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I grimaced. “I’m sorry.”
She waved her hand through the air. “Telling someone about my darkest time…I’m ashamed. I’m so damn ashamed.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “You did nothing you should be ashamed about.”
She opened her mouth and then closed it. Unsure what to say.
“Would you wish what he did on anyone else?” I asked.
She looked startled for a moment before blurting, “No!”
“Then what makes you think that what you did, and what he did to you, was something you should be ashamed about? From my understanding, you did everything you could to fight him off. You’d been on what, five dates with the man? And he thought that it was okay to force you? No, ma’am. Force is never okay. Even if you’d been on multiple years of dates, you say no, then it’s a no.” I clenched my hands into fists beneath my arms so she wouldn’t see how upset I was.
For her to feel ashamed, even all these years later…the man was still winning, and he wasn’t even around to make the hits keep coming. He’d been long gone, yet there his memories were, still destroying her.
“Do you know anyone good?” she asked finally. “Someone that’s a girl?”
I instantly thought of Wake’s wife, Dutch.
“Dutch,” I answered. “Wake’s wife. She’s a therapist.”
Carrie sighed. “I was hoping you would say no and have no answer, so I could pretend that I tried.”
I threw back my head and laughed. “Oh, Carrie. We’re gonna fix you whether you want to be fixed or not.”
There was a knock on the door, and I knew the crew that’d come to collect me for the day had finally arrived.
When they made their appearance in the kitchen, I took them all in with a little wave in greeting.
Etienne and Cassius jerked their chins in acknowledgment.
Matilda walked up to me and gave me a fist bump. Meanwhile, Alice walked right up to me and gave me a small hug before saying, “You ready to go?”
I stood up and gestured at Carrie. “Have y’all met Carrie?”
Matilda and Alice shook their head, so I introduced them.
Finn, who’d been standing on the outskirts of the kitchen, smiled at my introduction of his sister. Apparently he approved of my treatment of his sister. As if he wasn’t quite sure what I’d do.
I scrunched my nose up at him, then gathered my things.
We wouldn’t be gone all day, but we’d be gone a fair chunk of it because where we were going to eat was farther down the coast. Apparently, Wake’s sister, Danyetta, owned it. They were having some sort of grand reopening after remodeling following a few too many water issues.
After a short while, they’d decided to go ahead and gut the entire building, use the shell only, and start over from scratch.
It would be there that I’d hang out until my “man” could come collect me.
At least, that’d been the words from Cassius’s mouth when he’d called earlier to inform me what I was doing for the day.
Personally, I thought that it would be a great day when we finally figured out what all was going down with the old owner of my house.
But until we did…I was stuck.
Stuck listening to people telling me what to do and when to do it.
I’d allow it for another two weeks or so. That was about the time it would take me to get my new business up and running again. From there, I would be doing what I had to do to make money, whether it was to Davis’s liking or not.
See, I could play nice when I wanted to.
“Whoa there,” I heard said.
I blinked and turned to find Finn staring at me curiously.
“What?” I asked.
“You looked all lost in thought, then you got this sort of hostile look on your face, and now you’re smiling.” He paused. “You look kind of creepy.”
I shouldered my bag, grabbed a light long-sleeved shirt that belonged to the man that’d been avoiding me all day because he didn’t want to hear me complain about his high-handedness, and walked toward Carrie.
I leaned on her armrests and got close until my face was only a few inches from hers, then whispered, “We’re gonna fix that head of yours.”
She sighed. “My head doesn’t need fixing.”
I leaned forward and wrapped my arms around her.
She was skin and bones. Much different from the woman she’d once been.
“And, when I’m done with that, we’re gonna get you out of this house more,” I continued. “I’ll learn to drive that big-ass van, and we’re gonna go on girls’ trips. At first, we’ll go on excursions to the therapist, eat ourselves into a coma with bad food we shouldn’t be eating, and then come home. But when your head is in a better place, we’re going to get you on a dating website. We’re gonna get you out there more. And we’re gonna get you away from these brothers that roll over anytime you tell them to.”
