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“What brought you back to Jasper Creek?”

“It was Little Grandma again. She saw that I was only drifting along in Nashville. That I was aimless. She was right. Plus, enough time had gone by that my parents aren’t hovering, they didn’t demand that I move back in with them.”

“Thank fuck. That would have really put a damper on our relationship.”

She giggled.

I felt something loosen inside me. We’d gotten past her traumatic conversation, and once again, my brave woman did it smiling.

Then her expression fell. “Little Grandma asked me the right question. She was so on point I almost hated her,” Joy whispered.

She had my full attention. “What, baby?”

“She asked me if I was scared. Like she knew that something bad had happened in London that still left emotional scars. I don’t know how she knew, but she did.”

“She asked me if I had a reason to be scared in Jasper Creek. It was a simple question, and I had been so jammed up in my own head and heart that I hadn’t even considered that. I just stared at her, stunned.”

She turned and straddled my lap, looking deep into my eyes, as if she could find strength and safety in my soul. “When she asked that question, I could breathe, Graham. I could breathe.” Then she sucked down a deep breath. It was as if she wanted to prove to me that she could breathe, but her breathing turned watery. It turned into a sob.

“I’ve got you,” I whispered into her hair. “I’ve got you, and I’m never going to let anyone hurt you again.”

Chapter Nineteen

He pulled me down to his chest, and I let loose. Telling that story just brought everything back. I’d only thought about it in bits and pieces in the last few years, but explaining everything all at once… it killed. The only thing saving me was Graham. Being there in his arms.

I cried about never having my dad’s hugs or my mom’s kisses when I was in the hospital, and then I sobbed even harder as I remembered all the times I wanted to tell someone about what had happened when I returned to Tennessee but couldn’t.

Thank God for Graham Wallace.

“Let it out,” I heard Graham croon as I finally started to get myself under control. God knows how long I had been crying. I started to hiccup.

“Do you need a glass of water?” he asked quietly.

I nodded, my forehead resting against his shirt. I opened my eyes and saw a big wet stain on his chest and wondered just how much of it was snot, then sighed.

Classy, really classy, Joy.

Graham was somehow able to lift out of the recliner with me in his arms.

He turned around and set me back down in the chair.

“I’ll be right back.”

I nodded again. Before I knew it, he came out of the kitchen with a bottle of water and a plastic shopping bag. Then he went down the hallway and came back with a roll of toilet paper. I looked up at him and gave him a soggy grin.

He shrugged. “I figure it was better than paper towels.”

I giggled. It felt good. “You thought right.” I blew my nose and threw the tissue into the plastic bag. Then I drank down half the bottle of water.

“How are you feeling?”

“Kind of embarrassed.”

Graham crouched down in front of me and snorted. “Liking pineapple on your pizza? Now that you should be embarrassed about. This shit? No way.”

“I don’t know, Wallace. Wiping snot on your shirt is pretty damned embarrassing…” I took another look at the big wet mark on his T-shirt.

“Well, I can sure as hell top that. For a while, my nickname during training was ‘Crack Operator.’”