Page 44 of Escape
I closed my eyes and let out a sigh. If I hadn’t given her my card, maybe this wouldn’t have happened to her. I should have been smarter than that. I should have just gone into the diner regularly to check on her.
If I thought I felt guilty before she gave me this information, it didn’t compare to what I felt now. No wonder Josie had struggled to share the details with me. Regret consumed me. Had I brought all of this on her?
“I’m so sorry. I should have known better than to give you my card.”
“Huck, you didn’t know?—”
“I knew,” I insisted, cutting her off. “The first day I saw you, I just had that feeling. That was a big part of the reason I gave you the card. I tried to keep it casual, but the truth was that I had a suspicion about your situation. But without any concrete evidence, I didn’t want to come right out, make assumptions, and create an uncomfortable or awkward situation for you. I knew it was possible you were still dealing with lingering trauma over what your dad did to you. Fuck, I’m so sorry for putting you in an even more vulnerable position for my own selfish reasons.”
“Selfish?”
I let out a frustrated sigh. “When I saw you for the first time after all these years, I couldn’t think straight. I was hit with so many memories of all the time we’d spent together that last year of high school, and I realized just how much I missed you.”
For the first time since Josie had woken up, the corners of her mouth tipped up. She flipped her hand over beneath mine so she could curl her fingers around my hand. After giving me a squeeze there, she revealed, “You weren’t the only one distracted. Seeing you for the first time in all these years was the greatest gift for me.”
That felt good to hear. Maybe all of the things I’d been wondering that day—like if she’d remember my order without needing to write it down because she wasn’t going to forget a word we said to one another—had been accurate. She felt the same about seeing me as I did about seeing her. But as much as I appreciated knowing the feeling was mutual, the thought I’d done something to only exacerbate her situation still haunted me.
Considering Josie had already been concerned about sharing the details with me about what happened to her, I didn’t want to dwell on the guilt I felt. I’d handle that on my own. For now, I needed to set my feelings aside and focus on what I was going to do to help Josie heal.
Returning her smile, I said, “For what it’s worth, if I had known just how bad things were for you, I would have done something differently. My intention in giving you my card was only to give you some hope and perhaps a connection to someone you could depend on. We can’t go back to change any of it, and that sucks. As long as you know that I’m going to be here for you every step of the way while you heal, that’s all that matters now. And I will say that it’s nice to know I wasn’t the only one caught up in our first encounter in years.”
“Thank you, Huck. Thank you for always being someone I could put my faith and trust in. It’s nice to have someone to depend on.”
She should have been able to depend on me in the years that followed our high school graduation. If I’d stuck around, she wouldn’t have ever been in the position to feel like she had nobody there for her.
“From this point forward, Josie, you’re always going to have that from me. I need to know that you believe that.”
Her chin jerked down slightly. “I do.”
“Good. Now, what did the doctor have to say? Is he happy with your progress so far?”
“I think so. Unfortunately, I’m not getting out of here right away, and it’s just now hitting me that I’m supposed to be at work.”
I could tell she was about to start fretting, so I went back to stroking my thumb over the skin on her hand. “I took care of it.”
Her lips parted. “What?”
“I called your job and told them you were taken to the hospital and wouldn’t be in for a few days. I didn’t tell them what happened; that’s yours to share whenever you are ready. But I thought you’d want them to know that you didn’t just blow them off,” I explained.
She hesitated to respond, her eye roaming over my face. There was a sense of disbelief lingering there. “Thank you for doing that.”
“I told you I was going to be here for you. I’m going to do whatever you need and get you through this with the least amount of hassle and heartache.”
“Well, speaking of hassle,” she started. “When the doctor and nurse were in here earlier, they told me they had no choice but to report my situation and that I should expect some police officers will be stopping in to speak with me.”
I gave her a nod. “Okay. You don’t have to worry about that. Whatever you decide to do, press charges or not, I’m behind you all the way.”
“Do you think I should?” she asked.
“I think a man like him deserves everything he’s got coming to him. But the way I feel, and the way you feel, are two different things. At the very least, I do think you should file a report. It would be wise to have it documented in case you should ever need it.”
As soon as the words were out of my mouth, Josie’s body tensed. “Because it’s possible, and likely, he could come after me, right?”
Suddenly, I was the one struggling to speak. I had to tell her the truth, but I didn’t know how she was going to handle it. Following a long stretch of silence, I confessed, “I’d like to think he got the message loud and clear, but I don’t know him well enough to know how he’ll react.”
“The message? You think that he realizes that me not being there when he got home was enough for him to recognize that I’d reached my breaking point?” she questioned me.
I shook my head. “That’s not the message I’m talking about.”