Page 92 of His Wounded Heart

She nods. My lips twitch. I can’t help it; she’s so cute when she’s trying not to say anything.

“Can you understand why it’s a huge deal for you to be open and honest with me with your feelings? I’m not turned off by your crying, I celebrate it.”

Her mouth opens, but nothing comes out.

“Talking to you has also opened my eyes on why things didn’t work with my ex-wife. I always thought I was to blame. My job. The way I couldn’t tell her what I was doing. But I see now that she never opened up with me either. Hell, Trenda, you and I have been together a total of what, twenty-two, maybe twenty-five hours, and we’ve hit a lot of emotions, both low and high. I feel like I know you better than I ever knew my wife, and that’s on her. I look back on things and I know I tried to get her to open up, but she didn’t. I realize now, that was part of the reason she married me, knowing the job I had and the fact that I couldn’t tell her about things made it okay for her not to have to open up to me, and that’s the way she wanted it.”

Shit, did I just say all that?

Trenda’s eyes are shining as she looks at me.

“My God, did you just say that? Do you mean it?”

“Yeah, I said it and I meant it. I don’t want to live in an emotional vacuum. I kind of like this kooky little town, with all these people.” I press my fingers against her lips again. “And before you say anything, let me qualify that statement. I like the Bernies of this town who say they’re loners but want to take care of a whole damn mountain. I like Florence who is still looking for a good kisser after thirty years. I like the fact that we’ve got Bertha who is ready to shoot people on sight if she doesn’t like them. Hell, even Arthur cracks me the hell up, and I absolutely adore how well you can manipulate that man. And the biggest character in this town has to be your daughter who is going to grow up to be either mayor of this place or President of the United States.”

Trenda pulls my hand away from her lips as she starts to giggle.

“You are not wrong,” she agrees.

“I know this. And I haven’t even met your sisters, and that out-and-out scares me, God knows what they’re like. So. Can I ask you something seriously?”

Her eyes are shining with mirth. “Shoot.”

“I want to know, why would you ever think about leaving this place?”

“After the sales job you just did, I have no earthly idea.”

“Seriously, Trenda. Why?”

She looks up at the ceiling as she thinks. “I think part of it, I was lonely with so many members of my family having moved on with their lives.” She looks back at me. “Then there’s the fact that everybody does know me, and sometimes it feels like I don’t have a chance to meet new people, like it’s all the same, all the time.”

“Is it really? I mean, you’ll have to tell me. But this place seems like it’s always got something going on. And I hear there’s going to be some kind of Spring Festival.”

She sighs. “I know. I’m kind of in charge of the picnic baskets this year.”

“Picnic baskets?”

“It’s a long story. Florence has been in charge for years, but last year somebody caught her cheating because she arranged to have one of the John Deere men select her basket, even though he hadn’t put in a ticket for her basket.”

“Huh?”

“Let’s not go there, okay?”

“That’s what I’m telling you, this place is kooky. But in a good way.” I pull her closer to me. “So are you still thinking about leaving?”

“I’m still waiting for them to start the survey on my land. They think they can fit me in four months from now. It’s pretty expensive to get it done.”

“So don’t do it,” I coax. “Stay here.”

She gives me a shy smile. “Have you been trying to make me feel better about the lawyer’s letter and the email?”

“You caught me. I need you to do me a favor. Before we dig into the ice cream, can you forward the email to a friend of mine? He’s really good at ferreting out information when it comes to things like this. He can probably backtrack the email and find out who it’s coming from for sure.”

“Absolutely.”

She starts to get up, but I grab her wrist in a light hold. “You know this is going to be all right, don’t you?”

She bites her lower lip. “Simon, my life right now is good. But there have been a lot of ‘not all rights’ that I’ve had to live through. So what I guess I’m saying is that if this turns to shit, I’ll deal.” Then she bends forward so we’re eye to eye. “What I’m not good with, what I’ll never be good with, is something happening to my daughter. You commanded SEALs, you were a SEAL, my brother is a SEAL, I know his team. There’s another Navy SEAL who lives here some of the time. I will call in every single one of y’all to protect my daughter. Do you hear?” The last words were said in a growl.