They finished weeding the area before them and scooted down to work on the next section.
As usual, she was stealing all his peace. This garden should be his therapy. Only, not today. She’d overtaken every inch of it. And because she hadn’t answered his question about her mental and emotional health, worry was now needling him.
Despite himself, he’d begun to hope that Gen would remain clean. He didn’t want to hope in that,couldn’tlet himself hope in that, after what he’d gone through with Kayden. Each time, his hope had been demolished.
He took stock of her as they worked. Her skin was still pale, but no longer dull. Pink now brightened her cheeks. The dark shadows under her eyes hadn’t gone away, but they’d lessened. Her glossy hair swung down her back. She wore another pair of large earrings, which made no sense. Why would anyone garden in big earrings?
“So?” he asked. The word came out more demanding than he’d intended. “How are you feeling mentally and emotionally?”
A hesitation. “Decent.”
“Just decent?”
“Isn’t decent sufficient?”
“Yeah. I mean, I think it’s normal not to feel okay right now.” He continued his work, arguing with himself over whether or not to drop the subject. “Is something in particular bothering you?”
Taking a break from weeding, she plopped cross-legged onto the grass, facing him.
He sat, resting his forearms on his upraised knees. He didn’t want anything to do with her crazy. Why, then, was his heart thudding as he waited to hear what she was about to say?
“I could answer your question in numerous ways. In order to protect the last remaining shred of my pride, I’ll tell you the one thing that’s bothering me that’s not actuallyaboutme.”
“Okay.”
“Something ... weird is going on with my family. It’s sort of troubling.”
Don’t ask about it. Just goback to weeding and ignore it at all costs.“Tell me.”
“I received a strange letter about my parents before I left Nashville.”
“What did it say?”
“It said, ‘I know what your parents did. And after all we’ve suffered, it’s hard to watch you bask in your fame and money. Your parents aren’t going to get away with it.’” Her lips pursed. “That’s it.”
“What did your parents say?”
“That the letter has no basis. But I believe that it does. So Natasha and I searched their house.”
“Looking for?”
“Secrets.”
“And?”
“We didn’t find any.”
Genevieve Woodward had a talent for jumping from the frying pan into the fire. No doubt, she’d spend her whole life like this. Rebounding from one drama into the next.
“But you’re not going to give up,” he guessed.
“No.” She adjusted the gardening gloves she wore. They were his gloves, and seeing her wearing them distracted him so much that he lost his train of thought.
“I’m going to drive to Clayton tomorrow to see if I can find records on my parents,” she said.
He didn’t want her crisscrossing north Georgia on a wild-goose chase that was likely to upset her. If she got upset enough, she’d take Oxy, and he couldn’t watch the progress she’d fought for ruined by a ridiculous letter. “I’ll go with you,” he heard himself say.
“To Clayton?”
