When Bishop started to bring his lips to mine, I brought my hand up to stop him. “Trust me, you don’t want to do that.”

“You get sick or something?”

“Oh yeah. Big-time.”

He gave me a sympathetic smile. “Come on. Let’s get you out of here.”

“What about Rev?”

“I’ll tell him you need to get back.”

“But then he’ll have to ride by himself.”

Bishop chuckled. “He’s a big boy, Sam. He can make it home on his own. He rode all the way to Virginia in the middle of December by himself.”

“What in the hell would possess him to do that?”

“He was going to tell Annabel he loved her.”

“Damn, that’s romantic,” I mused.

“Yeah, Rev’s a deep guy. He’s a hell of a lot more romantic than I’ll ever be.”

“I don’t think that’s necessarily true.”

He cocked his eyebrows at me. “You got some crazy feat in mind to make me prove myself?”

I shook my head. “It doesn’t always have to be grand gestures. What you just did was pretty romantic.”

Bishop gave me a skeptical look. “I just came to look for you. I’d hardly call that really exceptional.”

“But you cared enough to be worried about me, and you came into the women’s bathroom to make sure I was all right.”

“Oh Jesus, I hadn’t even thought of that. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

I laughed as I let him drag me by the hand out the door. “I hate that I didn’t get to say good-bye to Ansley.”

“Don’t worry. She has plenty of support at the moment. Maybe I can get her address and you can send a card or something.”

Once again, I was touched by his compassion. “Thanks. I would like that.”

As we pushed through the plate-glass door, Bishop said, “I just can’t wait for that piece of shit to go to prison. He’ll get tortured in there for being a kiddie rapist.”

“You and me both.”

We spent the rest of the walk to the bikes in silence. When Bishop handed me my helmet, I said, “Thanks.”

“It’s just a helmet.”

I smiled. “No. I mean, thanks for bringing me here today and letting me be a part of what you guys were doing.”

“You’re welcome. And I was glad to have you along.” He planted a soft kiss on my lips. “I always like having you with me.”

“And I like being with you,” I replied. It was the truth. Regardless of the reasons why I had originally started hanging out with Bishop, I genuinely enjoyed his company. At first it had been more about friendship and now it was growing into something much more serious. Although I knew we were on dangerous ground, I didn’t want to worry about it. I just wanted to enjoy the moment.

But in the back of my mind, I knew my secrets couldn’t stay buried forever. You could live a double life of lies for only so long before it caught up with you and you had to pay the consequences.

I just never imagined how hard that would be.

When we got home, I was physically and emotionally wiped. On the ride home, I’d had too much time to relive painful memories from the past of my father and some of Gavin. While I knew I should head on home, I didn’t want to spend the rest of the day alone. Part of me argued that I should go in to work. That at the very least I needed to talk to Peterson about what I had learned so far about the Raiders.

As if he sensed the way I was feeling low, Bishop said, “Why don’t you hang around for a while? Stay the night. You can always get up early in the morning to go home before work.”

Normally, I would have been determined to deal with my problems on my own and not to rely on anyone else to get me through. But I didn’t do that. Instead, I kissed Bishop. “Thank you. I’d really like to stay.”

He smiled. “Good.”

“You’ll let me know when you get sick of me, won’t you?”

“I doubt that will ever happen, but if it does, I’ll be sure to let you know.” As he unlocked the front door, he asked, “Are you hungry?”

“I thought you didn’t have anything in the house to eat?”

“I don’t. But I’ll see if Mama Beth does.”

I laughed. “I think I’ll pass for now. I really just want to take a hot shower and then go to bed.” Bishop didn’t argue with me that it was only one in the afternoon. Instead, he just nodded.

Without another word to him, I cut through the bedroom and into the bathroom. After turning on the water, I stripped out of my clothes and dipped inside. The emotions of the day soon overwhelmed me. Placing my arms on the tile, I buried my head in the backs of my hands and sobbed.

The sound of the shower curtain opening startled me, and I whirled around. Bishop stepped into the shower. Swiping the tears away, I asked, “What are you doing?”

“Getting clean. What does it look like I’m doing?” He picked up the bar of soap and started scrubbing himself for good measure.

“You don’t have to do this.”

“Do what?”

“Pretend so I can save face.”

“I’m just here taking a shower.” He stared pointedly at me. “Unless you want to talk.”

Bringing my hands to my face, I moaned, “God, I hate myself for feeling this way.” As I peeked at him through my fingers, I added, “I hate letting you see me this way.”

Bishop drew me against his chest. “Don’t ever feel that way, Sam. I’m here for you no matter what. Today was a bad day for you. It triggered a lot of long-buried emotions. I totally get that, and I totally get you having some meltdowns today.”