Her bottom lip quivered until she thinned it into a line. Sarah twirled the pen again and studied the paper. “Here’s one for a preschool teacher.” Her voice waivered. “I’d be perfect for that.”

He took a step closer, and his arms ached to hold his wife. “Yeah, you would.”

“How would you know, Brock?” Her chin jutted up, her eyes watery and wounded. “We don’t know each other.”

“You don’t mean that.” He pulled the chair out next to her. So close, but he wouldn’t touch her. He shouldn’t. No matter how badly he craved her. “I need to explain things to you. Be upfront whereas before I was… vague.”

“Vague? Vague wasn’t my problem.”

“I didn’t know what to do. I messed up. Bad. But it was like my world went black when you all were taken. I couldn’t think. Nothing was logical. It was all survive and react.”

“I never knew how close our family was to danger. Brock, you almost had another woman killed. That’s not an environment I want to raise our children in.”

She was concerned about Sugar? He wanted to shake Sarah. So what? God love Sugar. But he loved his family. His wife. There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t sacrifice to return them to safety. “Sugar is not your problem. And I know, from the bottom of my soul, you wouldn’t care what I did if it protected Jess and Kelly. Let’s boil it down to basics. Bad things happened, and I was the cause.”

She looked away, and tears streamed over her cheeks. “I can’t talk about this. I can’t even breathe thinking about it.”

He needed to wipe them away. Needed to make her hurt dissipate. But he didn’t know the rules right now. Couldn’t risk scaring her. “I take the blame for all of this. Things should’ve been different before you were taken.” Guilt exploded in his gut. He threaded his fingers into his hair. “I would’ve done anything to bring you girls home safe. You can’t see that, and I can’t explain that. So just know I did what I thought was best while I was out of my mind.”

She sniffled, wiping away the waterworks. “I’m not sure what to think.”

The minutes were clicking by, and he hadn’t said anything worth a damn. “I want my wife back. I’ll spend the rest of my life making sure you feel safe again.” It was rushed. Not eloquent, but there it was. The truth.

Her eyes locked on his, the look caressing him down to his soul. What he wouldn’t do to kiss her right now. That was how he always felt about her. Especially when he came off the job. He needed her touch. Her kiss. Salve to the wounds she couldn’t see.