Before Creed could cover for me, I decided I had lied enough for one week. I wasn’t about to add to it and honestly, I wasn’t in the mood to let anyone down right now. I had enough of that coming. I nodded. “Yes, I am, but I like to keep a low profile. Would you mind keeping that info at your table?” I asked her as sweetly as I could.
Her eyes blazed with excitement. “I knew it! I won’t tell a soul, honey. Don’t you worry. I just knew it was you. You’re even more beautiful in person. Just like your daddy.”
“Thank you,” I said, keeping the smile I didn’t feel in place. I may have just made a mistake, but I didn’t think people in this town or bar were going to come flocking to me because my dad was a country singer.
“Y’all carry on now. I’m sorry to interrupt,” she said, then with one last bright smile, she turned and hurried away.
I could feel Creed’s eyes on me. I lifted my gaze to meet his. “I just didn’t want to disappoint her. She seemed so sure of herself and excited.”
A small smile touched his lips then he lowered those lips and pressed them against mine. In that moment, nothing else mattered. Creed could make it all disappear so very easily.
Twenty-two
November 16, 2019
The kitchen was bright from the morning sun, the house smelled of coffee and firewood, the colorful leaves had almost all fallen outside my window, and Creed was sitting on the sofa in the living room, waiting on me to join him. It was a late fall Saturday morning in New England, and it was perfect…except that I was standing in my warm cozy kitchen staring at the phone in my hand as it began to ring.
Griff was finally calling me.
“It’s him,” I called out to Creed. “I’m going to step outside,” I added. Somehow telling Griff all of this in front of Creed seemed wrong. He at least deserved privacy.
I went to open the kitchen door when Creed walked into the room. “It’s still below freezing this morning. I’ll go to my house. Let me know when you’re done,” he said, before pressing a kiss to my cheek.
The moment the door closed behind him I answered the call.
“Hello,” I said, my stomach was already in tangled knots.
“Hey, sorry I didn’t call you yesterday. Your text seemed important but time got away from me.”
I was used to this excuse by now. Time was always getting away from him. His world was med school and I was proud of him. He’d worked hard to get where he was and I understood his dedication. However, our relationship hadn’t survived it.
“I understand,” I replied, still not sure how to explain everything and feeling like a jerk for doing it on the phone, but if not now when? I didn’t want to stop things with Creed until I ended them with Griff because I didn’t know when that would happen. I had this call and I had to take it.
“What’s up?” he asked, and I heard pages turning in the background. Was he studying?
Rip off the bandage. That’s what I had to do. Get it done.
“Griff, when we met, I was a mess. I know you remember the counseling and my unwillingness to get close to you. You had to work hard to get me to go on that first date,” I began. He said nothing so I continued.
“I never explained much about it and you assumed it was my mother and the life I’d lived with her that had sent me to counseling and made me so hard to get close to but it wasn’t. Growing up I told you about my summers at Gran’s, what I didn’t tell you was the twins that lived next door. I was close to them. The girl and I became best friends as we grew up and the boy…well, I fell in love with him. He was my first. I didn’t think I’d ever love anyone else. We had a history that was intense and when we found his sister dead from an overdose the summer I was seventeen, he never spoke to me again. I didn’t know why. I’d lost my best friend and my boyfriend on the same day. I was damaged.”
I paused then taking a deep breath.
“Okay, I’m glad you told me all this. Are you dealing with it now that you’re there? The memories?” He asked.
“Not exactly. I began dealing with it the first day at your apartment,” I said, then closed my eyes to get this over with. This was where it was going to be hard. “Creed Sullivan was the boy and I hadn’t seen him in six years until that day.”
There was silence and I didn’t know how to keep going.