Page 7 of The Truth

“Not as involved as I’d like. Yet. She’s… skittish,” Guthrie said.

“She’s not skittish, she’s flat-out terrified.”

“I know.”

“Why? She’s a beautiful woman. I’m sure she’s had relationships before.” Gunn knew he was on to something. He knew human behavior. And something about the Fisher sisters was a bit on the broken side. Hurting. He wanted to make it better.

“She’s had a rough past, Gunn. They both have. And Mandy Kirby, Gene’s ex, has been harassing Aubrey at the hospital. Causing trouble. Now this… I’m afraid the bros weren’t ontheir best behavior tonight—when she was already hurting and overwhelmed. And, she’s scared of men, I think.”

“I noticed. We can be a bit much, or so the sisters tell me. When they are venting about the rest of you, anyway.”

“I couldn’t stop it. I knew the guy was breaking and I couldn’t get there in time to protect them. Tonight… was one of my nightmares come to life, seeing Genny like that. Seeing that bast—creep that close to Aubrey. Close enough to hurt them.”

“Neither can I.” Of course his brother would have the same pain that Gunn had. Guthrie had been thirty feet away talking to a guy in scrubs when it had happened. “I keep seeing the blood on Genny.”

“She calls herself Genny, here at the hospital and with her friends. I didn’t realize how strongly she felt about it until Aubrey told me.”

“Why?” He’d always known she preferred Genny, but he didn’t think he’d ever asked why.

“Teasing. When they were kids. Mandy Kirby made her feel worthless, Aubrey said, about that ‘Gene’s sis’ joke, when she was really young. We need to remember to call her Genny now. And, I mean this entirely, thank God we still have the chance to remember that. If he’d struck her anywhere else… he might just have killed her.”

“She and Aubrey are really close. Like she is with Chantal.”

“Yes.”

“So what’s eating at you where Aubrey is concerned? You know I’ll listen.”

His brother was silent for a long time. “I think Genny may be the first person other than her sister that Aubrey has ever fully trusted. Ever, literally. I used to think she was a stuck up b—well, I’m sure you know what I thought.”

“Because of Marie-Kate. I noticed the resemblance.” Guthrie had fallen hard for another physician who resembled Aubrey a great deal. Physically.

“I was a jerk. Thought Aubrey was cold. But lately… I think the cold was there to mask the fear. She was seriously afraid of reporting the guy who hurt her that night before. I thought it was because of her career, and I get that, but I think it’s more than that. But I can’t figure out what—she’s been abused.”

The abrupt shift caught Gunn off guard. “What?”

“I shouldn’t mention it.”

“Anything you want me to keep to myself, you know I will.” He would always listen, whenever someone needed it.

“She was abused. I’ve seen the scars. And… with what happened to her sister?—“

“I don’t know what happened to her sister.” He had wondered, but he wasn’t going to ask her. Gunn would listen when someone needed to talk, but he would never pry.

“Ayla was seriously hurt by an abusive foster parent when she was ten or eleven. It left her with partial paralysis. That’s all I can say.”

Gunn hurt at his brother’s words. For the little girls they had been, the women they were now with those kinds of memories. “What is it you want from this woman, Guth? I don’t think she’s the kind you want to do anything with unless you are serious.”

“Iamserious. More serious than I think I have ever been. I just don’t know how to make her see that. What is the line between wanting to go slow and not frighten her, and going too slow? When this woman matters to me more than any other woman in my life ever has before?”

Gunn didn’t have the answer. He didn’t think he’d ever felt that way about a woman in his life. He wondered if he ever would.

“I think you just have to trust that things work together for the good. The way they are meant to. Do you have any other real choice?” Gunn asked, turning his truck down the drive that would always lead to home.

“No. I suppose that’s something I don’t.”

5

“We are almost home,”Ayla said, more to reassure herself than anything. Relief eased some of the tension in her chest, but not the pain gnawing at her muscles. She shifted in her seat, trying to find a position that didn’t hurt, but there really wasn’t one. Sometimes, nerves got pinched, no matter what she did. It was just the way itwas.

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