Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 107630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
But that doesn’t mean it’s an easy trip.
Nope, as I turn down my street, I see another car I hadn’t considered. Roy’s Lexus is parked in the driveway next to Mom’s car.
“What is he doing here?” I ask aloud. Nobody answers me, of course, but a sixth sense in my gut knows. He’s still not giving up.
But I’m not going in there to listen to him talk down to me again or try to woo me into marrying him as if I just had a little meltdown moment like a tantruming toddler and should be fine after a nap and snack. I’m also not gonna let him run me away from my own home.
I park around the corner like a perfectly reasonable person with big brass balls of courage and walk toward the house, thankful no one in the neighborhood is outside to see me sneaking up like a coward. Silently, I go through the gate into the backyard and turn the knob on the back door as slowly as I can. I slide through the tiniest crack I can fit through and then close the door with a small snick, staying out of sight.
I can hear Roy and Mom in the living room, and I eavesdrop shamelessly.
“I don’t know what’s gotten into her,” Roy says, sounding exasperated. “I thought everything was good.”
“You’ll have to talk to her about that,” Mom replies gently. I get the sense she’s told him that a few times already, because I can hear the like I said tone in her voice that I’m all too familiar with. Mostly because Shepherd takes at least four times of hearing something before he processes it. He’s better now, but when we were kids? We all got tired of repeating ourselves when he’d be lost in his own head.
“I tried!” Roy exclaims. “Ended up at the hospital, getting my nose set for it.” He does sound a bit stuffy, I realize. I feel guilty about it, yet I can’t help but smile just a tiny bit because he deserved it. A little.
“I’m glad they were able to take care of it.” Mom’s being polite, but I know she’s angry at Roy on my behalf. Sharing what it’s been like behind the facade of our relationship has been hard for her to hear, and she’s disappointed in us both. “I think it’s important that you listen to what Hope has said, though. She’s sharing her heart, and you should pay attention to that. Even if it’s hard, even if it hurts.”
“It’s just this guy,” he scoffs, dismissing her advice. “This Benjamin Taylor guy. He’s got her head all messed up, but there are things Hope doesn’t know about him. Things that would make her realize he’s got her confused.”
It’s not Ben. It’s you!
I want to yell out to correct his entirely off-track thinking. The issues I had with Roy have been there, festering deep and hot until they boiled up to the surface at the wedding. We were done long before then. I just hadn’t admitted it, even to myself. And when I escaped, Ben was in the right place at the right time to help me, and that’s turned into something bigger, better, and more intense than anything I ever felt for Roy.
“What do you mean?” Mom asks.
Curiosity killed the cat, but Mom can’t help batting at the carrot Roy’s dangling in front of her. She’s looking out for me, and if there’s a chance Roy knows something I don’t, Mom will want to make sure I’ve got all the information I need to make a good decision. But Roy sounds almost delighted to divulge ugliness about Ben, which says more about him than the man he’s dragging through the mud.
“He’s got a record. It took Dad a little bit to get an unsealed report, but he did. Taylor was part of a theft ring in California that hit dozens of houses and stole thousands of dollars’ worth of property. He’d go door to door, putting flyers out as a cover, and when nobody collected the flyer, he’d hit the house, stealing what he could—jewelry, electronics, cash, guns, drugs. Until one day, he got caught and the whole ring was busted. Him, his mom, and a whole bunch of other people—they all served time. He’s a criminal, probably scoping out houses around Maple Creek the whole time he’s been here. He was here, too, right? You should check your jewelry box, probably Jim’s toolbox too.”
Roy makes it sound like Ben was the criminal mastermind of the theft ring and is continuing his tirade of terror on our town now, starting with our home. But that’s not true. That’s not what happened then, and it’s not what’s happening now.
Ben told me about his mom’s boyfriend and about how he turned on him, getting plea deals for himself and his mother. Yes, Ben stole, and yes, he was a criminal, and I’m not excusing that, but he was young, desperate, and trying to keep his mother safe from a very scary guy.