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Bend was already upon Jamie, shoving him face down on the ground. He was sobbing now as his tears mingled with fertilizer and broken glass.
“Jamie, it’ll be okay,” Parker soothed him. He was just a kid and she wanted to make sure he would be okay.
“Will you tell my family that I love them and I’m sorry?” he whimpered.
“I will,” she replied, stood, and watched Bend handcuff and lift Jamie to his feet.
Raven wrapped his arm around her shoulders and she lost it, leaning into him while tears fell down her face.
Chapter Twenty-One
Three days later.
Raven left the barn and climbed into the truck, finding Parker in the passenger seat, her bare feet braced on the dash and the fringed hem of the jean shorts rode high on her thighs. She offered him a smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes.
“I was just thinking about you,” he told her. He’d wanted to see her all day, but he’d been busy with the aftermath of the Jamie situation.
“I hope it’s okay that I’ve been waiting for you,” she said softly.
He scanned her beautiful face. Outside of a small cut on her neck no one would even guess what she’d survived recently. Raven didn’t believe that Jamie’s intention had been to hurt her, but the kid was wrecked with emotion. Thankfully, he would get the help he needed. “Yeah,” he finally answered.
Seeing her with a knife near her throat had made Raven feel something he’d never felt. He knew he would have done anything to save her. His heart was involved, and he wasn’t sure he enjoyed the vulnerability. The last time he remembered feeling so full of emotion was when his Ma passed away.
The silence stretched on and when she turned her gaze to the window, he thought she might not want to make eye contact with him. He didn’t want things to be awkward between them. It felt natural to reach over, lift a tendril of her hair and wrap it around his knuckle. “You doing okay?”
She nodded, but the gesture was tight. “I thought we needed to talk in private.”
“If this is about you leaving tomorrow, I already know.” Bonnie had mentioned the news. A tug of war of sorts was ensuing within him.
She moved her gaze back to him. “I’m sorry. I wanted to be the one to tell you.”
He let go of her tendril of hair and wrapped his hands tight around the steering wheel. “How about we take a ride?”
“I’d like that.”
She kept her feet propped up and he started the engine, heading toward the mountain from Bonner’s Farm. Neither said a word during the time it took to get to the parking lot at the entrance. Usually he’d find the silence welcome, but sitting next to a woman he had feelings for and she was about to tell him goodbye made it felt like he was walking the plank.
When he parked at the entrance, he shut off the engine and he shifted in the seat so that he could see her profile. A light drizzle of rain hit the windshield and the dark clouds moved in that seemed almost fitting. He started to say something, but she opened the door and jumped out.
“Okay then,” he whispered and followed her outside.
She was leaning against the hood by the time he made it around to her. My God, she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever laid eyes upon. He wanted her so badly that the emotion nearly crushed his heart. Was this normal? Or had he completely lost himself?
“Second Chance is a beautiful place,” she said.
“But?”
Her smile fled her features. “I do have a home, a life, back in Chicago.”
“That’s not a news flash.”
She hugged herself, chewing on the corner of her lips. “Right.”
He leaned his back against the hood next to her and hooked his thumbs into the front pockets of his jeans.
“People can move.”
“I’m glad you see that. Would you move?”
