Page 30 of Wait For You

I wasn’t sure where she was going with this. “What are you proposing, Rosie?”

“That you have lots of hot sex with Adam,” she said, her tone completely serious.

I snorted. “You think that’s a good idea?”

“Why not?” She cocked her head to the side. “What do you want?”

“Well, lots of hot sex with Adam would be a pretty sweet deal,” I admitted.

“Then do it. I won’t say a word.”

“Yeah, but if you saw me there…” I shrugged.

“I saw you this morning in his SUV. Just come and go in the dark and make sure he understands it’s important to keep it quiet.”

“What about the rest of our friends?” I honestly didn’t care much about what my friends knew, but the more people who knew, the more likely the information would make its way to Rich.

“Oh, even if they guess or actually find out, we are all vaults.” Rosie’s words were solemn.

Tears sprang to my eyes. My friends' support when I scraped up the courage to leave Rich was invaluable. “I don’t know what I would do without any of you!” I gave her a fierce hug as emotion rushed through me.

Rosie squeezed me before she stepped back, holding my shoulders. “You’re okay. You’re okay.”

The amount of relief I’d experienced just being honest with my friends about what my relationship with Rich had really been like was hard to describe. The secrecy and the shame were another part of the pain and isolation. It made all of it feel even worse.

“I know I am.” I took a slow breath.

After years of trying to keep myself together while living under the equivalent of Rich’s boot on my throat, I still experienced waves of shame and embarrassment about what had happened. Fear and anxiety stirred up little tornadoes in my life. But when the rushes of emotion passed by, the sense of feeling stuck in a dark, lonely place had disappeared. No matter how hard it was to still deal with Rich around the custody situation, Eric and I were free.

Rosie smiled over at me. “You deserve this,” she said firmly.

“Deserve what?”

“A man who makes you blush, who makes you want more. Maybe I’m not that close to Adam, but I know he’s a good man.”

Chapter Nineteen

Tessa

Do you trust me?

Adam’s question after our night together played in my thoughts. I did trust him. Completely. The last thing I wanted was for something to go wrong, specifically for Rich to find out.

Yet my desire to see Adam was more powerful than what Rich thought.

I re-read his text.

Adam: I want to see you.

Eric was sound asleep in his room. With the blessing of youth, he slept like the dead. Some mornings, it was beyond frustrating to prod him out of bed. On the other hand, I could safely have Adam come over, and Eric would most likely sleep right through it.

My hands were shaky when I tapped out my reply. I wasn’t shaky from a bad kind of nervousness but from intense anticipation.

Me: Come over. Park in the back.

I waited less than a minute for his response.

Adam: I’ll see you in 10 minutes.