Chapters (45)
- I know you'll never forgive me...
- Part One - Your Father
- Chapter One
- Chapter Two
- Chapter Three
- Chapter Four
- Chapter Five
- Chapter Six
- Chapter Seven
- Chapter Eight
- Chapter Nine
- Chapter Ten
- Chapter Eleven
- Chapter Twelve
- Chapter Thirteen
- Chapter Fourteen
- Chapter Fifteen
- Chapter Sixteen
- Chapter Seventeen
- Chapter Eighteen
- Chapter Nineteen
- Chapter Twenty
- Part Two - Your Mother
- Chapter Twenty-One
- Chapter Twenty-Two
- Chapter Twenty-Three
- Chapter Twenty-Four
- Chapter Twenty-Five
- Chapter Twenty-Six
- Chapter Twenty-Seven
- Chapter Twenty-Eight
- Chapter Twenty-Nine
- Chapter Thirty
- Chapter Thirty-One
- Chapter Thirty-Two
- Chapter Thirty-Three
- Chapter Thirty-Four
- Chapter Thirty-Five
- Chapter Thirty-Six
- Chapter Thirty-Seven
- Chapter Thirty-Eight
- Chapter Thirty-Nine
- Chapter Forty
- Chapter Forty-One
- About the Author
I didn’t talk. I was done talking. There was time for that later. In that moment, that was not what I wanted from Tom Ginn. That was not how I planned to spend our night together. I wanted something else from him.
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty
At four in the morning, I got a call from a county road crew to let me know that the campground had been plowed. Tom could go home. I drove him out there in the darkness, and we said little along the way. I suppose he expected me to talk about when we would see each other again, but I didn’t do that. I knew he had other responsibilities in life and no room for me. He’d given me one night as a woman in the arms of a good man, which was the only thing I’d asked of him. I’d never experienced a pleasure or closeness like that before.
I never would again.
We parted without saying much to each other, but not awkwardly. The situation between us was simply understood. He kissed me, he held me, he got in his pickup truck, and he was gone. I stood there in the empty parking lot for a long time, savoring what I felt inside myself, feeling warm and happy on a cold, black night. The storm had cleared, leaving behind stars. The wind had settled into a perfect stillness. I hummed, I sang. I blew a kiss to the owl, wherever he was.
Then it was time to go home.
I had to rejoin the world, after a night that felt like an intermission from it. I didn’t know if Ben Malloy had taken it upon himself to send the sheriff’s department out to the lake to find Jay’s body, but either way, I needed to change back into my uniform and do everything that I’d failed to do hours earlier. I was ready to take charge of my life and become a deputy again.
It took me an hour to get back to my house. The roads were slippery, but I admit, I was distracted by my thoughts of Tom. I could still smell his presence in the car and taste him on my lips. We’d held hands as I drove. I knew the time we’d spent together would be a jewel I’d remove from a velvet case in my memory for years to come and polish up until it was sparkling and new again.