I’m not sure he realizes it, but he is—there’s a fine tremor running through his whole body and it’s ripping me to pieces. I want to tell him to forget it. That he doesn’t need to tell me. That I don’t need to know. But it wouldn’t be the truth. Because whatever he’s keeping inside him, whatever happened with him and Dylan and Janet, is tearing him apart. I know the signs, have been living with them myself for fourteen months. The fact that he’s been living with his secret for ten years…I can’t imagine what kind of damage something like that does. No wonder he’s a control freak. “I’ve known—” He starts, but then breaks off before he can say anything important. Pulls me closer still, then rests his cheek on the top of my head. We’re so close now that I can feel the frantic beating of his heart against my own, can feel his trembling inside myself. “It’s okay, baby,” I tell him. “I promise. There’s nothing you can tell me that I can’t handle.”
