graces of a few people, but I’m not sure I can. Not in such little time.”
“You could.”
“Or I might not. Either way, I am not going to risk your career over my reputation.”
“I don’t give a fuck about—”
“No. Don’t. Don’t even say it. You’ve worked hard. Besides, you said temporary. That my job is temporary. I’m training now for when Mary Sue takes maternity leave.” As she kept talking, his face started falling, but she couldn’t comfort. If she touched him, it’d be too much. “After she has the baby, what then? All those mouths to feed and one cop salary? I don’t think so. She’ll need that job way more than I ever did. You can have me behind closed doors until November…or not at all. I’m not going to see you throw your life away over something this stupid.”
His cheeks glowed red, hands fisted at his side. He turned on his heel and walked away.
And she let him go when every fiber of her told her to run after and stop him, but she didn’t. She was a big girl.
It was finally time to pay the ultimate price for her poor decisions.
But she wouldn’t do it standing on this porch. She ran. Down the steps, through the garden and into the woods and she kept running. Breath rasped up her itching throat. Her heart pounded as she kept running down a narrow path, swatting clinging, thin spider webs, ignoring the prickly pine straw covered ground under her feet, she didn’t stop.
The sun darted rays through the tree top, birds chirped a spring-satisfied tune. Sap and pine scented the air and should have been a perfect path. It wasn’t. It usually never was when she came running through here like hell bent on wheels.
She ran on, around a corner, past a large sweet gum and stepped on several prickly balls that shot stabs of pain up her legs. She was thankful for an excuse for the tears streaking over her cheeks. The path forked and she slammed to a halt.
To the left, her parents tree. Tiffany’s solace. Where she went anytime things became too much. She hadn’t been that way in years.
To the right, a path leading to Mike’s backyard. The future she craved more than anything. Her chest crumbled into her knotting belly.
She ran to the left. To the only place where she could find a glimmer of the parents she missed so damn much. The path narrowed further, this place long forgotten to anyone but her. She slowed and dipped under low limbed Oak trees and stepped within a clearing no larger than ten feet by ten feet, if that much.
To anyone else, they wouldn’t notice how the other trees had not grown close to this one. How this one tree had managed to grow strong and large in the middle of these woods. They would only notice the heart and initials carved out in the bark.
Like since she was a teenager and she first found this place, she put her hand to the smooth heart, fingered the deep groves creating the initials and tried to remember her parents’ life. As if in this one carving, dating back to when her parents’ had been teens would deliver them to her somehow.
She had no clue what this tree or this spot had meant to her parents. Had they met here often? Escaped to this place in the woods for privacy? She sank to the dirt covered ground and leaned against the tree and closed her eyes again, hoping just this once, she would feel a hug from the parents she dearly missed.
Only the unforgiving rough bark met her skin.
The roots were large and uncomfortable under her bottom, the gnats bit at her skin, but she didn’t leave. She wrapped an arm as much as she could against the unfeeling, massive tree. Her knees were tucked to her chest.
Heart bleeding dry. Hot tears streaked over her cheeks.
She was so tired of losing things.
Chapter Thirteen
Mike banged his fists on this hood of his truck. When that brought no satisfaction, he tugged at the roots of his hair.
Stupid , she’d said . Fuck. That.
No. This was bullshit. He was not accepting this. He was not going to hide her,
“You could.”
“Or I might not. Either way, I am not going to risk your career over my reputation.”
“I don’t give a fuck about—”
“No. Don’t. Don’t even say it. You’ve worked hard. Besides, you said temporary. That my job is temporary. I’m training now for when Mary Sue takes maternity leave.” As she kept talking, his face started falling, but she couldn’t comfort. If she touched him, it’d be too much. “After she has the baby, what then? All those mouths to feed and one cop salary? I don’t think so. She’ll need that job way more than I ever did. You can have me behind closed doors until November…or not at all. I’m not going to see you throw your life away over something this stupid.”
His cheeks glowed red, hands fisted at his side. He turned on his heel and walked away.
And she let him go when every fiber of her told her to run after and stop him, but she didn’t. She was a big girl.
It was finally time to pay the ultimate price for her poor decisions.
But she wouldn’t do it standing on this porch. She ran. Down the steps, through the garden and into the woods and she kept running. Breath rasped up her itching throat. Her heart pounded as she kept running down a narrow path, swatting clinging, thin spider webs, ignoring the prickly pine straw covered ground under her feet, she didn’t stop.
The sun darted rays through the tree top, birds chirped a spring-satisfied tune. Sap and pine scented the air and should have been a perfect path. It wasn’t. It usually never was when she came running through here like hell bent on wheels.
She ran on, around a corner, past a large sweet gum and stepped on several prickly balls that shot stabs of pain up her legs. She was thankful for an excuse for the tears streaking over her cheeks. The path forked and she slammed to a halt.
To the left, her parents tree. Tiffany’s solace. Where she went anytime things became too much. She hadn’t been that way in years.
To the right, a path leading to Mike’s backyard. The future she craved more than anything. Her chest crumbled into her knotting belly.
She ran to the left. To the only place where she could find a glimmer of the parents she missed so damn much. The path narrowed further, this place long forgotten to anyone but her. She slowed and dipped under low limbed Oak trees and stepped within a clearing no larger than ten feet by ten feet, if that much.
To anyone else, they wouldn’t notice how the other trees had not grown close to this one. How this one tree had managed to grow strong and large in the middle of these woods. They would only notice the heart and initials carved out in the bark.
Like since she was a teenager and she first found this place, she put her hand to the smooth heart, fingered the deep groves creating the initials and tried to remember her parents’ life. As if in this one carving, dating back to when her parents’ had been teens would deliver them to her somehow.
She had no clue what this tree or this spot had meant to her parents. Had they met here often? Escaped to this place in the woods for privacy? She sank to the dirt covered ground and leaned against the tree and closed her eyes again, hoping just this once, she would feel a hug from the parents she dearly missed.
Only the unforgiving rough bark met her skin.
The roots were large and uncomfortable under her bottom, the gnats bit at her skin, but she didn’t leave. She wrapped an arm as much as she could against the unfeeling, massive tree. Her knees were tucked to her chest.
Heart bleeding dry. Hot tears streaked over her cheeks.
She was so tired of losing things.
Chapter Thirteen
Mike banged his fists on this hood of his truck. When that brought no satisfaction, he tugged at the roots of his hair.
Stupid , she’d said . Fuck. That.
No. This was bullshit. He was not accepting this. He was not going to hide her,
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