“He’ll never pay her shit.”
“I know,” Nicole said softly, “but she still thinks she loves him. I know she loves the baby, and since Greg and I are the only people who know about him, they’re kind of short-handed when it comes to help. I babysit when she has to work because Ron has all these council commitments he can’t miss. It’s not like he could take Timmy to a meeting or anything.”
“So why the disappearing act?” I asked.
“Sophie works at the diner,” she told me. “Sometimes when the loggers come through or a bus stops or something, they get slammed and call her in. She can’t tell them she can’t make it because of the baby, or everyone would know.”
“So Rumple to the rescue.”
“Something like that.” Nicole gave me a wry smile.
I relaxed against the couch, my fears abated. I still felt like a shit for being so paranoid, but was so glad it wasn’t what it appeared to be. I couldn’t help but feel good overall.
“All right, Malone,” Nicole said as she sat up straight. “Greg said he gave you some of his own ground rules, and now it’s time to talk about mine.
I took a big breath and tried to calm the sudden attack of nerves. I looked up at Nicole where she was sitting on the couch, a whole cushion away from me, and gave her a nod to go ahead.
“No more spying,” she said definitively. “If you want to know something, you ask me. Chances are I'm going to tell you. And I don't just mean spying on me. Don't go looking up anyone else just because I'm not telling you something.”
I nodded more vigorously. I could deal with this.
“Tell me what you're thinking if it's important to us,” she said.
My hands were getting all sweaty for some reason. I rubbed them on my thighs and tilted my head to the side.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean if something is bothering you, tell me it's bothering you. Tell me why some things upset you so much. I want to understand.”
She was making a pretty big assumption that I had any idea what was going on in my own head.
“What if I don't understand, either?” I asked.
“Then tell me anyway,” she said, “and I'll help you figure it out.”
I felt my mouth turn up in a bit of a smile. I liked the idea of figuring shit out with her.
“I'm going to tell you if something is bugging me as well,” she promised, “and I'll try to do it before it becomes too much of a big deal.”
“Okay.”
“We both kind of have a temper,” Nicole said a little sheepishly. “That isn't going to help. I'll try to keep mine in check, okay?”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “I'll try, too.”
“Good.” Nicole gave me a real smile then and reached over to give me a quick hug. She backed off again and leaned against the back of the couch.
I tried to process everything she had said, not sure if I was completely successful or not. What she was saying wasn't that complicated, but I still didn't know how this was going to change anything. Nicole interrupted my internal ramblings.
“You have to trust me, Thomas,” she said. Her voice softened and she leaned toward me a little. “I don't know that much about relationships either, but I know we have to be able to trust each other. If we don't, it's not going to work. At least, that's what Greg keeps telling me.”
“I do trust you,” I said, but even as I said it, I wasn't sure exactly what it meant.
“Then act like it.”
“How?”
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