Page 78 of Sunny Skies Ahead
“I know, I know,” I said quickly. “I wasn’t thinking. When I saw him there and realized who he was, I lost my mind.”
“Yeah, you did lose your mind,” Lucas said, appearing from the hallway behind me. I whirled to face him.
“Jesus Christ, I thought you were still sleeping.”
“Yeah, well, the two of you talk really loudly,” Lucas said, trotting over to the coffee pot to pour himself some caffeine.
“What am I supposed to do?” I said, looking to Connor for guidance. Connor just shrugged.
“I gotta be honest, I don’t know. Abbie knows Imogen better than me, but I remember what Jacob was like in high school. I don’t know why he’s back in town, but I have to assume it has something with trying to talk to Imogen.”
“Well, that’s not going to happen,” Lucas said, and I nodded my head in agreement.
“I agree,” Connor said.
“Okay,” I said, closing my eyes and pressing my fingers into my temples to ease the ache forming there. “So we all agree Jacob doesn’t come anywhere near Imogen.”
Connor and Lucas nodded their heads in agreement.
“I need to talk to her,” I said. “But I don’t want to spook her anymore than she already is. I don’t know what the hell to do.”
Lucas and Connor shared a rare glance.
“I have an idea,” Lucas said after a sip of his coffee. “Let me talk to her.”
“Are the two of you still planning to come to Seattle?”
“I will be,” Lucas said before jerking his chin towards Connor. “Big Man over here is sitting this one out. Something about Abbie having an appointment in Brighton.”
I nodded. I had kind of expected Connor would stay behind.
“As much as I hate to say it, we’ll just have to wait and see how things shake out over the next couple of days,” Connor said, reaching out to squeeze my forearm.
Sitting around and waiting was the last thing I wanted to do.
But if Imogen was truly as triggered as I thought she might be by the events of last night, I knew she needed her space.
I trusted that Lucas would encourage her to come to me when she was ready.
Chapter twenty-six
Imogen
“Are you sure you’re going to be okay?” Abbie asked as she idled in my driveway. I hopped out from the passenger seat and grabbed my meager bag of yesterday’s clothes from the backseat, since I was now wearing Abbie’s. I gave her the most reassuring smile I could muster. Bass bounded up the front steps of the farmhouse and whined at the top step, begging me to open the door.
“I’m good. Thank you again for last night. Sorry I freaked out on you.”
Abbie let out a small breath, and my heart sank. In my panic I hadn’t stopped to consider how she was feeling about having to play babysitter last night. That familiar shame slithered through my veins, oily and ink black, a stain that covered everything in my life and made it impossible to live somewhat normally.
“You don’t need to apologize, Im,” she said, and I noticed then how exhausted she looked. I wanted to ask her why, but I was scared to.
This is what always happened. Things would be good, and something would come along.
I feared her next words would be a criticism. Not of my reaction to Jacob’s presence, but how I reacted to Kameron. What he did.
Because the truth was, I knew that the two things were separate. I rationally knew Kameron wasn’t Jacob.
That was the nature of being triggered by past trauma—it wasn’t a random reaction.
