AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Regardless of his instruction, the message came through in a robotic voice. "Text from Mama to Slurfpig. Scout won’t eat. Arabella says she has a broken heart. We need to rally behind Atticus and Scout. They’re in bad shape. All hands-on deck.”
The men had gone completely still. I turned around to get a better look at Rafferty. His skin looked a little pasty, and he wouldn’t meet my gaze.
“Sorry about that,” Thad said. “I don’t know why it played it when I said not to.”
“Scout has a broken heart,” I said. “Can dogs really get those?”
“Apparently Arabella thinks so.” Rafferty bit out the nameArabella. “It’s probably some made-up syndrome.”
“No, it’s a real thing,” Thad said. “Our horse Misty—do you remember how she was after she lost her colt?”
“But that was her baby,” Rafferty said. “To be expected.”
Was I about to make the biggest mistake of my life? And Scout? I couldn’t stand the thought of her suffering because of me.
Because I was scared to give in to love.
“Pull off the highway,” I said, pointing to an upcoming exit.
“Um, sure,” Thad said.
We were upon an exit by then and Thad veered right, taking us off the highway and onto a country road. He came to a stop near a snow-covered field. Just ahead, the road was a T. Left took us back to Bluefern. Right took us to Bozeman. Across the meadow, a swirl of smoke rose from a farmhouse chimney.
I started to sob and dropped my face into my hands. “I’m sorry,” I whispered through my tears.
“Don’t be sorry,” Thad said. “What can we do?”
“Things can get complicated,” Rafferty said.
“Right, and bring up a lot of past hurts,” Thad said. “You’ve been through a lot.”
Despite my distress, I could feel panic exuding from the men. I was making a complete fool of myself and causing them undue embarrassment. Wiping my eyes, I sat up straighter but couldn’t look at either of them. “It’s just that I’m…I’m so afraid to be left again. My whole life’s been like that.”
“Sure. I can understand,” Rafferty said. “What happened with your mother is bound to shape how you see things.”
“How could it not?” Thad asked.
“What about you two?” I asked softly. “Do you still feel rejected over what your father did? He left to be with the woman you all called Aunt Jennie. How did you two turn out so normal?”
“We’re not that normal,” Thad said, his eyes full of sympathy. “I was so young when it happened. Jasper Moon’s my dad.”
Rafferty nodded. “Same for me. I was seven when it happened, so I don’t remember much of him either. Like Thad said, Pop’s been our dad and absolutely the best one any boy could have asked for.”
“But we see it in Atticus’s eyes sometimes,” Thad said. “Remnants of the hurt.”
“Caspian too,” Rafferty said. “He told me once he can still hear that bastard’s voice in his head criticizing him for liking to cook.”
“I remember that.” I closed my eyes as a memory crashed into my mind. It had been Atticus’s birthday, and Caspian asked to help his mother make a cake. Rex Sharp had called him nasty names. Caspian had cried, which only made it worse.
For whatever reason, the image of that moment broughttears to my eyes. Atticus, Caspian, and I had endured so much, even before my mother’s death.
She’d been erratic in the months leading up to the tragedy. I’d blocked a lot of that out but now, sitting here in the middle of nowhere with the brothers of the man I loved, they came rushing back.
A hurled hairbrush because she hadn’t liked my outfit for school. She’d slapped me for pushing some awful casserole she’d served for dinner around my plate. And she’d missed a dance recital right after Halloween. I’d forgotten all about that one. Who had been there?
Stella.
Sitting in the front row next to an empty seat she’d saved for my mother. Had she been meeting him at that seedy motel instead of attending my recital?
