Page 58 of The Heart of a Painter (As I Am 1)

“Ihave. They were very welcoming,” Erin replied to whatever Zach asked.

“Did he tell you why he ran away from these nice, welcoming parents?”

Erin shook her head and squinted her eyes, turning from him to me. Istilled, part of it from being under Erin’sspell, part of it from hoping this was where the overly honest talk would end. Hoping he would have drawn the line somewhere, soon.

“The big secret, this whole mess began the day Thomas was bor—”

Istood up abruptly, shoving the bottle of wine in his direction, acting like it was an accident rather than adeliberate action. In truth, Iworked on pure impulse.

He had no right to talk about my history, not then, not with the people at the table. The very mention of it shoved the knife of my past deeper in my chest, the dull ache that had nearly disappeared with Erin coming into my life.

“What the…” His chair scratched the hardwood floor as he pushed himself away from the table. Other than that, the whole room went silent.

The wine dripped down the bottle, pools of dark red staining the table.

It matched the red Isaw and contained poorly. “Sorry, Ifelt something crawling up my leg.” The hint of anger marred my tone and Icleared my throat. “It’sgetting late and I’mjet-lagged. Better call it anight.”

Erin stared blankly into space, her knuckles white from gripping the table served as the only sign of her being aware of her surroundings. Her stress dragged me back to the promise Imade to guard her, made me want to apologize to my friend for my disproportionate reaction, but Ifroze.

Laura dabbed anapkin in awater glass and scrubbed Zach’swhite dress shirt where the red stains had spread. He curled his fingers around her and gave her asomber smile. “It’sokay, lady. Ihave alot more shirts where that came from.”

She didn’tcorrect him, and with asad smile that didn’tquite reach her eyes she helped him out his chair and got up. “We’ll be leaving. Bye, Erin.” Then she turned to me with that same sad smile and same empty gaze. “Nice meeting you, Thomas.”

Zach followed her to the door, then glanced over his shoulder at me and nodded once before closing the door behind them, leaving me and Erin in the house by ourselves.

Erin tapped on my shoulder, pulling me from my shock back to her.

To her wide eyes, brimming with unshed tears. Her chin quavered, nervous of my reaction and upset, yet not backing away, and Iadmired her even as she accused me, saying, “Can you explain to me what just happened?”