Page 24 of Bad Decisions & Back Roads

Something flickered in his eyes.It was gone too fast to name.But it wasn’t indifference.

Deck’s smile faltered.“I’m not sure what’s going on here, but Timothy, I think it’s time you head on so I can resume my time withmydate.”He grabbed Timothy’s hand and shoved the keys into it.

Timothy’s fingers closed around them like he wanted to crush the metal.His gaze dropped again to my wrist.

That was the tell.He was holding the line.

I shoved my hands further under the table.

A muscle in his cheek ticked hard enough to make me wonder if he was grinding his teeth.He seemed to be one wrong word away from snapping, from turning this into something loud and irreversible.

Then the emotion was gone.Shuttered.Locked down.

He stood, cast Deck one harsh glare, and walked away.

My chest pulled tight and sharp.I had this stupid, overwhelming urge to go after him.I longed to catch his arm and make him look at me again.I wanted to make sure he wasn’t about to do something reckless.Or maybe?—

Maybe I wanted him to pull me in like he used to.I wanted to hear his low voice tell me:I’ve got you.

I swallowed hard.I’d missed him so deep on the inside that I’d forgotten what being in his presence felt like.

But whatever we’d been wasn’t something you could step back into.Not with everything I had broken between us.Some things don’t get a second chance.Even when you wanted them to.

“How exactly do you know him?”Deck slid into the vacated seat.Nothing about Deck was relaxed or playful anymore.

I stared at Deck, unwilling to give him a piece of anything I shared with Timothy.I also refused to discuss what I no longer had.

“Something you won’t talk about it.”He stared at the exit for a moment then back at me.“Something he sure as hell won’t talk about.”He released a long exhale.“Listen, Gia, I think you’re pretty and all, but I’veneverseen Timothy act like that.If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the past few years, it’s to stay the hell out of that man’s way when the silent, scary-as-fuck side of him comes out.Whatever you and he are fighting or not fighting about, it’s complicated enough for me not to be in the middle of it.”

Deck was a smarter cookie than expected.

I chose my words carefully.“Fair enough.”

Then he grinned.“Unless you want to make it complicated.”

My phone vibrated.I pulled it out to see a text from Josh Hurst.

Josh:I hate to ask, but bit of a personal issue came up.Can you take a call tonight?It’s a horse colic about twenty minutes away.

Gia:Send me the details.I’ll go pick up the work truck.

“I think you’re right, at least for now,” I said.“I just got a farm call.Let’s call it a night.”

ChapterNine

TIMOTHY

Somehow,I held myself together long enough to pick up Sofia from the church.I’d smiled, even joked with my mom’s friends.I acted like nothing inside me was splintering.

I bathed Sofia.Read her two books.I tucked her in with a kiss to her damp hair while she blinked up at me, safe and soft and untouched by any of the pain trying to consume me.

Our house was quiet when I shut her door.Scattered toys littered the downstairs floor, bright, loud, and proof of a life that made sense.The chaos was almost everywhere, but not in my office.That was one rule about toys and mess.I needed somewhere to conduct business that was free of clutter.

The second I stepped out the front door I allowed myself to feel my reaction to Gia’s bruises.

I braced a hand on the railing, breaths going uneven.Lights from the main Hurst farmhouse five hundred yards up a brick walkway let off the glow to alert me my parents were still awake.Our houses were half a mile off the main road, far enough no strangers would be wandering around to see me.All the dairy hands were well and gone for the night.

I’d handled seeing Gia who was so beautiful in those boots that reminded me of our long-ago conversation.I’d handled finding the bruises.I’d contained the anger and the need to do something.I’d stayed steady, controlled.Very controlled.Until I saw her face.