38

“But you still didn’t trust me.”

But I loved you.

I still loved him.

And I still couldn’t say it. So I said the next best thing instead. “I trust you more than I’ve trusted almost anyone.”

“I guess that’s something.”

It was so much more than just something. It was everything to me. The only other person I’d ever trusted had been Amber, and, in the end, even she’d betrayed my trust.

Maybe my statement had been wrong. Maybe I trusted Reeve more than everyone.

But I didn’t correct myself because it didn’t matter. What he really wanted to hear were the other words, the words I couldn’t give. He’d danced around it, too, though. He’d suggested he loved me, but he’d never told me outright. Those words stood so prominently that they’d become a barrier between us. Either they’d been a lie, a cruel response to my scheming, or they’d been truthful – a possible doorway leading to something else. Something more.

Damn, how I wanted the more. Wanted it enough to brave broaching the subject. “You sai