“Ethan, I’m not sure what, if anything, will help me other than time.”
“You talked to anyone lately? You told me you’d think about it, that it was time to do that again.”
“No, but maybe I will soon. I just need to do this when I’m ready. I know you got that buddy who’s a shrink, and I’ll let you know when I’m ready, I promise,” Jake added.
Buster swung in his seat. “Funny how you’re a doctor and adverse to a bit of doctoring.”
“I’m not adverse, just don’t want my veins sliced open before I’m ready.” Jake thought about the doctor who’d been assigned to him in those first weeks. He’d made Jake open up, and he’d wept and raged and nearly punched the guy, and at the end of it, he’d felt more tired than he could ever remember; he didn’t think he was ready for that again…or ever would be.
“It’s fair to say Branna’s done a hell of a job on my website.” Buster was back to looking at his laptop. “Mystery muffins will be on me for a bit, I’m thinking.”
Jake left The Hoot minutes later, jumped in his pickup, and sat there thinking about what Buster had said.
“Hooked? Ha, no way.” Shaking his head, he started the car and headed for the clinic to see his mother.
Chapter8
Ally knew he was there; she could hear the rasp of his breath and the stench of stale sweat, both were etched in her memory from their first terrifying encounter, but unlike that night, this time there was no escape. He was going to finish what he started, and tomorrow the sun would rise without her.
Branna was wrenched from the story as someone knocked on her front door.
“Branna?”
“In here, Mikey.” She heard the sound of his feet running; the boy rarely walked anywhere. He appeared in the doorway, shirt ripped at the shoulder, dirt on his knees, hair standing on end.
“Good day at school?”
“It was all right, but Miss Todd put me in detention because I answered one of her questions with too much detail.”
“What?” Branna stood and shepherded him out toward the kitchen. History had told her he would demand food in a few minutes.
“She asked if anyone knew what the word ‘notion’ meant, and I said I did without raising my hand—she’s real strict on that kind of thing.”
“I used to be big on that too, to be fair,” Branna conceded.
“And then I gave her the explanation because I knew it.”
Branna had been thinking that she might pay Mikey’s teacher a visit, just to let Miss Todd know what she was dealing with, and this reinforced it. She’d make the time to call in at the school over the next few days.
“You want some pancakes? I’m starving.”
“Yes!”
They cooked, ate, and she quizzed him about words and numbers. Then they did his homework. She’d never had a sibling. In fact, since Belle, Branna had never had to think about anyone but herself. It wasn’t something to be proud of; it was just the way things had evolved after the death of her mother. To cope with their grief, both she and her father had shut themselves away from each other, and neither had found their way back, until they’d simply drifted apart permanently.
She had a pain that was dull and deep in her chest that reared its head when she thought about Declan O’Donnell. She’d had no contact with him since that day he’d come to see her at the university, and they’d said horrible, nasty things to each other. Well, at least she had. It was funny how they’d both chosen to become teachers and now wrote crime novels, funny and disconcerting, considering they were estranged.
Occasionally, memories of the father she’d once had slipped into her head, the man who had spent hours teaching her how to make a page of writing come to life. But Branna usually pushed them back into that dark place as soon as they appeared; she would gain nothing from remembering. She was better off remembering the cold, hard man who had turned his back on the child who had needed him.
By the time Branna had given Mikey the extra work she’d created for him and he’d cycled off, she was ready to pull on her gloves and do some physical work in the garden. It also gave her plenty of time to think, unfortunately, most of her thoughts were occupied with a dark-haired man who was far too disturbing.
Chapter9
He arrived on foot; the sound of his shoes crunching on the gravel of her driveway alerted Branna that someone was approaching. Wearing worn shorts and a T-shirt, as usual, Jake kept walking until he was at the edge of the garden.
“Ethan would have come, but he’s star struck now and doesn’t think he could get a word out without stuttering.”
Branna stayed kneeling in the dirt, which was the wrong move because he was now towering over her.
