Page 50 of Corrupt Idol

“Don’t what?”

She shook her head. “I just want to get through this in one piece.”

“Get through what?”

Lynne’s death and whatever else occurred before his departure.

Silence enfolded the cab. She leaned her head against the window and stared at the landscape, but she wasn’t taking it in. Memories floated to the surface—good, bad, and ugly.

“When my dad died, I thought my life was over,” Jesse said.

She tensed.

“He was my world, my hero. Mom did her best to fill the gap, but it wasn’t the same. She dated a couple guys. None of them lasted long. When she started dating Isaac, I knew something was different. I had already made up my mind to hate him.”

They passed a grove of trees with a river running through it before they came upon open, untouched land with a lone farm house in the distance.

“Isaac didn’t cater to me or try to make me like him. I didn’t know how to take that. He was a firefighter, which was cool, but not as cool as my dad being in the military. When he said he had a daughter, I told Mom he wouldn’t do. I didn’t want anything to do with a prissy girl. And then we met at the park. You weren’t what I expected.”

She remembered that day. Dad had never taken her to meet a girlfriend and she’d been ecstatic. She had been trying to set Dad up with one of the ladies from church for years. She was tired of being shuffled from family to family when he had to work. When she met Lynne, she knew immediately that she was perfect for her father.

“You were dressed like a boy in a striped green shirt and khaki shorts,” Jesse continued. “Your hair was messy and tangled and when we played soccer, you kicked me in the shin to get the ball. You were aggressive, competitive, completely opposite from every girl I knew. You got in my face and challenged me. You called me names and taunted me when I refused to play as rough as you.”

The images he evoked caused a strange flurry in her chest. “I don’t want to talk about this.”

“You welcomed us in, wanted us around all the time, and cried when we left. You clung to me, made me feel needed, looked up to me.”

Her stomach lurched. “Stop it, Jesse.”

“I fell in love with you the day we met and never snapped out of it.”

She rolled the window down to drown out his voice.

“Every year it got worse until I couldn’t take it anymore—”

“Pull over!” she shouted.

“You didn’t see—Fuck, Violet,don’t!”

Even as she shoved her door open, she felt a hand twist in her shirt, hauling her backward. The truck swerved and Jesse cursed.

“Pull the fuck over!” she bellowed.

He pulled off the state highway beside a field of flowers. She hopped out of the truck and marched through the high grass, uncaring about the stains she was getting on her jeans or the fact that she could step on snakes and God knew what else. She didn’t care. She stopped and braced her hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath.

“Vi.”

He was right behind her. Of course, he was. He couldn’t give her a fucking moment.

“You need to back off,” she warned.

“I gave you five years. Now, I’m going to have my say.”

She whirled around to face him. “You didn’t give me space. You went into the Air Force.”

“I promised my dad I would enlist, but I didn’t make my final decision until I saw the effect I was having on you. I knew I couldn’t stop myself, so I left. I hoped after we spent time away from each other that I’d be able to deal with you.”

He was breathing hard, chest pumping beneath his gray shirt as he faced off with her. The easygoing facade was alarmingly absent.

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