Page 48 of Love in the Storm

Asa reached for the small bottle of syrup. “Yeah, Mrs. Grant lost power when we did, and she can’t get out to get wood for her fireplace. They’re clearing this road to get to her, so that means we’re getting out of here this morning. Probably within the next hour, from what my friend said.”

An hour? She needed more time. It was time to come clean, and she wasn’t ready.

She stood frozen, until Asa turned around with a plate filled with pancakes and handed it to her. “Let’s eat.” He gestured toward the table, indicating she should lead the way.

Moisture filled her eyes as she sat at the table, and she quickly brushed it away. Asa blessed their food, but she didn’t hear the words. The only sound she heard was the pumping of blood rushing in her ears.

Before she took the first bite, Asa reached over and laid a hand on hers. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” She shoveled the first bite into her mouth to hide her lie. They didn’t have to talk if they were eating, right? She could at least put it off until after breakfast.

As soon as Asa finished the last of his pancakes and let his fork clink on the plate, Lyric was on herfeet. “I’ll clean up.” She grabbed their plates and rushed to the kitchen.

Asa was close behind her, determined to help. She kept her head down and focused on cleaning, until he spoke.

“Are you sure everything is okay? You seem quiet.”

It was time to face the music. Lyric turned around and dried her shaking hands on the dish towel. She only had to get the first words out. The rest would be easy.

“We’ve met before.”

Asa’s eyes widened. “We did? Where? When?”

Lyric took a deep breath and straightened her shoulders. “You arrested me ten years ago.”

17

ASA

The words punched him in the gut. Of all the ways he could have imagined meeting Lyric before, arresting her wasn’t one of them.

He pinched the bridge of his nose and prayed this was all a dream–a nightmare. Ten years was a long time, and she was still young. What could she have possibly done back then?

“I did a lot of bad things,” she whispered shakily.

“What kind of bad things?” The ball of unease in his middle was growing and writhing. He should have kept his mouth shut. He probably didn’t want to know.

Her chest rose and fell quickly, and her whole face was turning red. “I was drunk. And I threw a brick through a store window.”

Asa’s eyes widened as he studied the womanstanding in front of him. She didn’t look like a vandal. She looked like the woman who had tended his wounds, cooked him meals, and shared her life with him for the last two days.

But he’d been trained not to be deceived by appearances, hadn’t he? He saw the worst deceit every day, and it didn’t look anything like Lyric.

“What else?”

Her shoulders tensed, rolling forward as if she wanted to curl up and hug her knees to her chest. “Just those things…that time.”

Asa’s brows lifted. “There were other times?”

“Well,youonly arrested me once.”

Clearing his throat, Asa tried to push down the growing unease in his gut. “But someone else arrested you the other times?”

Lyric nodded. The motion was almost imperceptible.

He rubbed his jaw and leaned against the counter. She’d been so good to him. It was hard to reconcile the destructive young girl with the kind woman who’d gone above and beyond to help him. The disconnect between the two had him questioning everything he thought he knew.

“But I’m clean now. Sober for a little over five years.”

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