Page 106 of Harvest Moon (Riverbend 3)

He’d done this to her. To his wife, the woman he loved more than any other. It was too much. Anxiety clawed at his insides, raking him raw. He couldn’t handle her raw grief on top of his own pain and guilt. He turned, fled down the steps and out the door.

He blinked and her face sharpened in his vision. A vise tightened around his heart at the pain his rejection had caused her. “I’m sorry I didn’t comfort you, support you. I left you and you didn’t deserve that. I felt so guilty. I was drowning in my own pain. I have so many regrets, and it’s too late to fix them. But I’m so sorry I hurt you, Laurel.”

She reached out and brushed tears from his cheek. “I forgive you.”

Another tear fell. Then another. Now that the dam was open, he couldn’t seem to stop the flood.

“You need to stop punishing yourself, Gav.”

He sniffed. “I’m not.”

“Really? You took nothing from our marriage but your truck. And a job at the campground? What’s that all about?”

“It was just a stopgap. I’m starting a new business.”

“And you’re practically letting Wes run it.” She palmed his face and pinned him with a look. “You deserve good things, Gavin.”

Did he? It seemed impossible to believe. And maybe, just maybe, that’s why he’d been shirking his duties lately. He didn’t feel deserving of good things. He swallowed against the boulder in his throat. He shook his head.

She tightened her grip on his face. “Yes, you do. I have regrets, too, you know. I didn’t have to kick you out. I could’ve dragged you to counseling instead—heaven knows we both needed it. You, out to prove you were better than your dad; me, just waiting for you to abandon me like mine did. I realize now you were working so hard to provide the stability I didn’t have as a child. You were trying to give me a life where I didn’t have to worry about money.”

“I wanted to give you that so badly. But you neededme. I see that now.”

“We should’ve fought harder, but we were both wounded and lost. We did the best we could, and it wasn’t enough.”

He gazed at her beautiful face, seeing her as she was, as flawed as he. And yet he loved her with the kind of love that peered past those things to the beautiful heart beneath them. That love still reverberated throughout his body, all the way down to his bones.

He wanted to tell her this. But there was enough on the line tomorrow without adding to her burden. Besides, she might have granted him forgiveness, but that wasn’t the same as giving him her trust. Or her love.

And he hadn’t earned the right to ask for either.

Chapter38

By the time Laurel, flanked by Gavin and Darius, settled into a chair, her nerves were screaming. At the table next to them, Darcy and her husband were seated with their lawyer. The older woman had aged well—hair still the same shade of dark blonde, makeup applied with precision. A demure blue suitcoat adorned her carefully maintained shape. Her husband was attractive for his age and equally well groomed. They looked like Barbie and Ken, Middle-Age Edition.

Their attorney was an attractive man in his midsixties. A crisp black suit adorned his still-athletic frame, and he sported a full head of gray hair, a pair of trendy glasses, and a mouthful of white teeth.

Emma’s grandfather had flown in this morning and now occupied the bench behind Gavin and Laurel with their other witness, Avery. Darius had met with them all beforehand to review the proceedings and tell them what to expect on the stand.

Emma was at home with Laurel’s mom. She’d offered to come, but it was more important that Emma was in the care of someone familiar.

Gavin put his hand over Laurel’s, and only then did she realize she’d been tapping her fingers on the table.

“We’re prepared,” he whispered. “We’ve got this.”

The clerk took the judge’s stand. He was a sixtysomething man who was bald but for a few whisps of white hair. He wore a tired navy-blue suit and thick-framed glasses straight from the seventies. This was it. The next hour would determine Emma’s entire future. Did the clerk realize the power he wielded?

A shuffle sounded at the back of the room. Laurel blinked in surprise as Lisa and Jeff filed through the door, followed by Cooper, Katie, and Wes. She hadn’t known the Robinsons were coming. They made eye contact with Laurel and Gavin, each offering a smile or a nod. Lisa slipped Laurel a wink before she slid down the row behind Avery and Paul.

Huh. Maybe the woman was coming around.

Laurel hadn’t realized how much familiar faces would put her at ease. Plus having a supportive family network would surely reflect positively on their case.

The rows behind the Gordons were empty. Had they brought no witnesses? The thought buoyed her spirits.

The hearing had already begun, and Laurel was daydreaming through it. She jerked her attention forward in time to hear Darcy’s attorney calling her to the stand.

Fifteen minutes later Mr.Groveland had finished questioning Darcy. The woman still perched on the witness stand, clenching a tissue in her fist. She’d come across as a loving mother and grandmother as well as a pillar of the Chicago community. Laurel’s stomach turned at the massive discrepancy between perception and reality.

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