AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No, that’s not enough. For all you know, he could have gone on a bender and will show up tomorrow with a hangover.”
“He doesn’t drink anymore. He goes to meetings and just got his two-year sobriety chip.”
Ellis stared at her, his disbelief obvious. “Sure we’re talking about the same Will Hunter?”
“He doesn’t gamble anymore either,” she felt compelled to add. “He gave it all up.”
“Okay, if that’s true, good for him. It’s more than I ever expected.” He shook his head. “But I still don’t understand your loyalty.”
She glanced over to where Norte and Peanut played. Her gentle boy had rolled over onto his back and was letting Peanut pounce on him. “He saved Norte when most other vets would’ve given up. I owe him everything for that, but that’s not the only reason. He was so alone when I met him, and I know what that feels like.” She couldn’t stand the heat anymore and figured now was as good a time as any. She pulled off her jacket but saved her hat and scarf for last. She hated this part. The looks, the well-meaning but ultimately hurtful questions.
If only she could be normal.
She kept her back to him as she poured out two mugs of coffee. Then drew a breath and turned toward him, offering the coffee and trying for a smile. It felt wobbly on her lips.
To his credit, he didn’t flinch. But she saw the widening of his eyes before he hid it with a quick sip from his mug. “Mm. Good coffee.”
She sighed and pulled out a chair at her kitchen table. “Go ahead and ask. I know you want to.”
4
Turned out, Brielle Ives had come to Alaska to hide.
Ellis had figured she was hiding something from the moment she pulled her scarf up over her face in the barn. She didn’t want him to see her face. Nobody would leave their winter gear on inside for as long as she had if they weren’t hiding.
Still, he hadn’t been prepared for the reveal.
A dark brown-gray indent carved down from the left side of her forehead across the corner of her eye and lip. It gave her an asymmetrical look like someone had shattered her face and glued it back together wrong. The indent ended in a large dark splotch on her chin.
After giving him a moment to see it, she swept her caramel-colored hair to the side, mostly hiding it.
What did he say? He wanted to ignore it, talk about easier things like… Dad’s disappearance? Jesus. There was nothing easy about this woman.
But she seemed intent on talking about it now. Probably wanted to get it out of the way so she could go about her business without him wondering about those marks.
And he would wonder, he realized. He was half-afraid to hear she had suffered some kind of horrible abuse as a child. The kind of abuse that had scarred her physically and mentally and sent her running to the wilds of Alaska to heal.
Fuck. He didn’t like the thought of someone hurting her any more than the idea of someone hurting Peanut. She was a lot like Peanut, actually. Strong and sassy with that under-layer of vulnerability they both tried so hard to hide.
Stupid, but he wanted to rescue her as he had Peanut.
He moistened his lips. “Did you…have an accident? Were you burned?” The images flashing through his mind with each question were the stuff of nightmares.
“No.” Her tone was all business and she spoke as if on autopilot. She’d obviously had to explain this many times throughout her life. “It’s a rare autoimmune skin disease called Morphea. Basically, my immune system attacks my skin, causing it to harden and discolor. It’s not contagious.”
Did people fear she was contagious when they saw her? His hand curled into a fist on the table and he worked to relax it.
She didn't notice, though. She was still talking. “My variant is calledEn Coup de Sabrebecause it looks like I was hit in the face with a sword.” She drew a finger down the indent and although she tried to hide it with a tight smile, he saw the sadness in her eyes.
Dammit, he didn’t like it. Any of it. He didn’t like this complicated roil of emotions she evoked. He didn’t like that sadness in her eyes. He got the feeling Brielle Ives had been sad for most of her life. It wasn’t his job to fix that, but he wanted to.
This was why he had left. He couldn’t fix people and Alaska was overpopulated with maladjusted souls in need of fixing. Like William Hunter. He couldn’t fix his dad, so he left.
And he shouldn’t have come back.
He realized she was waiting for a response from him and sucked in air through his teeth. “Man, that’s harsh. They couldn’t think of a different name for it? I mean, c’mon.”
“Mm.” She hummed in agreement and blew across the top of her mug, but then set it down without taking a sip. “There are more scientific names for it, but ECDS is the common term. The name suits it, though. It is a harsh disease. Especially when you’re nine years old and suddenly you don’t look like everyone else. Kids can be very cruel. Adults, too, for that matter.”
