Bailey’s POV
Laila didn’t answer me right away and the silence stretched long enough that I almost regretted asking, she looked like someone who had been handed a fragile thing she did not want to drop, her fingers twisting together in her lap, her gaze fixed on the wooden floor like waiting for it to open up and swallow her.
“If you don’t want to tell me,” I said finally, softening my voice, “you really don’t have to.”
She shook her head quickly. “It’s not that I don’t want to,” she said, then paused, then corrected herself, “it’s that I don’t know if I should.”
“I won’t repeat it to anyone,” I promised, leaning forward slightly so she would look at me, “and I won’t use it against anyone either.”
Her lips pressed together tightly, then she let out a long breath. “It was only somethin
