Come A Little Bit Closer (The Sullivans #7)(82)

“Why did you leave us, too?” She felt a tear slide down her cheek and wiped at it with the back of her hand. “We needed you.” Another tear fell, too fast for her to catch before it plopped onto the cement. “I needed you.”

Her mother’s slim arms were surprisingly strong as they were abruptly thrown around her. “Oh honey, I’m sorry.”

But instead of falling apart, for once her mother was the strong one, another role-reversal Valentina hadn’t seen coming.

“You and your sister were always so close. I loved that you were such a tight unit, loved knowing that you would always be there to look after her, if anything ever happened to me and your father. And then, when he died so unexpectedly—” Ava Landon shook her head. “Honestly, I don’t remember much about those early months. But when I finally came back to the world, the two of you were closer than ever. Just like you are now. So close that it sometimes seemed like you didn’t need me at all. Only each other.” Her mother wiped away her own tears now. “Will you forgive me?”

Valentina had never thought about how the bond with her sister might have affected her mother. “Of course I do.” She was the one hugging her mother this time, the familiar scent of her perfume, and her softness as comforting to her now as they had been when she was a little girl.

They had a lot to catch up on, far more than they could possibly cover in the next five minutes before filming started for the day. But she did have one more question before they headed over to the set.

“Are things serious with you and Dave?”

Her mother answered her question with one of her own. “Would it be okay with you if they were? I know how much your father meant to you, how much he still does.”

Valentina instinctively put her hand over her heart. She paused to think, and to feel, before she said, “It would.”

Smiling, their arms still around each other, they walked across the lot and onto the set. And when Smith looked up at her, she could see not only the love for her in his eyes, but also his joy at the obvious ground she and her mother had made up with each other.

And then the lights were dimming and Smith and Tatiana were taking their places on set on the bed beside each other as the cameras started to roll. Valentina’s mother squeezed her hand and she pressed an impromptu kiss to her soft cheek before turning her attention to the scene just starting to play out before them all.

Jo and Graham had made love many, many times over the past few weeks. And they had both fallen helplessly in love with each other from that first clash on the street all the way through shared nights caring for her baby.

But despite both of those facts, Jo knew they hadn’t truly shared love with each other.

From the first moment she’d collided with him, Graham had been full of purpose, determination, intensity. And still, after they’d made love that first time, and after she’d watched him give his love to her daughter without any barriers or borders, she’d believed that no one could sustain himself on endless intensity without eventually running out of steam. When she watched him sleep, instead of the lines in his beautiful face softening, they still held the heartbreaking edge to them that tore her apart a little more every day.

When, she wondered as she reached to stroke back a lock of hair that had fallen across his forehead, would he ever let the demons that drove him go?

He murmured her name and pulled her into him, her back to his front. She loved the feel of his strong arms around her, loved lying together with him like this when they were both barely awake.

Safe. He had said he would always keep her and her daughter safe.

Which was why, at long last, in those fragile minutes between night and day, believing in him as she’d never let herself believe anyone else, she began to speak.

“I never knew my father. Just the men who came in and out of my mother’s life.”

She could tell by the way his muscles tightened slightly against hers that he had just come fully awake. Maybe she should have been frightened. Maybe this was the one risk she shouldn’t take—to trust him with a story that only she knew, that could die with her and her alone.

But somewhere along the way, she’d realized she could live with taking that risk. What she couldn’t live without was love.

“Some were nice. Some were scary. Some wanted things from me that I didn’t want to give.” His hand tightened over her chest and she tried to calm him by saying, “I was small. And fast. And I knew how to stay hidden when I had to. I also knew I needed to get out before I was ever found.”

Her name was on his lips. She knew it would be so easy to turn into him, to let him kiss away her ugly memories. And she would. But not yet.

Not until she’d bared herself to him. Fully. Completely.

And not until she’d risked everything for him so that he could do the same for her.

“His name was Bryan. I thought I’d seen it all, thought I was so smart when it came to picking a boyfriend, a man to finally give my virginity to. He had a good job working with computers. He wasn’t creepy or scary. He was nice. He didn’t treat me like I was stupid, or worthless because of where I came from.” She sighed, remembering how naïve she’d been. “I didn’t get pregnant on purpose. I don’t know what happened. Maybe the condom broke. But when I went to tell him, I knew I couldn’t do it. Not because I didn’t want to trap him into having to stay with me.” She swallowed hard. “I didn’t tell him because I couldn’t trap myself.”