Hometown Love (Love on the North Shore #2)(46)
Behind her, the oven beeped, letting her know it had reached the set temperature. The reminder took her away from her thoughts and back to the unfinished pie. If they hoped to enjoy it for dessert, she needed to roll out two piecrusts. Everything else could wait until later.
Before tonight he’d not considered the how and when he should drop the L-word on her. He’d assumed by now that she had some idea of how he felt. After all, he’d more or less made her a part of his and Grace’s family. Her reaction when he told her tonight proved him dead wrong. She’d come back with an “I love you, too,” but if that was the case, what kept her so quiet tonight? All through dinner she’d stayed quieter than usual. Even now, a few hours since he’d blurted out the truth without thinking, she remained quiet. Had his impromptu declaration hurt rather than helped their relationship?
“Are you feeling okay tonight?” He’d already gone through all the channels on the television while she flipped through his DVD collect, not once saying a word.
She looked up and gave him a faint smile that contained no happiness. “Fine. Why?”
In his experience, when a woman said those words the way she said them, it meant something wasn’t fine. “You’ve been looking at the same DVDs for five minutes.” Ready for a conversation regardless of whether or not he liked the outcome, he switched off the television. “Are you upset about what I said before?”
With a sigh, she pushed away the DVD case. “No, of course not. I love you, too, although you did surprise me.”
The answer should fill him with relief. Instead, the worries jumping around inside him grew. What wasn’t she telling him? “You’ve been quiet all night. Something is bothering you. What is it?” He took her hand, her slim delicate fingers disappearing under his. He counted as the seconds ticked by and she remained silent, her eyes downcast.
“I’ve been thinking about the other night.” She looked up as she spoke.
Confused, he ran through the last few times they’d been together for anything unusual.
“The night I made you stop.” She clarified for him.
Oh, that night. He remembered that night as well as the cold shower he’d taken when she’d left—and several times since.
“I told you I wasn’t ready. That was the truth, just not all of it.” Jessie bit down on her lip and looked away.
When she met his eyes again, he saw some unreadable emotion lurking there.
“Jessie, whatever the problem you can tell me.” Was she a virgin and embarrassed to tell him? While a little odd, it wasn’t anything to be embarrassed about.
“I’ve never dated a lot. Before you, the last date I went on was in college. I met Jeremy in an accounting class. The professor paired us up with two other students for a project. When we finished it, he asked me out. We were together for six years.”
“I don’t care how many men you have or haven’t dated.” Her unease didn’t mesh with the news she shared.
“My relationship wasn’t normal. Or perhaps healthy is a better word.” Jessie picked at her fingernail. “At first, it was great. He was sweet. He brought me flowers and we went out all the time. After college, we got an apartment together. Slowly, though, he changed. He got possessive. I couldn’t go anywhere without checking with him first. We only did things he liked. The change was subtle. In the beginning, I didn’t even notice. Soon, he controlled every aspect of my life. Who I talked to, how I dressed, when I visited my family.” Jessie paused for a breath. “He had complete control over our intimate relationship, too. When he wanted sex, we had sex. The one time I said no, he hit me.”
Anger flared inside him. No one should have to put up with what Jessie described. “You left him after that?”
She pressed her lips together and shook her head. “No. He apologized and promised it would never happen again.”
He’d heard that story way too many times. “What happened after that?”
“Things went back to normal—or normal for us. Slowly, he got more verbally abusive. Then, the day of our third anniversary, he hit me again. He’d been drinking and I let him use that as an excuse. I loved him and thought he loved me. I wanted to work things out. But things got worse. He started to hit me even when he wasn’t drunk.”
“You can never work things out with an animal like that.” He squeezed her hand. “When did you end things?”
“About three years later. We got into a huge argument over what we wanted to do in Virginia Beach. He hit me so hard he knocked me out. When I fell, I landed on the wine glasses we’d left on a coffee table.” She pulled up the hem of her shirt. “That’s how I got this.” She pointed to the scar he’d noticed before.
The fury already building inside him almost choked him now as he looked at that scar. “What happened next?” he asked, his teeth clenched.
“The nurse who treated me that night took one look at my bruises and knew what had happened even though I claimed it was an accident.” Jessie let her top fall back into place, but he could still see the scar in his mind. “She convinced me to attend a support group with her. Between her help and the group, I left Jeremy soon after that and moved back in with my grandparents. By then though, I had already distanced myself from most of my friends and began suffering from depression. I started eating a lot and keeping to myself. It wasn’t until Charlie and I reconnected that she convinced me to see a therapist for the depression.”