“It’s very wise for anyone to figure that out, Sebring,” I told him. “No one likes feeling left out and you were too young to get that what they shared was not something you’d want to be a part of. They were just your family and you didn’t fit. It hurts not to fit, most especially with family. So of course that’s all you’d feel until you were mature enough to sort that out.”

“I took it too far and it lasted too long,” he muttered, gaze to his fingers twirling my hair.

“Yes, you took it too far but that’s only unforgiveable if it genuinely lasted too long. You’re the man you are now. They know that. You’re in each other’s lives. So it obviously didn’t last too long.”

He looked to me and the warmth making his blue eyes liquid felt like it settled in my soul.

“What’s that about wise?” he asked softly.

That settled in my soul too.

His voice still soft and now gentle, he asked, “You know how it feels not to fit, don’t you, baby?”

We were doing what Nick said we’d do. Taking it easy. Taking our time. Figuring it out. Not pushing it. Just living it. Getting used to each other.

Giving me that, since we started again, this was the first time he took things someplace heavy.

We needed to share. We needed to figure it out.

Even so, when he asked questions like that, I knew he already got me.

I shrugged to indicate he was right. “Ever the pessimist, I sensed a long time ago that wouldn’t happen and gave up wanting it.”

That tendril of my hair wrapped around his finger, he stroked my jaw with it, his tone still gentle but now also careful. “That scar your dad’s way of tryin’ to make you fit?”

He’d given me what he’d given me, something nobody knew about the Sebrings. In giving it, he’d been thorough, honest, and quite a bit of it wasn’t pretty.

In-depth detail like that of their lives and histories would be all over if it was there to be had. It was detail that gave insight about why Knight did what he did. It explained the history the brothers shared. None of it put him or his brother in jeopardy but any information could be used in a variety of ways.

But this information, bottom line, wasn’t anybody’s business.

Nick had given it to me. Open and frank, he’d just given it to me, handing me parts of him that in our world could be twisted into weapons that could be used to hurt him, Knight, Anya, his family.

He’d given it to me.

Trusted me.

And that meant everything.

“I ran away with Tommy,” I declared.