Page 164 of All This Time

Our eyes move from one person to the next before Rhonan sighs, breaking the silence. “You and my sister then, huh?”

Nodding, I straighten my spine. “This isn’t just some fling, Rhonan. I’ve been in love with her for a long fucking time.”

He clears his throat. “I know. Laney told me everything.” My pulse picks up. Laney told me that Rhonan knows about the shit with my dad now, but it still makes me nervous to see his reaction in person. “Why the fuck didn’t you tell any of us about your dad?” His eyes bore into mine, even though there’s confusion and hurt on his face.

“Tell us what?” Elliot asks, his animosity from before far less than it was.

Rhonan turns to our other two friends. “Fletcher’s dad used to fucking hit him.”

Hearing those words out loud from someone else feels like a knife slicing through my skin, but demons escaping from the cut this time.

It’s painful and healing.

It’s honest, yet a dark truth that I’ve been carrying alone up until now.

Henley glares at me. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

Elliot shakes his head. “More fucking lies.”

“It’s not lying if you never asked. And besides, I knew you guys wouldn’t have let it go if I had told you.”

“Damn right, we wouldn’t have,” Rhonan says.

“And it would have jeopardized everything I’d been working toward, Rhonan. Do you get that? There would have been investigations. I could have been placed in foster care, might have even had to move.”

“But you told Laney,” he counters.

“I did, but only because I’m a shitty liar and she knew better.”

“But what about the pact?” Rhonan snaps.

“The whole point of the pact was to establish a level of friendship that was strong, a foundation of loyalty. But you know what really makes us strong? The ability to get through shit like this. To admit when we’re fucking struggling, to not hold in stuff because doing so has just made us fucking miserable, and I’m done feeling that way. Laney has helped me see that too.”

“She’s too good for you,” Rhonan says.

“I know.”

“She’s too good for anyone, really,” Elliot adds, shaking his head.

“Don’t have to convince me of that.”

Rhonan sighs, lifting his eyes to meet mine. “But she loves you.”

“Believe me, I’m still trying to wrap my head around it.” I direct my eyes back over to Elliot. “Do you remember that conversation that we had in your office three weeks ago?”

He eyes me curiously. “Vaguely. What about it?”

“You told me that one day I’d find a woman that would make me want to be irrational for the first time in my life, and I did—I just found her at seventeen, Elliot, and it took me this long to figure out what I want. Did I go about it the honorable way? Not at all. But was it honest for me and her? Yes, so I don’t regret it. I followed my fucking heart for once, and it led me to where I’m supposed to be.”

Elliot lowers his gaze, shaking his head. “Then you’re fucking lucky, because following my heart ended up with mine fucking split in two.”

My chest aches for my friend because I can’t imagine how I would feel if Laney left me like that. But I also know that Laney and I want the same things, and it’s clear that perhaps Elliot and Tori didn’t as much as he thought they did.

Rhonan stares at the green felt on the table before looking back at me. “I’ve watched my sister avoid relationships for years, watched her pick the wrong guys, give so much of herself to others, and avoid moving on in life because of what happened with our mom. But this past week? It’s like I got my sister back,” he croaks.

“Fuck, man.” I push a hand through my hair and stare up at the ceiling. “You’re gonna make me fucking cry again. I’ve cried more this past week than I have since your mom died.”

Henley sniffles. “Pansies.”