Page 55 of Love and Memories

“Travis!”

Tracy, the owner, handed Travis a bag over the counter and winked at Bella. “You two have a good day.”

“You too,” Travis said as he placed his large hand on Bella’s back, gently guiding her around the customers who’d congregated by the pick-up station.

The warmth of his hand pressing against her back and the way he shielded her with his body made all of her tense muscles relax. If she spent every day by his side, she’d never worry about another thing for the rest of her life.

But nothing was simple, and he didn’t know half of the destruction she could bring.

Back on the sidewalk, they dodged some tourists talking loudly about riding horses at Wolf Creek Ranch, but Travis madesure to maneuver her out of the way of a few people who weren’t paying attention.

Inside the safety of his truck, he handed her the bag with their breakfast sandwiches in it. “You okay to eat on the road?”

Bella nodded. “You want yours?” she asked.

“I’ll eat when we get there,” Travis said as he merged back into the street.

Bella held the bag tightly in her hands. “Do you mind if I pray for the food?”

“Of course not. Go ahead.”

Bella bowed her head and asked God to bless the meal. She also thanked Him for sending Travis and Anna, as well as the job the Bensons gave her.

When she finished, she opened the wrapper around her breakfast sandwich and took the first bite. Sticky Sweets was becoming her new favorite place.

Travis cleared his throat and kept watching the road straight ahead. “So, I heard you tell the girl back there that you were doing okay. Did the doctor give you a good report?”

This was it. Now was the time to tell him, but her throat tightened, and a cold sweat broke out on her back. Resting the sandwich on her lap, she pushed the light jacket off her shoulders. Why was it suddenly scorching in here?

When she pulled off the coat and tucked it on the seat beside her, his gaze drifted over to her, catching quickly on the scar on her shoulder before turning slowly back to the road. “How’d you get that scar?”

Bless him. He thought he was letting her off the hook from answering his first question, but he’d just stepped into another long story that he wouldn’t like hearing.

“My dad.”

21

TRAVIS

Travis gripped the wheel tight enough to choke the life from any living thing. The worn material burned against his palms as he twisted it.

Any man who hit a woman deserved the worst punishment, and Travis would like to be first in line to hand it out to Bella’s dad.

She ran her finger over the small scar. “Dad shoved me, and I fell against a window. It shattered, and a piece of the glass stuck in my shoulder.”

Travis’s stomach rolled. The rage growing inside him was enough to make him sick. It burned like hot coals on flesh. “I’m sorry that happened to you. No one deserves to be treated like that.”

She turned to look out the window. “I was a rebellious teenager, but I knew what he was capable of before I decided to test the limits.”

“Abuse isn’t a punishment,” Travis said.

Bella turned and pointed to another scar on her shoulder blade. “I don’t know about this one. It could have been from him, but I really have no clue.”

Travis swallowed hard. Hearing about the things someone had done to her ignited the urge to seek revenge. “Could your dad have given you the black eye before the incident?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Mom didn’t seem to want anything to do with me on that phone call. I got the feeling she hadn’t seen me in a while. Plus, the anger and pain from my dad seems… old, if that makes any sense.”

What if she’d been running from someone? Someone who had already hurt her and could do it again? What if there was a threat to her safety waiting in the shadows?

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