Chapter 14: Deep Water

Gill's POV

Ronan came home at dusk with his jaw locked.

He said nothing until he had shut the garage and rolled up to where I stood at the glass doors.

"It was her," he said. "She was driving."

"I know," I said. "I knew when I saw the seat."

He looked at me, braced for something.

"Say what you're thinking," he said.

"I'm thinking you let them call you a drunk for two years."

"I did."

"I'm thinking people came up to you at dinners and told you how sorry they were, and you said thank you."

"Yes."

"And I'm thinking I'd like to put Camille through that wall."

He laughed, once, startled.

"She asked me to hold it," he said. "Until she decides to say it herself. I told her I'd think."

"Then think fast." I crouched in front of his chair. "I'm not asking you to break it today. I'm asking you not to carry it alone tonight."

His hand came up and rested on my hair.

"I stayed quiet for a roof once," I said. "I know what it costs to keep your mouth shut for somebody else's sake."

"What did it cost?"

"Six weeks, and a dress that wasn't mine." I turned my face into his palm. "You paid two years. Come outside."

The pool lights were on, and the water lay still and green under the dark.

He had never asked me to watch him swim at night.

He stopped the chair at the edge and set the brake, and he looked up at me.

"In the water I'm not in this thing," he said. "I thought you should know where I'm happiest."

"Then I'm coming in."

I took off my clothes where I stood.

He watched every piece come off, and his breathing changed.

"Come here," he said, rough. "Sit on the edge."

I sat on the cool tile with my feet in the water.

He swung out of the chair onto the edge beside me.

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