Chapter 36

So they had lain next to each other throughout what was left of the night, silent, tense, and not sleeping. Arliss must have drifted off at some point to awaken to the surprise of being alone in the bed.

And now he was frightened of going out in that living room, of seeing Sean sitting there, sad, in the wan light of dawn…just sitting there. Arliss would know he was somehow responsible—justified or not—for his man’s pain. That fact tore him up inside. Hurting the one you loved was worse than hurting yourself, and that was a lesson Arliss was maybe just learning for the first time.

But he had to face him. The longer they spent with Arliss in here stewing and Sean out there stewing, the more time it would take to make things right.