Page 27 of Wrecked By You

Damon shrugged. “If you don’t want me to hold your hand, I won’t.”

My heart raced, and I stared into his glorious green eyes. They were the kind of green that you see in a pine forest. The man reminded me of a large tree, so steady and secure. He always had been. I felt so much attraction to him.

Suddenly, he moved his hand and shrugged. It was almost like I’d rebuffed him. “If you don’t want to hold my hand, that’s fine, but let’s do more rides.” He started walking over to one of the other rides.

I grabbed his hand. “Wait. Can we go—I don’t know—to the pier and just sit by the water and talk for a minute?”

He hesitated and then nodded. “If that’s what you want.”

The sun was setting as we walked onto the pier. I recognized some people, but we didn’t stop to chat. They were all busy with their own lives, and I was grateful for that.

At the end of the pier, there was a bench we used to sit on all the time. There were some people already sitting on it, so I just moved over to a different railing, and we looked out over the lake. The falls were to the left of us. We were just in time to watch the sun go down.

Damon stood next to me, his shoulder brushing mine. He was probably five inches taller. In this moment, I felt another wave of so much attraction. I took a step back.

Damon reached for my hand. “You good?”

It was something we used to ask each other all the time.

I glanced down at our hands. “Damon, I feel all of these things for you.”

“I feel all these things for you, too.”

Nervous butterflies filled me. “I think we should take it slow.”

He seemed to tamp back on his feelings, and he nodded. “Okay. That’s okay.”

I looked around and put a hand through my hair. “It’s like this place has never changed.”

“It’s a good place. I hope that you can find refuge here again. And I know that I’m going to do everything I can to keep your dad in jail.”

My heartbeat kicked up a notch, and I felt confused. “Tell me about this thing you were talking about where my mom testifies.”

“The parole hearing? Yeah, you could testify too, if you wanted.”

I startled a little bit. “What would I say?”

Damon’s eyes bored into mine. “The truth. You would just say the truth.”

I shrugged. “I haven’t seen my dad in almost ten years.”

Damon sucked in a long breath and then let it out. “Do you want him out of prison?”

“No,” I said instantly.

“Then you probably need to tell them that.”

I turned away from him again and clung to the rail. “I don’t know if I can face him.”

Damon moved beside me and put his arm around me. “You’re shaking.”

I hadn’t realized that I was, but it didn’t surprise me. “I haven’t seen my father, and I still feel like that little girl. That teenager who got the crap beaten out of her. The one who didn’t know what to do.”

As if the universe wanted to play some horrible joke on me, right then I heard a familiar voice. “Isla? Is that you? My baby? I heard you were home.”

We both turned to find that my mom was rushing toward me. She wore heels, a tight skirt, and a tank top that showed way too much, especially since her body did not look at all good in those clothes. Her face looked more haggard than it used to be, and her makeup was thicker. Her long black hair hung around her face and looked disheveled. Her eyes were black with thick eyeliner and mascara.

I was in shock.