The Secret Between Them. Cathryn Parry

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СКАЧАТЬ “Yeah, I’ve been thinking about it, too.” He frowned into his coffee. “Honestly, Jess, I wonder if I even know you sometimes. You get so closed up tight that I have no idea what you’re thinking.”

      She expelled a breath. She’d been hearing that most of her adult life. She made a small laugh. “I don’t want to be like that with...the man I hope to marry.”

      Sebastien froze for a moment.

      “You did make hints,” Jessica said gently, setting down the mug. “At Christmas. You asked what kind of engagement rings I preferred.”

      Sebastien nodded. She couldn’t read his face exactly, but he took her hand in his.

      “I don’t want to be a controlling person,” she continued, “so I didn’t push. I know better than most what it’s like to be pushed. My mother...” She paused.

      “It’s pretty obvious this funeral is stirring something up in you. That’s all I wanted to know about last night.”

      She removed her hand from his and smoothed her skirt. It was more than Joe’s death and Kyle’s presence that was bothering her. It was as if she’d been propelled into the past, feeling helpless and broken again.

      “You never explained this Joe person to me,” Sebastien said. “And there’s a will reading? Are you inheriting something from him?”

      “I don’t know.” She stood and paced, irritated with herself. “I’m sorry. I’m just...I don’t like to talk about the past or my family.” She glanced at him. “Honestly, you don’t like to talk about yours, either. And I’ve never pushed you about it. I assumed that was part of why we get along so well.”

      He smiled gently. “I’ll tell you anything you want to know about them. Later.”

      Okay. She couldn’t get out of this conversation. She had to go there and trust that he’d be fine with it.

      “So...you know how I used to be a figure skater?” she said. “Well, I trained at the Wallis Point Twin Rinks. Did you know that?”

      He grinned at her. “It’s on your Wikipedia page, Jess. Your skating career is pretty much an open book.”

      She winced. She hadn’t ever thought about that, though she supposed it made sense. The big thing she’d loved about Sebastien was that he never pressed her about those days, specifically that one incident that strangers still occasionally came up to her and offered sympathy for.

      “You were America’s sweetheart,” Sebastien said. “You got injured and had to pull out of your final competition just before the Olympic Games. When you cried on live television, everybody in the country cried along with you.”

      Jessica sat down again. “That was a really bad time in my life, Sebastien.”

      “I can imagine. It’s why I never asked you about it.” He sipped his coffee and gazed at her over the rim of his mug. “I thought you were over it. You never bring it up, so I assumed...”

      She’d honestly thought the pain and guilt had dissolved, too. Until Joe had shown up in her physical therapy office and then had written her into his will. Kyle coming home had been her tipping point.

      She closed her eyes, overcome with guilt so sharp it stabbed into her solar plexus. She felt dragged right back to age seventeen. Crushed. Under everyone’s thumb, panicked and alone, and handling the situation all wrong. She’d better pull herself out of that place if she hoped to salvage all that she’d so painstakingly built for herself since then.

      Sebastien eyed her. “What’s wrong?”

      “I...need to tell you about something that probably isn’t on my Wikipedia page.” She took a deep breath. Her hands were trembling just anticipating telling him.

      Sebastien set down his coffee mug. All his attention—love and concern—on her.

      That gave her the courage she needed. “People don’t know this...and I actually promised myself to never tell anyone, but...” She had to do this. Had to bring Sebastien back to her again. “I went to a lawyer shortly after my injury, when I was still seventeen, to look into being legally emancipated from my mother.” She wiped her eyes with her thumb. “You have to understand, Sebastien, my mother was my only family. She and I were...well, I was exhausted and I couldn’t please her anymore. For a lot of reasons I had to separate myself from her, and that one drastic step changed my whole life and not necessarily in the best way.”

      She stared at her black skirt, hoping her Wikipedia page wasn’t specific enough to clue Sebastien into what was missing. Kyle’s role. Which would only lead to a secret she could never divulge to anyone.

      Instead, she reached for the other, lesser thing that bothered her. “I think I’m kind of screwed up because I have to go back into that same law firm again on Monday. I think it’s messing with my head. That’s all,” she finished.

      “Why? Why are you getting an inheritance from this rink owner? Is he your secret father or something?”

      “No!” She laughed aloud, relieved. “He was a client. Like you were,” she teased. “That’s how I connected with him again after so long. He mentioned a ring he wanted to give me—an inexpensive onyx ring. Maybe he was just sentimental about the old ice rink days, but like you, I’m not.” She shivered. “Anyway, I’m considering not going to the will reading. I don’t want to go back into that law office. I know it’s silly, I know the law firm is run by the daughter and not the father anymore, but still—”

      “Do you want me to take off work, go with you to see the lawyer on Monday?” Sebastien asked. “For moral support?”

      “You would do that?” she asked, surprised. Sebastien’s job always came first.

      “Of course.”

      “I...yeah.” She smiled at him, grateful. “Please do come to the lawyer’s office.”

      “Great. It’s settled.” He patted the seat beside him. “You want to hang out today?”

      “I thought you had to work?”

      “It can wait. I’d rather spend the day with you.”

      That was a change. She felt so much better. “Thanks for not giving up on me.”

      “No worries,” Sebastien said. “You know you can trust me.”

      She hoped she could. She really did.

      Because if she couldn’t, she didn’t have anyone else.

       CHAPTER THREE

      THE KIMBALL FAMILY Law Firm was in the same old brick building that Kyle remembered from his youth. Natalie’s father, Asa, had run the law firm back then. Now he was retired and spent the winters in Florida, leaving Natalie in charge.

      A receptionist in heavy-framed glasses met Kyle in the lobby and offered him water or coffee while he waited. Kyle chose water. The receptionist—Zena—settled him in an empty conference room at СКАЧАТЬ