Page 144 of Legally Mine

"You aren't..." he started as he stared at our interwoven hands. "Do you...you aren't hiding anything from me...are you, Skylar?"

When he looked back at me, Brandon's eyes were wide sapphires in the night, but they glowed with something other than happiness.

I hugged my pillow closer, trying and failing to ignore the pang of guilt in my stomach. Green eyes or blue?

"Why do you ask?"

He searched my face, then sighed and shook his head.

"No reason," he said. "Just...sometimes I get the feeling like you're maybe holding something back." He shook his head with a rueful smile. "Sorry. It's probably all in my head."

Now was the time to tell him. I had been waiting for months, waiting for a time when we weren't inundated with work drama, family drama, exam studying, and all the other excuses I'd amassed. If we were going to move forward, we had to be one hundred percent open with each other. I knew that.

But.

I opened my mouth, and nothing came out. The words clogged in my throat, and the pang in my stomach grew while my skin crawled and crackled, like it was made of glass.

Brandon had been hurt so much in his life. By his mother, his father. His foster parents, his wife. By me.

I couldn't bear to do it again.

~