Page 73 of A Brambleberry Summer

“I am sorry,” she finally said, sounding mortified. “I think I have been holding that in all afternoon.”

“Or longer.”

She shifted her face to meet his gaze. Somehow, she had lost her sunglasses and he could see her now, her eyes dark and shadowed in her lovely face. Instead of answering his unspoken question, she focused on the events of the day.

“I was so frightened. I thought this man, he was going to kill me, then get to Jenna and Addie. I could not let him.”

“He won’t get to Jenna now. He is in custody and will be charged with assault, trespassing, drunk driving, driving across state lines with the intent to commit a felony and a whole host of other charges related to whatever stalking charges we can prove. He’s not going to get out for a long time.”

“I hope that is the case.”

“It is,” he promised. He would do whatever necessary to make sure of it.

“I suppose I should be relieved I did not kill him with that rock.”

“You were pretty fierce.”

“I could not help it. I could only think about protecting Jenna and Addie from someone who wanted to hurt them. Something seemed to take over me. Maybe some part of my brain that was fifteen years old again, focused only on surviving another day.”

As soon as she said the words, she looked as if she wished she hadn’t. She closed her eyes. He thought she would pull away from him but she didn’t. She continued to nestle against him as if he was providing safe shelter in a sandstorm.

With his thumb, he brushed away a tear that trickled down her cheek, his heart a heavy ache. “Tell me what happened when you were fifteen.”

“I have already told you too much. I don’t talk about that time in my life, Wyatt. It is the past and has nothing to do with who I am now.”

“You don’t have to tell me. I understand if you prefer to keep it to yourself. But I hope you know you can trust me, if you ever change your mind.”

She eased away from him and sat once more on the blanket beside him. Fiona moved to her other side and plopped next to her. Rosa wrapped her arms around her knees and gazed out at the water, a pale blue in the twilight.

She was silent for a long time, so long that he thought she wasn’t going to answer. But then she looked at him out of the corner of her gaze and he fell in love with her all over again.

“Sometimes it feels like it all happened to someone else. Something I read about in a terribly tragic novel.”

He did not want to hear what was coming next, but somehow Wyatt sensed it was important to both of them that she tell him. This was the reason she had pushed him away. He was suddenly certain of it.

That moment when he had rushed onto the porch earlier, he had seen raw emotion in her expression. That was the image he couldn’t get out of his head. She had looked at him with relief, with gratitude and with something else, too.

She thought her past was a barrier between them. If he could show her it wasn’t, that together they could face whatever demons she fought, perhaps she would stop pushing him away.

“I told you about the men who offered me a job in this country and who...brought me here.”

“Yes.”

“It was not a factory job they were bringing me to, as I thought. I was so stupid.”

“I didn’t think it was.”

She closed her eyes. “You are a detective. I am sure you can guess what happened next.”

“I’ve imagined a few possible scenarios since the night you told me.”

“Pick the worst one and you might be close enough.”

He gripped her hand tightly, not wanting to ever let go. “Human trafficking.”

She made a small sound. “Yes. That is a polite phrase for it. I was brought here to work in the sex trade. Me, an innocent girl from a small town who had never even kissed a boy. I barely knew what sex was.”

Everything inside him went cold as he thought about what she must have endured. “Oh, sweetheart. I’m so sorry.”

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