Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 63842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
“You were surviving,” Rip said quietly.
“I should have warned Mia.” Shame burned hot behind my eyes. “I knew what he was, and I still led my best friend right to him. And when he told me to --” I stopped, swallowing hard. “When he told me to sleep with him in her bed, I did it. Because I was too fucking terrified not to.”
“Fear’s a hell of a leash,” Rip said, his voice low and rough.
“That doesn’t excuse what I did to Mia.”
“No,” he agreed. “But it explains why you did it.”
I wiped my eyes with the edge of the blanket. “I can’t believe I just told you all that.”
“Sometimes it’s easier to talk to a stranger.” He covered my hand with his. I’d never moved my own and it still rested on his.
The garden gate creaked open then, and I snatched my hand back. Fresh from the panic attack, I reacted on instinct. If Eric had known I’d touched another man for any reason, the beating might not be survivable. Penny and her twin daughters entered, the girls chattering to each other. Penny stopped short when she saw us sitting by the fountain.
“Sorry,” she said quickly. “We didn’t mean to interrupt. The girls wanted to check on their tomato plants.”
I forced a watery smile, trying to look like a person who hadn’t just shared her deepest trauma with a man she barely knew. “It’s fine. We were just talking.”
Zelda, the more outspoken twin, eyed Rip with unabashed curiosity. “All the guys here went to jail. What’d you go in for? Did you kill somebody?” she asked without preamble.
“Zelda!” Penny hissed, mortified.
“What?” Zelda gave her mother an exasperated look. “It’s true! Tiny said so. Everyone here has done something to go to prison. But they all had good reasons.” She added the last like it justified whatever anyone here had done. “It’s not like there ain’t people who need to be beat up.”
“Zelda, honey, we don’t --”
“Yes,” Rip answered simply, meeting the girl’s gaze without flinching.
Zelda raised her eyebrows in surprise. “I didn’t expect you to actually admit to it.”
Rip shrugged. “Like you said. Ain’t no secret. Besides. I don’t lie.”
“Zelda, that’s enough,” Penny said firmly.
“It’s OK,” Rip said to Penny. “The kids need to know they can come to any of us for anything and we’ll protect them. Not hurt them.” He held Zelda’s gaze steadily. “No matter what we’ve done in our pasts.”
“Did you have to fight a lot?” Zelda pressed. “Mom says sometimes you have to fight even when you don’t want to.”
Rip’s expression softened slightly. “Sometimes. I don’t recommend it. Better to avoid it when you can.”
“But you can’t always,” Zelda said with the grim certainty of someone much older.
“No,” Rip agreed. “Not always.”
Kira, who had been silent until now, suddenly spoke. “Do you think plants remember the people who water them?” she asked, staring at the garden beds. “Like, do they have favorites?”
The complete change of topic hung in the air for a moment before Rip answered with complete seriousness. “Think they might,” he said. “Everything wants to be treated well.”
A sound like a part laugh, part sob escaped me, startling even myself. It felt foreign, that small moment of unexpected lightness breaking through the heaviness of the past hour. The seriousness with which Rip treated Kira’s question made my heart squeeze. I never knew there were men like the ones here. Every single one of them, no matter how big and scary looking, no matter what they’d done in their pasts or how violent they could be if necessary, treated everyone in Haven with care and respect.
Penny grinned at me. She’d been in my position. I didn’t know Penny, her daughters, or their story. But I recognized her overall look. Because I saw it every single time I looked in a mirror. Only Penny had escaped her hell. I hadn’t even started to believe I might be able to escape.
“We’re about to check on our carrots too,” Penny said, gesturing toward a different garden bed. “Would you like to see? Kira’s become quite the gardener.”
For a moment, I hesitated, caught between the raw vulnerability of my conversation with Rip and this simple, normal invitation. Then I nodded, letting the blanket slip from my shoulders as I stood on shaky legs.
“I’d like that,” I said, and was surprised to discover I meant it.
Penny and the girls led me to their garden. It wasn’t large, but there were five tomato plants, along with leaf lettuce, carrots, radishes, and one cucumber plant. The small plot wasn’t neat by any means. The rows were crooked and there were a few weeds in the rows, but the plants looked healthy and the tomatoes even had several very small green tomatoes set on the vines.
As I knelt in the soil with the girls and let them show me every single plant, I soaked up the positive attention. How long had it been since I’d had a conversation with anyone without expecting to be beaten down, either physically or verbally? Too long apparently.