Page 102 of You Found Me

“Yes. You should.” Della put a soft hand on his arm. “I want to know. It helps.”

He wasn’t sure if she meant it would help her deal with her own situation, or if she thought it would help him deal with his own.

“The day she died was the first time I saw him. Hell, it was the first time I’d even heard about him. Mom and I were at the gas station and boom, there he was. He kept getting closer. Asking Mom questions. Like he was an old friend, catching up. But I could tell he made her edgy. The way he wouldn’t back off…so desperate to get her attention…it tripped my trigger.”

“What did your mom do?”

“She blew it off. Told me not to worry about it. He was harmless. Just someone who had a crush on her back in the day. No big deal.” He kept his eyes on the flowers, but he knew his words had to be hitting home with Della. They were so similar to what she’d said when she got the first letter. “I couldn’t let it go. So when she dropped me off at practice, I waited in the parking lot instead of going to the field. I just had this feeling that he’d been following her, you know? Sure enough, just after she left, his truck showed up. We jumped into Brick’s car and took off after them, but…”

His spine stiffened with remembered guilt and anxiety. “We couldn’t catch up. We barely made it in time to see him pull in front of her. He was trying to get her to stop, but they were on the bridge. There’s no shoulder. She swerved to avoid him, then went over.”

“Oh my God.” The sunflowers tumbled out of her arms. Della’s hands flew up to cover her mouth. “You saw it. You were there and you saw it happen. I didn’t know. I’m so sorry.”

He half shrugged and looked away. The flowers blurred into a mass of green and yellow in front of him. “I shouldn’t have told you all that. It was inappropriate.”

“You needed to tell someone. That’s too much to carry all by yourself.” Her arms snaked around his waist and squeezed as she buried her head against his chest. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry that happened to her. To you. To your dad. It’s not right.”

He sank into the comfort of her arms, lost in the memories he’d locked inside himself.

In that moment, he didn’t give a damn that she was his protectee and he was her bodyguard. He didn’t give a damn about rules or what he should be doing.

He needed this. He’d needed it every time he’d crossed that bridge, but he’d never told anyone.

When they separated, he saw that she’d been silently crying the tears he refused to shed, and it almost broke him.

He looked away. He had to get a grip.

“No wonder you don’t want to spend any time here,” she whispered.

He rubbed the back of his neck. He ached, as much from the log splitting as the emotional heavy lifting just now. “It was a long time ago. I’m past it.”

“Not sure I’d ever get past that.” She hugged herself as if she were cold. “Not sure anyone could."

He knelt to gather the flowers she’d dropped. “That’s why I won’t sell the house. Not to Rachel. Not to anybody. Mom loved the life she built in that house.”

“So do you. It’s okay to say it, you know. Youshouldlove that house. It definitely loves you.” Della joined him, stacking flowers to form a bundle with the blossoms sticking up past her shoulder. “Did they catch the guy?”

“They didn’t.” He reached for a flower that had tangled in the nearby stalks. “I did.”

She blinked at him. “What did you do when you caught him?”

He kept his grip loose, even though he wanted to clench his fists. “I dragged him out of his busted-ass truck and beat the shit out of him. If it weren’t for Brick, I’d have killed him. I wanted to.”

He swallowed against the anger that still rose every time he thought about that day. Della had to know what kind of man he was. That he was someone who could kill a man…that man…and not think twice about it.

“I would have done the same thing. If I could.” She took a deep breath and blew it out. “But the lady who was driving drunk never even knew she hit my dad. They both died that day. I wanted so much to be mad, to have someone to shout at or beat up. But there was nobody. It would have felt good to have someone to punch, I think.”

“Be glad you didn’t. It didn’t really help.” He handed her a bunch of stems and watched as she incorporated them into her larger bundle. “It changed my life. Not just because Mom was gone. Garner got off light because of what I did. He was sentenced to seven years for vehicular manslaughter. Got out in five. He’s now working as a mechanic at a garage in New Hope.”

“Seven years.” Della sat back on her heels, balancing the bundle of stems on her lap. “That’s it? Seven years?”

“His lawyer spun some bullshit about how it was all just an accident, and that he was the real victim because I pounded on him for, and I quote, no good reason.” It felt like he was chipping each word off a block of stone. “It wasn’t just an accident. Isawhim push up next to her and jerk the wheel. Saw him run right into her. But I was just a teenager, and I was the one who beat the son of a bitch to within an inch of his life, so they didn’t take my word for it. Instead, they charged me with assault and attempted murder. Could have gone to prison myself, but thejudge saw what was what and offered me a shot at wiping my slate if I joined the military. I picked the Marines.”

“Now you protect people like me,” Della added so softly he almost missed it. “Even when you hate them.”

“I don’t hate you.”

“You don’t?”