I dropped my elbows to my knees. I smoothed open the first sheet of paper and handed it to her. “This is a list of ideas I’ve been working on to save the park and keep Oswald Properties from buying it. I have no idea if they’ll work. But while I was researching, I saw so much evidence of what you always talked about. People doing the right thing without being asked. Neighbors helping neighbors. Communities fighting for their rights. No wonder you love what you do, Tabitha. And I’m sorry about being so pessimistic and unhelpful yesterday. I’m sure I came off as an asshole.”

Tabitha’s lips quirked. “You’re not an asshole, Mr. Machine. No matter how hard you scowl.”

I rubbed a hand down my jaw, grateful for her teasing after a day without it. “It still wasn’t fair to you to leave you hanging. To walk off, pissed, while you rallied the block.” I tapped the edge of the sheet. “I’d like to talk to you about some of the ideas. See what we can do, even if you’re in Austin. If a condo gets built there, I know we’ll all be disappointed. We could go back to the drawing board and start a new community project though. Long as we don’t give up.”

She laughed, sounding delighted. “Actually, you don’t have —”

I gently touched her knee. “If it’s okay, I’ll lose my nerve if I don’t say the next part. I’ve been practicing all morning.”

Her eyes searched mine as I swallowed past a knot of fear in my throat. Tabitha clasped my hand in hers, shifting until we were pressed together. The knot loosened. “Go ahead,” she said.

It was time to leap.

“I don’t really have words for how sorry I am about yesterday and everything I said before rushing off to that meeting. Especially since you’d shared so much. About your mom, what she did to you. I know being open about stuff like that is like your worst nightmare.”

Her eyes shone, but one corner of her mouth lifted. “Like the Lavender Center all over again.”

I squeezed her hand. “Exactly. And right after you told me, I took that call from Harry, angry and out of it. Everything happened so fast then. With the park. With the Vegas job. I never got to say thank you for allowing me to know something so private and painful. You’re incredibly brave, Tabitha, and strong in a way I don’t think you see.”

This had bothered me all damn day—a nagging feeling that one of the many things I’d done yesterday morning was be a shitty friend and listener. There were rules in our support group to acknowledge how raw people felt after sharing. Raw and usually scared.

I’d stormed off and left her there.