Page 22 of The Voices are Back

“I have to use the stupid cart, or I risk having an episode,” I said. “Being in our small town is bad enough, but being here, at this Walmart, where lots and lots of people could potentially have access to me? Yeah, I can’t do that to myself.”

His eyes clouded at the thoughts that started brewing in his brain. The idea of me being vulnerable had never sat well with him. But the idea of me being completely unable to protect myself in any way? Yeah, I could see that thought killed him.

His eyes looked like a thunderstorm.

I kind of liked it.

“That wouldn’t be good,” he admitted. “What are you doing here so early?”

I looked down at my cart filled with two packages of cotton panties, and winced.

His eyes went there, too, and they lost the edginess to them.

All I could see was amusement when he looked back up at me and said, “See you still wear the same kind.”

I burst out laughing.

Once I was sobered again, I said, “I’m not used to being idle on my days off. When I woke up so early, I thought I’d go run a few errands when there were fewer people here to watch me make a spectacle of myself. It’s my first day in forever not having anything to do.”

“Hmm,” he murmured. “Sounds like a pain in the ass.”

It was a pain in the ass.

“What about you?” I asked. “You look like you’re heading somewhere on a mission.”

He actually looked like the typical Floridian guy about to head out for a day on the water.

“About to grab some stuff to make sandwiches for lunch, a bag of Little Debbie powdered donuts, and head out on the boat.” His eyes went electric then. “You want to go with me?”

I opened my mouth to deny him, then closed it.

He already knew I wasn’t doing anything.

I’d set my own self up.

And he knew that I loved it.

“There’s an air-conditioned room,” Aodhan sang. “If you start to feel bad, we can put you in there. There’s a bunk and everything.”

Being out on a boat again with Aodhan, fishing our hearts out, sounded like the best damn day of my life.

I flashed back to our first fishing trip and nearly cried.

• • •

“Come on, it’ll be fun,” Aodhan promised. “I swear to you. It’ll be so fun.”

I’d never fished before.

In fact, I’d never even been on a boat before, let alone fished.

But the excitement in Aodhan’s face when I told him I’d never been fishing, and that he could take me out on his dad’s best friend’s boat, was one that I could never say no to.

“Okay,” I said. “Let’s go.”

We were out the door within an hour.

I was wearing short shorts that showed off a lot of leg, a wide-brimmed hat that tied to the underside of my chin to keep it on, and a bikini top.

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