Page 122 of The Promise Of Rain
Digging though my drawers, I found my softest trackpants and an oversized hoodie that once upon a time belonged to Miller of all people.
Maxine took it off Miller’s body and yanked it over my head the first time Adam showed up unwanted.
It had always made me feel a little less alone.
I slipped on thick socks and padded out to the family room to find Deacon sitting on the couch in his sweats, bathed in the warmth of the lamp on the side table, two mugs of hot chocolate on the coffee table.
Rain pummeled the window, the afternoon dark as the storm gathered strength.
He patted the couch beside him.“Come sit.”
I turned on the lamp and sat down sideways, my drawn-up knees a barrier between us, and took my first sip of hot chocolate.Eyebrows rising, I teased, “Not bad.”
“Jenny,” he admonished gently.“Don’t pretend everything is okay.You must have been terrified.”He paused.“Do you want to press charges?”
I shook my head and just barely stopped myself from snorting.“You and I both know how these things go.He’s from a respected family, and I’m me.I think you gave him the only justice I’ll ever see.”
“I would do it again in a heartbeat,” he growled, his eyes steady on mine.
My hand trembled, ripples chasing each other across the surface of my drink.“I should have locked the door.”
“It’s not your fault,” he asserted.
I reached over and set it back down on the coffee table.
My voice shook.“He thought I’d—"
“It’s not your shame,” he grated.“It’s his.Don’t take it in and make it yours.”
I nodded, thinking about everything that came between us.Not a single thing was my shame.
Not Adam.Not Deacon’s parents.Not Baxter’s father.Not my mother.
None of it.
No more secrets, Jenny.
‘Deacon?”I gulped.
“Yes, baby?”
I stared down at my clasped hands in my lap.
This was going to kill him.
Did he need to know?What good would it do now?
Was I trying to hurt him?
That didn’t ring true.But it didn’t exactly feel entirely off base either.
Regardless, too many people knew, and the truth had a way of showing up at the worst possible time.
I gathered my courage in my hands and whispered, “I was pregnant when you left.”
Raising my eyes to his face, I watched as shock, disbelief, and then horror flickered across his face.
I watched as his eyes gauged the truth in mine.
