Sarah sat next to him, but out-of-control nerves kept her from reaching for what she wanted so badly.

He held out his arms to her. “Come here.”

She was so tired of being afraid, of living in the past, of trying to outrun the demons. Putting her fear aside, she moved closer to him and into his embrace.

He looped his arms around her loosely, which made her feel safe rather than confined. “Often when you hug someone, you put your arms around him, too,” he said in a teasing tone.

Her hands were trembling, but she put her arms around him anyway, resting her head against his chest and closing her eyes.

“There,” he said softly when she was settled. “Doesn’t that feel good?”

She nodded because she didn’t trust herself to speak.

“It feels great for me, too,” he said. “You always smell so incredible. It’s been hard for me to resist the temptation to get close enough to breathe you in.”

“Charlie…”

“What, honey?”

“He beat me and my children. He beat me so badly last October that I knew if I stayed, he was going to kill me, so I finally left. It took me way too long to leave. My children grew up in a nightmare, and there was nothing I could do to protect them.” The words, once she let them out, spilled forth in a great rush, almost as though she feared if she didn’t say it right now, she never would. “He was a general in the air force, and everyone was afraid of him—no one more so than his wife and children. He goes on trial next week in Virginia. That’s where I’m going. Owen is going, too. We both have to testify.”

“What day are we leaving?”

She raised her head off his chest to find his deep blue eyes staring at her fiercely. “No… You can’t…”

“Try and stop me.” He paused and looked away from her for a second, seeming to rein in his anger. “That might not be the right way to put it in light of what you’ve been through. I want to be with you and support you through the trial. I hope you’ll let me do that for you.”

“It’s nice of you to want to do that, but my son will be there. I’ll be okay.”

“I won’t.”

“You won’t what?”

“I won’t be okay sitting here worrying about you. I’ll be going out of my mind with worry for you and Owen, who I’ve come to care for, too. It would be so much easier, for me, if I were there with you rather than here going crazy by myself.”

Sarah smiled at the way he’d turned the whole thing around on her.

“You wouldn’t want that for me, would you?”