When the kiss ended, he smiled and wiped my cheeks, looking at me so adoringly like Rory wasn’t there. Like we were in our bubble.
Then I turned and gathered my shirt and jacket, slipping them on as I made my way to the garage door where I shoved my feet back into my shoes. “Let’s go home, Mom.”
Mom.
I rarely, if ever, called her that, but that day I was leaving Fisher’s house with a full heart, going home to tell my mom everything.
It was one thing to hear someone tell you they love you. It was something entirely different, infinitely more special to hear them say the words to someone else like it was a three-word explanation for their existence.
I love her.
I was the luckiest her in the world.
Chapter Twenty-Three
I made it home a few minutes before Rory. She might have stayed to give Fisher a few more pieces of her mind.
“Hey, you look exhausted,” Rose said as she glanced up from her computer at the kitchen table. Then she narrowed her eyes. “Have you been crying?”
I nodded, setting my bag on the floor by the hallway. “Rory will be here any minute. I need to talk with her alone. Can you work at a cafe or the library for a while?”
Rose kept her concerned expression for a few seconds before nodding. “Is it time?”
Feeling another round of tears, I simply nodded. “Past time,” I managed to eke out.
“She knows.”
I nodded.
Rose stood and closed her computer. “Oh boy … it’s going to be a rough weekend.” She slipped her computer in her messenger bag and hiked it onto her shoulder just as Rory entered the house.
They made eye contact. And it was like Rose coffered her part with one look.
Rory slowly shook her head and grimaced. “Un-fucking-believable.”
Rose stopped before going out the back door. “Remember forbidden love?” She leaned over to kiss Rory’s cheek, but Rory pulled away.
She wouldn’t make eye contact with Rose, let alone acknowledge her comment. Rose nodded several times in acceptance as she bowed her head and headed out the door, gently closing it behind her.
“What have you done?” Rory whispered.
“I moved to Colorado to reunite with my mother after she got out of prison. Then she left me for a month. She left me alone in a new state, in a house with a stranger, and with complete trust in said stranger to watch out for me. And I did what you asked me to do. I trusted him. And then I fell in love with him.”
Rory slowly lifted her gaze, a map of confusion distorting her pretty face. “W-when …” It was like I’d knocked the air out of her lungs for a second time. “When did this start? Did this start then? Has this been going on for years?” She started to get worked up again.
“We haven’t been together for years. So, no. It hasn’t been going on for years. It wasn’t the right time for us then. So I left. I pursued my dreams. And I let him go. I never imagined coming back here to him this way. Him not remembering me, not remembering us. And I never imagined the side note to the tragedy would be him having a fiancée who he also doesn’t remember.”
“Jesus … Reese … were you … were the two of you …”
I shook my head. “Don’t. Don’t ask that. The answer isn’t so black and white. And the truth that you don’t want to hear is that whatever we did, we did as two consenting adults. He didn’t take advantage of me.”
She wiped her eyes before her tears fell. “Did he h-hurt you?”
I gave her a sad smile. “No. Well, just my heart. He hurt my heart, but only because I was too young and stupid to guard it a little better.”
“When did you tell him?” She made her way to the kitchen table and eased into a chair as I remained propped up against the wall by the fridge.
“Tell him what?”
“Well, he didn’t remember you. So when did you tell him about the two of you? About whatever went on between the two of you five years ago.”
On a tiny head shake, I murmured, “I haven’t told him.”
Rory squinted. “You haven’t told him anything?”
I shrugged. “I told him that I lived with you in his basement for a while. I told him I worked for him. I told him we were friends. When you were in California, we went to one of Arnie’s concerts. I met up with a friend from school and her boyfriend. Fisher went and took Angie because she was in town and his family insisted he take her to the concert. A triple date of sorts.”
“Who was your date?”
“Arnie.”
“Were you and Arnie also—”
“No.” I chuckled. “It was a front because Fisher and I couldn’t tell anyone because we knew nobody would understand or approve, least of all you.”