But Chase felt more ready to have some of the conversations she needed to have with her mother. Would they ever be super close? Maybe. But at this point Chase was willing to move in a direction she’d never traveled before in her relationship with her only remaining parent. She had talked to Olivia about telling her mother what had happened to her with Peter Rinduso, but she wasn’t sure she was ready to actually say the words I was raped, and Dad didn’t do anything about it, and that screwed me up. Chase wanted to get her relationship with Lorna on solid ground before telling her mother the grievous wrong her father had done her. Olivia believed Chase telling her mother about the rape could change their dynamics, but Chase didn’t want her mother to see her as a victim. They’d agreed to shelve the conversation until Chase had come to terms with what had happened to her. She still waded through the hurt, the betrayal, even the irrational guilt she’d felt at talking to her dad’s friends the weekend of the rape. Part of her had believed she was at fault, and she was trying like hell to reconcile the knowledge that she’d done nothing wrong.

Some shit was so woven into who she was, it was like pulling thread from bedsheets to remove the skewed beliefs.

Zeke’s truck bumped up toward the cabin, and she made a mental note to ask Olivia about filling the potholes in the drive. Wending around the many dips in the driveway made one almost dizzy. Plus, it felt very adultlike pointing out something that needed attention.

Today Chase would be raking the front yard while Olivia met with a guy who was replacing the windows and someone who was measuring the cabin for new flooring. Olivia hadn’t said anything about Chase recruiting help, so when Zeke had asked what her plans were for the day and if she was interested in taking a drive to scout a river, she’d been “adult” enough to tell him she had to get some things done around the cabin. Zeke had volunteered to help so they could get it done more quickly, and Chase wasn’t saying no to an extra pair of hands.

Especially when they belonged to her temporary neighbor.