They hadn’t argued. She’d told him she didn’t want to get married, and her oaf of a fiancé had hit her. “I was looking for a bathroom.”
Her lower lip pouted out, pink and swollen from getting chewed on. She might look ready to drop but that sharp mind of hers was whirring. “Do you need to stop somewhere?”
“Why?” I maneuvered around a curve.
“You didn’t get to a bathroom.”
“I didn’t need to take a piss.” My hand tightened on the wheel. “I needed to get away from the crowd.” Away from the thought of seeing Summer walk down the aisle.
She twisted toward me in her seat as much as her seat belt would allow. “Were there a lot of people?”
“Not many I recognized.”
She let out a relieved breath. “Corinne invited half the town and wanted to restrict my guest list.”
Corinne must be the woman who’d been ready to fuck me up. Good thing Summer had known the exact threats needed to get her ex and his family to behave. I wasn’t sure my reputation would survive fighting a wealthy woman off me and Summer.
“Has he hit you before?” I had to know if I should regret my restraint.
“No.” She rested her head on the headrest. “But now I can’t quit thinking of the signs. He isolated me. Made me question my own mind. He was controlling. I can’t believe I fell for it all. I was just so busy with work.”
I slid my gaze in her direction for a second, then focused on the road.
“What?” she asked, defensive.
Summer wasn’t the type to let her boyfriend bulldoze her. My brother had trailed behind her like a lovesick puppy. Summer had done what she wanted, and if Eli had wanted to be with her, he’d had to keep up. “Why are you taking responsibility for his actions?”
“I was minutes away from marrying him.” Another long exhale. “Where are you taking me?”
There was an edge to her question. If she didn’t like my answer, she’d tuck and roll out the door, highway speeds be damned. This was the Summer I knew. “My cabin. You wanted privacy. You can’t get more private.” Except I’d be there.
She studied me. “Are you sure?”
No. She’d needed help, and I’d jumped to serve, just like all the men in her life, except that dickweed ex. “You can have the guest room. I’ll leave you alone.”
“It’s just...” She shook her head. “The last time we talked?—”
“People change.” I didn’t want to remember her last visit to the hospital after the accident that had taken my brother’s life. She’d come to see me a few times. Probably more than I remembered since I’d been out of it for so long. She’d quit coming because I’d told her to.
“They do.” She went back to staring out thepassenger window. “They change sometimes right before your eyes.”
And we were back on her ex. Safe ground. “Is what’s-his-name going to be a problem?”
“I don’t think so. He hit me and you saw. They can call me a liar, but the seed would be planted in people’s heads. Add in that I didn’t go through with the wedding and I’d look more truthful than him.”
“Do you live with him?”
She shook her head. “Thankfully, no. Daddy—” She sniffled. “Daddy, uh, told me once that he didn’t want his girls living with men before marriage.”
“I didn’t realize he was that old-fashioned.” Darin Bailey had been a good man, but he hadn’t seemed like he’d deny his girls much of anything.
“He encouraged independence—emotional, mental, and financial. And... he didn’t care for Boyd.” Her admission came out on a wave of shame.
Darin Bailey wasn’t Summer’s birth dad, but she was still her daddy’s girl. All the Kerrigan sisters were. “You stayed with the one guy Darin Bailey didn’t like?”
“Don’t judge.” She turned toward me and those lips formed a mutinous line. “Daddy didn’t like any of my boyfriends.” She went back to window gazing. “Except Eli, of course.”
Everyone had liked Eli. He’d been the likable brother.
