Page 35 of Kissing Her Rescuer

“And we had mind-blowing sex,” she finished for him, trying to make the situation a little less somber.

He grimaced at the memory of Cameron's fists. “Right. You'd said you'd not slept with your husband in a while.”

“I hadn't. He'd cheated on me.” She straightened, her defenses already up. But he had to get through it. “Don’t you believe me? I wouldn’t have just slept with you if I was still with Zach. It’d been three or four months.”

“Of course, I believe you.” He was screwing this up, but that took out the possibility she was already pregnant. “After I left, when was the next time you slept with Zach?”

A shadow fell over her face. “Why do you want to know that?”

He brushed a strand of hair away. “I'm trying to make sense of something.”

“Five days later.” She shook her head. “But not because I wanted to.”

The prickling started at the back of Dewey's neck. “Not because you wanted to. Now tell me whatthatmeans.”

She sighed. “Don't get off-topic. I thought you had something to tell me. I don’t want to talk about Zach.”

Her implication overshadowed the news about Carrie for the moment. “First, tell me what you meant by ‘you didn’t want to.’”

“Why is it even relevant?” She flicked her hand with annoyance. “He found out that you'd been at the house. I think his mom told him. He promised that he'd make life miserable for me if I left him. He sent you that text saying I was staying in Alabama before deleting your number off my phone. And then he, well, had sex with me. It was such a long time ago—”

“He raped you?” That prickling turned into a hot rage he'd not experienced since he first saw the dump Eliza lived in when he’d visited her in Alabama. He bolted upright.

She stood when he did. “It wasn't violent or anything like that. Calm down.”

Unable to look at her, unable to focus on the woman he couldn’t protect, he stared over the pond, not seeing anything but the blur of the landscape. “Did you tell him 'no,’ Eliza?” Her silence was confirmation, but he needed to hear it. “Did you say ‘no?’”

“Yes,” she mumbled.

He snapped his gaze around, not wanting to scare her, but knowing his rage was on the verge of erupting. “And you're just now telling me this?”

“I know how you and Cameron are. How quick Uncle Jimmy would be to do something. And then I found out I was pregnant with Carrie, and he threatened to take her away the next time I packed to come home. So, I didn't leave. I was twenty, Dewey. Dumb. I didn’t know my rights. I realize how bad it sounds now.”

“But, you didn’t even call.”

“And tell you what?”

He grabbed onto the last shred of his control. “What happened after that?”

“Once he started disappearing for weeks at a time again, I moved in with his mom, hoping to eventually come back to Statem. But every time I brought up getting a divorce, he threatened to take Carrie away from me. So, I stuck it out. I researched exactly what I needed to do to get away and worked, or hustled pool until I saved up enough money to get a lawyer who would make sure I got full custody. I'm still paying that bill—”

Dewey turned and punched the tree. The wood cracked, and the skin split on the back of his hand. The pain helped ground him back to reality.

Zach wasn’t there.

Zach could never hurt her again.

No one would ever hurt Eliza. She’d never be in that situation.

“Damn it, Dewey.” She pulled out a pack of tissues, the plastic covered with Minnie Mouse, and started blotting at his hand until he jerked away.

He leaned down, making their faces even. “What made you think Carrie was his daughter?” He hated the anger in his voice. Frustration at everything she'd gone through. He hadn't protected her. His selfish action only made it worse. And now he had the best news of his life to share with her and couldn’t even feel the joy.

“Carrie?” Her eyebrows pulled down tight. Her lips moved like she might say something, but she didn't.

“I'm her father. Not Zach.”

“You?” If possible, her face pinched tighter. Her gaze focused on a spot on his shirt. After two blinks, a long breath escaped her lips.

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