Deeper Healing

44| All A Lie

Leilani Edwards

I took a small sip of my smoothie, my eyes wandering to Nikolai's barely touched cup.

The way his eyes were cast forward, lost in whatever he'd been thinking of for the past ten minutes since we sat on this park bench, confirmed he had a lot on his mind. He was barely speaking or giving me those frequent stolen glances I enjoyed.

I sighed softly, my shoulders dropping.

It had been at least an hour since we left the holiday house and taken a twenty-minute drive to the closest park we could find to discuss a couple of things we couldn't discuss back at that house. 

Carlos had confirmed it'd been heavily bugged and whoever had pulled this entire thing had probably watched our every move and listened to our conversations.

Right now, the mystery of who was trying to fuck up my life was at the back of my mind.

I had Nikolai dominating my thoughts and trying to figure out what he was thinking. He'd seen that photo with my mom and Blake. Their relationship was one truth I hadn't dared to open up to him about.

He was smart and his judgement was nearly impeccable. He must have made the story out from the photo or at least had doubts. I didn't know what he was thinking and it was killing me.

I didn't want to hide things from him after all the progress we'd made in trusting each other and building a strong foundation for our friendship. I just didn't feel confident enough to tell my story out loud and shift the energy between us.

I shifted my gaze back to him, appreciating his behaviour with me since we'd met and the way he handled me and every drama that came with this fucked up existence.

Assuming things and guessing his reaction to the situation didn't seem fair. He deserved better from me after the way he'd taken care of me and understood me well in the past couple of weeks.

There was always a better way to things than silence and assumptions and in this situation, I was willing to take the first step and reach out to him.

I placed my hand on his shoulder and leaned my chin against it, softly looking at him as he turned to face me.

Despite Carlos sitting across the table between us, I felt comfortable with the proximity between Nikolai and I. By now he knew we weren't ordinary friends. I wasn't going to stick my tongue down his throat in front of him anyway, so I felt okay leaning in.

"You don't like the smoothie?" I asked him in a murmur, gesturing at the cup with my brows.

Nikolai put his hand around my waist, gently pulling me closer to him as the wonder in his eyes faded away and he gave me his full attention.

"The smoothie is great," he responded with a smile, tucking my hair behind my ear with a light graze of his index finger against my skin. "I'm sorry for not paying attention. I had something on my mind."

I hummed, slipping my hand off his shoulder before leaning my elbow against the table. "A penny for your thoughts?"

Nikolai adjusted his sitting position, tilting himself so he could face me at a better angle. "I don't know, but I feel like something isn't right. Why would Jennifer be so careless if she put that much effort into covering up everything?"

The broken heels were certainly hers. They were a special limited edition that Blake had gotten her for her fiftieth birthday a few weeks ago.

She'd walked a red carpet in them for an event and people had gone crazy over them, me included, though it had been in secret.