Page 140 of Give Me Redemption

He puts his beer down and points his finger at me. “You need to get over this shit.” He turns and slams the door shut on his way out and I lean my head back and laugh bitterly.

“I’m trying, brother. I’m trying.”

Chapter Fifty-Six

Jace

Weeks slip into months. Dalton and I grow closer. Hudson’s is our hangout, and I’ve even met some of her co-workers. Monroe’s a cool dude who’s dating some redhead, so we double date from time to time.

Dalton doesn’t care for it, but she needs to live more. She’s still so focused on her job and it causes arguments, but I try to understand this is who she is.

I’ve been trying to work on something myself. I’m now part of the Veterans Assistance program.

There are so many vets who can’t find work. We go through ranch hands like crazy. People think they want to be a cowboy and then realize it’s hard work, so they bail.

Dalton and I are headed out to talk to Pops about it now. I want to hire some veterans. Let them take care of the retired thoroughbreds. Horses are therapeutic.

There’s nothing like a connection with a horse. Some of these boys are really messed up from the things they’ve seen during war. Hell, I’m one of them, hence why I like to go out to the ranch so much.

“They don’t hate you,” I tell her as we pack to head out to Grant Ranch for the weekend. Dalton’s been hard at work. She needs a break. She broke two cases this week but hasn’t got any new leads on Chloe’s. It frustrates her and worries me.

She’s gone to therapy a few times, but I know she isn’t going regularly like I asked her to. She says she’s too busy. Speaking of, her job has really made me see why she used to say she was busy all the time.

Fucking librarian.

I roll my eyes every time I think about that.

“Why did you pick librarian?” I ask her as she walks out of the bathroom with her contacts case.

“Huh?” she asks, other things clearly on her mind.

“For your fake career choice.”

“Oh,” she says. “Um, I’d just found out that Chloe’s kidnapper sent the email from a library in Maine. So, it was fresh on my mind. I didn’t really think that one through. I didn’t have much time to. It was all I had.”

“I didn’t believe you,” I tell her.

“You didn’t?” She lifts a brow.

“No. That doesn’t fit you at all.”

“Why didn’t you question it? Why didn’t you ask which one I worked at?”

“I thought about it, but I didn’t want to seem like a psycho.”

She smirks. “Yeah, that might have been a red flag.”

“It wouldn’t have mattered. You needed me,” I say.

“I’m sorry,” she says. She stops putting things into her overnight bag. “I feel like I’ll never be able to apologize enough for doing that to you.”

I exhale and nod. “It’s in the past, baby.”

I’ve been working on myself a good bit over these last few weeks. I’ve moved on from what she did to me. I’ve chosen us, and talking about it doesn’t hurt near as much as it used to.

A month ago, I snapped. I was feeling self-conscious. Dalton works a lot and I had nothing going on. I’d been in the Army for so long, I wanted to take a break when I got out, but everyone needs to feel useful, and the stress of figuring out my own life and her not trying to live hers just came to a head.

I’m standing outside, smoking and calling her again for the fifth time.

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