He grunted in reply, as though his mind had been wandering and he hadn't heard her the first time.

“Where do we go from here?” she reiterated. “You and me.”

After a lengthy pause, “I wish I knew.”

“I know it's the worst timing in the world, with my mom like she is...”

“I wish there was something more I could do about that,” he replied.

She relaxed her hold on him a tad. They were both still naked, but the breeze was growing persistent; it had cooled her sweat quickly within just a few short minutes, goosing her flesh. “What do you mean—something more?”

He let her relax her hold, didn't try to reaffirm his own. “A part of me wants to throw caution to the wind, Rose. Let the chips fall where they may.”

“And the rest of you?”

“It's...not as straightforward as that. I'd be lying if I said there wouldn't be consequences to my staying on afterward...with you.”

“What's wrong with me?”

“Nothing. That's just it,” said Bellamy. “You're so right for me, and I don't want to lose you. Just the mere thought of it…”

“Then don't. Stay on.” She brushed his tousled blonde hair away from his brow with the backs of her fingers. “Or I could go to you. There's nothing stopping us.” But there was. She didn't know what it was, and he wasn't telling her, but sooner or later it was going to hurt. Otherwise he'd have come clean by now.

Bellamy said nothing in reply to her rambling. He was in a quandary. But she couldn't help him through it if she didn't know the first thing about it.

“You take your work seriously,” she said. “I respect that. You don't want to compromise your relationship with your client. I totally get it.”

“You do?”

“Uh-huh,” she lied. “You feel like you're betraying her trust, going behind her back like this, getting it on with her daughter while she's...you know.”

“Partly. But that isn't it.”

“Then what is it? You can tell me. Whatever it is, I'll understand.”

He snatched a glance at her out of the corner of his eye, then gazed skyward through the swaying branches, the sighing leaves. “I don't think you can understand. Even I don't fully understand it all.”