Rodeo's hand closes around Teagan's when she slips it into his grip, her hand small but certainly not smooth in his. She's got the same busted knuckles and broken skin as him from fighting by his side. He looks down at their hands, his eyes adjusted to the darkness enough that he can see beyond the beam of the flashlight she's holding. His hand squeezes hers, steeling himself before he says anything.
"I been... seein' somebody," he says. It's strange to be admitting this to Teagan. She's such a part of his life, so deeply ingrained in his day-to-day, that he's got no doubt it's a shock to hear him admit this. The idea that he could have gotten so wrapped up to be heartsick over an outsider, so far gone on a woman who he never even brought to camp to meet his family, is likely to throw her. He knows all this, and yet he knows just as surely that she will understand the fears that made him hide so much of himself from Lita, made him keep her at arm's length from his true nature and his infamous identity. T knows the tenderness of his heart and how easy it is for him to revert to feeling like an forsaken son, knows too how he will always believe he's not worthy of love. He thinks she will know why he lied and hid so much.
"I been meetin' up with a gal the past couple months. She... she's a doctor at UMCB. I met her back when I was lookin' for help for Wheeler, and... I mean, I never told her who I was. I thought at first, since she was helpin' me, that it was best she didn't know who she was helpin'. But then I wanted to see her again. And again. And I kept lyin', because I liked... I liked her. I wanted her to like me too. I wanted to be the kinda man she'd want. The kinda man worthy of her. But I'm not. M'not either of those things. And now she knows."