Page 27 of Shielding Aubree

It wasn't a guess. He'd been through this himself and had other clients take that tone with him before. It had been explained to him as one of the 5 Stages of Grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance.

To Ruben it was exactly what it seemed.

Anger.

It came raging in sometimes like a wildfire.

Or there were the times when it was like you stepped on a tack. A single moment of pain could set off anger like a firecracker.

And then there were the times when it was seething under the surface like a volcanic eruption where a crack in the earth's crust opened and lava just started to bleed out all over the ground.

Anger was anger.

There didn't even have to be a reason for it.

But it did need somewhere to go.

"Oh, so you're just going to ignore me?"

There was an element of pain in her voice. That hurt him.

He could deal with her anger swinging at him like cudgel.

But the idea that he was hurting her?

That made him ache.

"I'm not ignoring you, Aubree. I was just waiting for you to slow down a little and give me a chance to talk to you."

She gestured at the area around them, her hands lifting up and then falling down to her sides. Her fingertips connected with the water in the pool, and she took a step back in shock.

Ruben was ready to reach out and take her hand to keep her from falling backwards into the water, but she didn't want to be touched.

She stepped back and away from him and glared at his head as if her gaze alone could punch holes in his head.

"Well, I'm standing still so that should be slow enough. Right?"

He stopped himself from nodding.

There was bound to be some kind of explosion and a twinge of pain in his back reminded him that he'd dealt with that before.

And lived to tell the tale.

"You're not talking."

"And you're not in a mood to talk." He gave her a nod without a hint of a smile. Ruben turned to walk toward the side of the pool closer to the shallow end.

He made it a couple of steps until the water splashed behind him and droplets of water rained down across his back.

"Really? You're just going to walk away?"

He didn't turn around and kept walking until he was within arm's reach of her.

"I'm sorry!"

He didn't hear the anger anymore.

He heard the pain.

---