Page 44 of Redemption

“Yay, I did something right, for once.” Her voice helda hint of defeat.

I frowned as she focused intently on the water glass. “Hey, what do you mean?”

She shrugged and pushed out a breath, her hair flailing. “Oh just, everything’s going to shit. I can’t even have a simple date, I miss my best friend, we’re gonna lose the ranch, my sisters will be out on their asses and it’s all my fault.”

Whoa.“What? What’s happening with the ranch?”

She looked up at me, resignation in the depths of her navy stare and nibbled her lip. “We owe money, we’re not making any and I’ve got no clue what to do about it.”

“Well, what do your sisters say?”

“I haven’t told them, I don’t want to worry them.”

“It’s their home too, they have a right to worry about it. They might be able to help?” I couldn’t believe she was carrying this burden all herself on those dainty shoulders. No wonder she always seemed so tightly wound. Although who could blame her after everything she’d had to deal with. And now this too?

“They’ve got enough going on, they don’t need this.”

I knew it wasn’t my place to get involved. I needed to stay out of this family, I’d done enough damage, but I couldn’t help myself. I wanted to help ease the burden on Kat as much as possible. “But they could—”

“No, Jack!” she yelled, then immediately groaned and clasped a hand to her forehead, her eyes squeezing shut. I leaned across and placed my hand to her forehead, her skin was hot and clammy to the touch. I smoothed my thumb over the spot between her brows and slowly they fell away from each other, her expression clearing. Her body went lax against the bed and she moaned briefly, the sound flying out of her and hitting me low in the gut, my stomachclenching.

Her eyes popped open. “What are you doing?” she demanded, and I realized I had just touched her, like it was totally my right to do so. Like it was as natural as breathing to ease her discomfort.

I dropped my hand. “Uh, sorry about that.” That awkward silence hit us again and not even the sound of Teddy investigating his belly fur made things less awkward. “So, uh, where did you meet that guy?”

She scoffed. “Dating app. I’ll need to report him.” She began looking around for her phone.

“Don’t worry, we can do it tomorrow and let the police know as well. I can take you to the hospital if you’d like to get checked over?”

She just nodded and then buried her face in her hands. “I’m so stupid,” she sobbed.

My heart twisted in my chest at the sight of those blue eyes watering. I grabbed her hands where she scrubbed at her face. “Hey, no you’re not, he was a fucking asshole. I’m sorry about tonight. I know that spending time with me was the last thing you wanted to be doing.”

“I was trying to avoid you,” she grumbled.

The words hurt. I kept forgetting the nature of our relationship when we had moments like this. I wanted like hell to forget and hope for a future where something could happen but it couldn’t.

“I should have taken longer to get to know him, but I was so desperate to stop thinking about yo—uh,” She cut herself off, her eyes darting away.

Surely I hadn’t heard that right? Surely she wasn’t trying to forget about…me?

No, that would be ridiculous. She hated me, had every reason to. I wasn’t going to push her on it no matter how much it killed me, because I would not do this to her.

“Oh no,” she wailed, clutching her stomach.

I leapt up. “You think you can make it to the bathroom?”

She scrabbled to get the blankets off her. “No!”

I snagged the metal trash can, tipping it up to get all the debris out and had it in her hands just in time. She retched, her hair falling forward. She choked as she heaved, the force of it contracting her body painfully. I sat beside her on the bed and rubbed her back like I’d done a few weeks ago when we were by the side of the road.

She continued retching and I managed to get the trash can off her to empty it. I made her sip some more water before the next round started.

“Come on sweetheart, get it all out,” I said, internally panicking at how pale and shivery she was getting.

“I th-think I’m d-done,” she shivered.

“I think I should call someone,” I said, pulling out my phone.

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