.

All I’d been aware of was Reid’s hand hovering near me. Close enough to touch but so, so far away.

I fought for each lungful of air, fought to keep my body from jangling to pieces. Some small part of me reached out to Reid, for her, whispering that if Reid justheldme, I’d be fine. The rest of me quaked at the thought, scared that Reid would pull away. That she would leave me and never look at me again.

“I told you my dad died,” I started, figuring it would be best to start where everything might make sense.

Hopefully.

“When you were twenty,” she answered immediately.

I nodded, my stomach fluttering.