Page 5 of Harmony Island Gazette
“When you were a kid?—”
“Ugh, Mom.”
She just shrugged. “History has a way of repeating itself.”
I shook my head. “I’m ending this conversation right now.” I studied her for a moment before I let out an exasperated sigh and turned to leave.
“You shouldn’t be embarrassed. Everyone does it!” Mom called after me.
My cheeks were on fire as I hurried away from her. I ran down a few aisles before I stopped to take in a few deep breaths.
I contemplated trying to find Boone to explain, but I realized that probably would not help. It was best to leave it in the past and move forward. Plus, I had much bigger things to worry about right now, namely, the baby growing in my belly and how I was going to tell its father.
Kevin had to know, and I had no idea how I was going to tell him.
Or how he was going to respond.
2
BOONE
Nine o’clock came too fast. I was restocking the prepackaged lunch meat when Mr. Godwin walked by and announced that it was closing time and he was locking the doors. I nodded at him to acknowledge that I’d heard. And the reality of what waited for me when I walked out of the store hit me like an anvil to the head.
I knew at some point I was going to have to go to Mom’s house. I was going to have to face my past and the demons that lived there. But I wasn’t ready. And I hated that the anxiety of that decision reignited inside of me every evening. I could only hope that Mr. Godwin wanted me to stay the night again. Then the decision would be made for me.
I just wondered if Juniper would fight him about it like she had the first night. After this morning in the bathroom, I felt a shift in our relationship. I was more than happy to give her space, but she seemed to need me. And it felt good to focus on someone else’s problems rather than my own.
It was the reason I’d joined the service. I couldn’t save Mom, but I could save others. In some messed up, Rorschach-test way, saving others filled the void created inside of me as a child. Watching my mother get tossed around by every guy she brought home had left me feeling helpless.
I didn’t know a lot Juniper’s story, but I knew one thing—her husband was an asshole. What kind of guy would treat her like that? He didn’t deserve Juniper. She deserved better than him.
I flexed my hand before I reached into the cardboard box and pulled out some packages of lunch meat. When I saw him grab her hand at the diner yesterday, it took all my strength not to pull him up and take him outside. There were very few things that could get my blood boiling, and lowlifes who abused women were one of them.
Whenever I saw a man lord himself over a woman, like Juniper’s husband had, it made me lose all the self-control that I’d worked so hard to harness. I didn’t think, I acted. I wasn’t surprised by Juniper’s response. I’d seen it before as a kid. Mom’s blank stare as she tried to process what was happening to her. She was mentally calculating what defying him would do to her situation in the future. Women in battered relationships never stayed because they wanted to.
They knew where acting out left them. If they weren’t ready to face that consequence, then they stayed passive and subservient. Relationships were a game of chess, and they were weighing whether sacrificing their queen was the right move or not.
Many people saw women like that as weak, but Juniper wasn’t weak. The tongue-lashing she’d given me after he left had proven that. She had feelings and opinions—she just lost that part of herself when he was around. And that thought had me flexing my hand as I stood next to the fridge. The desire to take care of her ex grew stronger. If she wasn’t going to leave him, I could make him disappear and make it look like an accident.
It’s not like I had anything to lose.
“You okay, Boone?” The soft, feminine voice of Mrs. Godwin pulled me from my thoughts. I blinked and turned to face her. “What?” I asked as my sight cleared and I saw her standing in front of me with her eyes wide.
“You’re manhandling the meat,” she said, nodding toward my hands.
I glanced down to see that my knuckles were white as I was practically strangling the food. I quickly relaxed my fingers and set the lunch meat down onto the cart that was empty, except for the cardboard box I was currently unpacking.
“Yeah, sorry,” I said as I forced thoughts of Juniper and her husband from my mind and smiled at her. “I just got lost in thought, I guess.”
Mrs. Godwin brought her gaze up to meet mine. “Ah.” She flicked her gaze down to my hands and then to the clipboard she was holding in her hand. “Mr. Godwin was wondering what your availability was for the week so I can make the schedule.”
I turned to the fridge and tucked the slightly strangled lunch meat behind the other packages I’d unloaded earlier. “I’m completely free,” I said as I turned back around to grab the remaining three packages.
“Completely free?” she asked.
I nodded. “Whatever you need, I can do.” When she didn’t respond right away, I glanced over at her. “Is that okay?”
She was writing something on her clipboard, but I could tell that her eyes were brimming with tears. “God truly blessed us when he sent you here.”
