Page 23 of 15 Summers Later

He wanted to protect her, which was why he struggled for a long moment with how best to answer her heated question about whether he had read Ava’s book.

If he told the truth, that he had read every single word more than once, Madi would be furious and see it as one more betrayal.

If he lied, she would immediately know he wasn’t being honest with her. She had an unerring radar about those kinds of things. They had been friends long enough that she knew him well. He could never successfully deceive her.

He finally decided the truth was his only option.

“She sent me, Mom and Nicki each an advanced copy of the book.”

“I know that. We talked about it. She sent you the...last few chapters so you could read about what happened with you and...and your d-dad.”

Her words tangled, as they sometimes did when she battled fatigue or emotional turmoil.

Still, he could feel the pain spasming through him, the flash of memory of his good, honorable father lying in the dirt, his features pale, blood seeping through his shirt where he had been shot.

“She didn’t only send us the final chapters,” he said, his voice as gentle as he could make it. Clouds shifted over the moon and he could see her clearly, her green eyes murky and her mouth twisted into a frown. “She sent us the entire thing. I don’t think Nicki has read it yet. Mom has. She read it right away.”

“Why...why didn’t Nicki tell me? Or your mom? They should have t-told me.Youshould have told me.”

He couldn’t blame her for feeling betrayed. He would feel the same, in her shoes.

“It took me a while to bring myself to read it from the beginning, especially because I know the ending all too well. I finally read it right before it was released. I have to say, Ava is one hell of a storyteller.”

He knew he was only adding kindling to the fire of her temper but he couldn’t continue keeping the truth from her.

She glared at him. “How could you? Especially when you know how I feel about it.”

“I did not know how you felt until the book came out and started gaining traction,” he pointed out. “For most of the past six months, you’ve been ignoring the topic of Ava’s book, if you’ll recall. You were quick to change the subject every time anybody brought it up. I’m sure you were hoping it would all go away.”

“Okay, yes. I’ll admit to some degree of magical thinking. Can you blame me?”

“No,” he said, his voice soft. “I can’t blame you.”

“Most of the time, I don’t even think about it. I can go days without remembering. But now that Ava has written her book, I can’t go an hour without being reminded. I hate it.”

“Oh, Madi.” His heart ached for the pain in her voice.

“I don’t only hate being forced to relive it, over and over. I hate that now everyone else knows what happened to us. I see them judging me. Seeing me as only that poor girl whose dad dragged her and her sister into a survivalist cult and tried to marry them off to men three times their age.”

He hated that part, too, thinking about how desperate and frightened she and Ava must have been through their whole ordeal.

ReadingGhost Lakehad been a torturous exercise for that alone, for the simmering fury that made him want to punch a hole through his drywall, even as he found the words and the story profoundly moving, even humorous at times.

He took her hands in his, feeling the weakness in her left hand compared to the other one. “No one who knows you sees you as anything other than a strong, capable woman who did everything she could to escape her circumstances.”

After a moment, she pulled her hands away. “That book is ruining everything. Now it’s even wrecking my love life. Ryan would have been perfect for a summer fling.”

In the past, he had found her and Nicki’s penchant for choosing guys in town only for the short term rather amusing. When had it started to bother him so much?

“Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.”

She made a face. “How can it be anything other than lousy?”

He chose his words carefully, aware he was on shaky ground here. He certainly couldn’t tell her the idea of her picking another seasonal guy this summer had started to make him feel slightly rabid.

He had absolutely no right to comment on her dating patterns, he reminded himself. He was her employer and her friend. That was all.

“You said yourself how busy you are right now with getting the animal rescue off the ground. You’ve got plenty on your plate. A new guy might be too much of a distraction.”

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