Free The Truth Be Told (The Truth in Lies Saga #3) by Jeanne McDonald

followed those events.” My voice cracked, revealing my overwhelming emotions.  I touched the side of his face with my knuckles, stroking ever so gently.  “He’s arrogant, stubborn, sometimes childish, and impulsive.”  Eyes narrowed, his mouth dropped and his brow furrowed.  It took everything inside me not to laugh, yet I continued. “He’s also kind, caring, gentle, understanding, brilliant, and deep down, he’s stronger than any person I’ve ever met.  Yes, you faced tragedy, but without those tragedies, we would’ve never found one another.”
    Cocooned in Drew’s arms, I felt the weight of the regrets he carried.  I reached around his back, my hands wrapping upward to grip his shoulders.  “I don’t deserve you,” he muttered.
    “You deserve me as much as I deserve you.”
    Drew squeezed me tighter.  If it didn’t feel so good to be held by him, I might’ve complained.  “You remember that first day on the beach?”
    I smiled at the memory of the first time I encountered Drew.  He seemed so sure of himself, running, more like strutting, across the white sands of Siesta Key Beach.  His wicked smile would be forever etched in my memory.  Little did I know, he was as lost as I was that day.  Both searching for redemption, peace, and truth, along with the other half of our souls.
    “I do.”
    Drew released me to breathe.  I pulled back to find a smile starting to bloom over his handsome face.  He traced my bottom lip with the pad of his thumb in the gentlest of manners.  It almost felt as if he would stop breathing if he weren’t touching me in some way.  “And that night at Olivia’s house?”
    “You mean the night I broke up with Nate.”
    At the sound of my ex’s name, Drew’s nose flared.  “That’s the one.”
    “Of course I remember it.  You saved my life that night.”
    Drew leaned forward, pressing his lips to mine.  “No.  You saved mine.  You didn’t know then, but it’s true.”
    For the longest time, we sat under that willow talking about the past.  The mid-afternoon sun hung high in the sky, baring its truth on the world below.  Drew told me about his childhood.  He loved his mother, but he struggled to understand her.  His father and he never got along.  When he was a young boy, Niles doted on him, and that seemed to rile his father even more.  “Truth be told, I was the reason Niles was exiled from our lives,” he said.  
    “How so?”
    “I can’t remember everything that happened.  I was young.  Maybe seven or eight.  Possibly younger.”  I slid off Drew’s lap and curled up in a ball in the curve of his side.  His arm draped over my shoulders as he rubbed his forehead, trying to force a memory that wasn’t quite there.  “All I remember is my father and Niles yelling and my name being mentioned several times.  My mother cried so hard when my father informed Niles he wasn’t welcome back into our home.  After that, I didn’t see him again until I was accepted into Harvard.  To be honest, I hated my father for exiling him.  Niles treated me as if I were special.  He treated all three of us kids as if we were important.”
    “That doesn’t mean you were the reason.  There has to be something more.”
    In an attempt to come off indifferent, Drew gave a nonchalant shrug.  “Who knows, but what I do know is that this is your first time in Boston and there has to be at least a half dozen places you wish to see.  Where would you like to go next?  You name it.”
    I placed some distance between Drew and me, contemplating his suggestion.  Boston was a place of history.  To see the Old North Church or the Bunker Hill Monument would be amazing, but there was one place I wanted to visit above any other.  Not just for me, but for Drew.  The only problem was, I didn’t quite know how to suggest it to him.
    “Um, well…”  I rubbed the back of my neck, nervous.  “Maybe you should pick,” I suggested.  
    “Mick,” Drew