One to Save (One to Hold 6)

“Good grief.” My friend flops back against the couch. “Don’t tell daddy.”

Lane goes back to engine noises, and I chew on my sour straw. “I thought Kenny was lactose intolerant.”

“Goat’s milk doesn’t bother her. It’s been life changing, apparently. She eats goat ice cream and chévre nonstop now.” I exhale a little laugh, and Lainey’s green eyes blink to me. “So what the heck could’ve spoiled your romantic getaway?”

Leaning beside her on the sofa, I straighten my legs and rest my heels on the coffee table next to hers. “I’m probably overreacting.”

She kicks my leg again. “Spill!”

“Ow!” I cry. “You’re so violent.”

“Mel.”

With a loud groan, I just say it. “He’s keeping something from me again, and it’s kind of making me crazy.”

“Oh, shit.” Elaine’s eyes narrow.

Lane’s little head pops up again. “Mommy, bad word!”

“Mommy said spit,” my best friend casually corrects him.

I can’t help noting the obvious. “Lane’s pretty good at spotting the swear words all of a sudden.”

“It’s Patrick!” she shrieks, slapping her leg. “I said he swore too much, and now all he does is point out when I drop a bomb. I’m ready to kill him!”

That makes me grin. “I love him.”

Her bottom lip goes under her front teeth, and she wriggles out an arm to squeeze me. “I know. Now finish telling me what happened.”

With a sigh, I lean back. “Derek is wonderful and attentive and sexy... and I can’t take how he hides things. It’s like this invisible shield or something, and it’s too... It reminds me too much of living with Sloan. I lived so long in his house of secrets and lies. I just... I can’t do it again, Lainey.”

We’re both quiet, and in my peripheral vision, I see her chewing a sour straw as she thinks. “I get that,” she says quietly. A few more moments pass and she adds, “but you know, the grass isn’t really greener. Now that we’re married, Patrick wants to tell me all this sh-spit he’s working on. You know, because wives can’t testify against their husbands?”

“Yeah?” I can’t hide the eagerness burning in my chest that she might know something.

“I don’t. Want. To know!” She waves her hands over her head. “I’m married to the master of pushing the limits. He’s driving me crazy with worry!”

That gives me pause. I sit back and think a moment. I remember my request from Patrick—the promise I’d asked him to make to keep Derek from doing anything “hazardous or potentially life threatening” as Patrick put it.

“I guess that makes sense,” I say quietly.

“We both love Patrick, but oh my god. He takes too many chances.”

Shaking my head, I catch her hand. “It’s not like that. Derek and Patrick are different people, they have different styles.” Searching for the right words, I just say what’s eating up my thoughts. “Derek’s hidden stuff from me before, and it hurt when I found out. It hurt badly.”

My friend’s eyes are round as she turns to me, all teasing gone. “Derek loves you, Melissa.”

“I know that. I know.” Pushing up I go and pull Dex out of his baby chair, ignoring his complaints as I strip off his pajamas. “I’m not a little girl, Elaine. I don’t want a daddy. I want a partner. I want someone who views me as an equal, not someone who keeps things from me—even if he does believe it’s for my own good.”

The best part about having the same best friend since childhood is sharing a deep understanding of each other. Her expression is serious as she watches me. “Have you told him that?”

“No,” I confess, standing my son in front of me and pulling his jeans over the puff of his new diaper. He’s content to let me change him so long as he can see his trains. “He should know how I feel by now. We’ve already been through this.”

“Wait.” My best friend holds her hands up. “Are you saying a male should know how you feel? Is that what I’m hearing you say?”

“Lainey.” I can’t suppress my irritation. “This is Derek.”

She shakes her head, her light blonde hair spilling over her shoulders. “Who happens to be the most manly male we know? Except for maybe Stuart?”