His eyes snapped up. “Mona came over? Did she say anything to you?” Reggie’s mama was old fashioned. The kind who would see him dating a white girl as a betrayal of his family and the whole neighborhood.

Andra glanced away, pushing a stray strand of hair back over her ear. “I just thought the cup thing was weird. That’s all.”

That wasn’t an answer at all, which meant whatever Mona had said, it probably hadn’t been kind.

“Come over here.” LJ scooted back to straddle the bench, crooking a finger to beckon her closer. His chest swelled a little bit when she didn’t hesitate, kicking a leg over and sitting down so their knees touched. “You’re my girl,” he whispered, and touched the end of her nose. “You can have any cup in my house. You got that?”

Her eyes warmed, and she poked him in the side. “If I’m your girl, then stop running away from me every time you get mad.”

“I’m trying. I just don’t quite get it.”

“Get what? Communication?”

He picked up her wrists, cupping them in his hands. “I guess I don’t get how I keep triggering those attacks if you’re not afraid of me.”

“I told you, I don’t control those. It’s just a second of anything that’s like the kidnapping, and then I’m just gone.”

She was right. She’d said it before. But maybe he just hadn’t been in the right frame of mind to listen. Thinking about it now, he realized there were a lot of things about himself he couldn’t control, either.

He skimmed his thumbs over her wrists. “You know, when it rains, I can’t sleep. If the wind is blowing, I get twitchy, anxious. There have been times during hurricane season when I got so drunk I couldn’t even stand up, so I didn’t have to hear the wind.”

The way she’d hit the floor during that very first panic attack . . . it reminded him of something he hadn’t thought about in years.

“When I was about nineteen,” he said slowly, “there was a car crash.”

Andra’s breath hitched, but he shook his head, not looking up from their hands.

“I wasn’t in it. I was just walking along the street, and the crash was so loud. Just like the levee breaking. I fell down, and for a second I was drowning on dry ground.”

She rubbed her thumb softly over his hand and didn’t interrupt. He had planned on stopping there, but now he heard the embarrassing words spilling out, stuff he’d never told a girl before.

“I was balled up on the sidewalk, hands over my head. This lady half my size helped me up. Dusted me off, didn’t say a word. She must have been in Katrina, too. She knew.”