Page 44 of Inexplicable

“Are you going to share?” he asked.

“Not a chance,” I answered saucily. “If you share your secret wishes, they don’t come true.”

“Is that the way it works?” he asked.

“Yes,” I told him.

“Not even a small hint?” he teased.

“Absolutely not.”

“Then I guess I’m just going to have to hope that your wish had something to do with us. Are your scars the reason why you’ve isolated yourself so much? Just for your info, I think those scars look bigger to you than they really are, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. I understand why you’re self-conscious. I just want to tell you how I feel. Your scars are a symbol of your strength to me, and how much shit you’ve had to overcome. They remind me how extraordinary you are, and there’s nothing ugly about them to me. Marshall said you had no one to contact when you were in the hospital. And it took a week for anyone to notice that you were missing.”

I thought about my isolation for a moment. My scars were one of the reasons for my solitude, but not the only one.

“Yes and no,” I shared. “I guess I’ve never really given most people a chance because of my trust issues. And I don’t reach out because of my scars. Nina has vitiligo, so we bonded from the beginning because we understood what it was like to be less than perfect in Southern California. Let’s face it, physical appearance plays a prominent role there because of the entertainment industry and other factors. Sometimes women who aren’t the physical ideal just don’t fit in. I guess I just learned to like my own company after Nina left because it was safer.”

We were quiet for a while, but the silence wasn’t uncomfortable.

We scanned the sky, occasionally pointing out meteors or something unusual.

At some point, the hypnotic glow of the night sky made me sleepy and my eyes closed.

I was drowsy when Brock picked me up and cuddled me against his chest. “Time for bed, my little stargazer,” he said gruffly as he walked toward the house.

I wrapped my arm around his neck, too sleepy to protest.

“Thank you,” I murmured.

“For what?” he asked.

“For watching the stars with me,” I said simply.

He’d probably never understand that his actions meant something to me.

He wanted to share something I loved, and his genuine desire to just spend time with me touched my heart.

I usually did everything solo.

“Come find me anytime you want to do it again,” he instructed as he locked the sliding door behind him.

My heart squeezed hard inside my chest as he carried me upstairs.

Chapter 12

Brock

Iwas a light sleeper from years of sleeping in dicey situations, so I woke when I heard my bedroom door open about an hour or so before dawn.

When I opened my eyes, I could barely make out Jenna’s form walking across the room to the bed.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, suddenly wide awake and wondering why she was up in the middle of the night.

I turned on the bedside light, and my eyes immediately focused on Jenna.

She was dressed in a pair of sleep shorts and a lightweight tee.

She’d obviously woken up at some point and changed after I’d carried her upstairs and to her bed earlier.