And I had?—
“I don’t think you have to be out in the world to know it,” I said. “My standards aren’t…” I paused, thinking about how I wanted to say this. “You don’t give yourself enough credit. You’re a good man, even compared to anyone I could meet out there. And Forrest, I haven’t seen the rest of the world, but Iknow it. I know cruelty. I know evil.”
He didn’t say anything. I kept going.
“I know what it feels like when someone looks at you like you’re nothing, what it feels like when someone takes from you without asking. I know the difference between a man who sees me and a man who thinks he owns me.” I looked at him. “Yousee me, Forrest. And we haven’t known each other long, but…I do trust you. I know you care about me. That’s everything.”
He was quiet.
The road curved, Holt Creek coming up fast. The car ride felt interminably long and much, much too short. There were toomany things to say, and I was terrified that if we got out of this car without getting everything on the table, I would lose him.
Then he cursed under his breath.
“No fucking way.”
I followed his gaze forward toward the gate, squinting to make out what he was looking at…and I recognized the trucks right away.
Two of them—both from the Daley homestead.
My husband was blocking the way in.
Forrest stopped in the middle of the country road, jaw tensed. “We should turn around,” he said.
“No,” I said. “I’m not afraid. I’m not going to let him blockour home.”
Forrest’s breath had gotten harsher, his face flushed. “You sure?”
“Positive.”
He steeled himself, squared his shoulders…and put his foot on the gas again.
We pulled up just like we would’ve if no one was there; as if these men were strangers, as if I wasn’t coming face to face with the man who had stolen my girlhood like he had any right to it. Forrest rolled down his window and leaned out just a bit, confronting Shepherd Daley without a second thought.
“You’re gonna need to move,” Forrest said. “This isn’t a parking lot.”
Daley ignored him, looking right past him at me.
“Willa,” he said. “You need to come home.”
“I’m trying to get home right now,” I said, lifting my chin. “You’re in the way.”
Daley ignored me too; he didn’t care what either of us said.
“You’re confused,” he said. “You’ve been confused since you left. That’s not your fault—these people have filled your head with?—”
“She said she’s home,” Forrest said flatly. Nowmove your truck.”
Daley’s eyes finally moved to Forrest in this slow, assessing look I knew too well—a look he’d taken when any of us talked back to him, like he knew exactly who was in charge here.
This time, though? This time he was wrong.
“This doesn’t concern you,” he said.
“It concerns me when a lady tells someone what she wants and they completely fucking ignore her,” Forrest said. “Youconcern me.”
Daley’s eyes flicked past me, then back.
“Willa.” His voice dropped, smooth-talking like it wasn’t a threat. “Your place is with your family. You know that.”
