Chapter 28
CHAPTER TWENTY- EIGHT
RYDER
It didn’t take a genius to know Penny had been triggered by the cop, and shit , I was so stupid. I’d brought her right back to that dark place she’d worked so hard to leave behind.
“I’ve got you,” I whispered, holding her close until finally she started to relax, her face still smashed into the crook of my shoulder.
“It was just an overreaction,” she whispered. “I’m okay, everything’s okay.”
She seemed to be talking to herself, soothing herself, not me, and it killed me. Had she been alone in the aftermath?
“Pen—”
“Let’s go sand.”
“What?” I shook my head. “No. You’re?—”
Still burrowed into me, she set a finger over my mouth.
I kissed that finger before I spoke around it. “It’s okay to need a moment, to give yourself some?—”
“If you’re going to say time , don’t.” She hesitated, then finally lifted her face, eyes stark, mouth grim. “I’ve given myself time. Too much of it. What I want is to be… normal . So please, let’s just go sand. Unless you’ve changed your mind, which I would understand.”
A shot right through the heart I didn’t like to acknowledge. She was one of the strongest women I’d ever met, and even though she didn’t need me to, I still wanted to slay her dragons for her.
“I’ve meant everything I’ve ever said to you.” If nothing else, I needed her to believe that. “My woodshop’s in the barn behind my house. Are you sure?—”
“I like your house,” she said quietly. “It’s warm and safe. Take me there.”
So I did.