“Jess. Now. Go inside.” His voice was hard and commanding. “Mike and I have a few things to get straight.”
She met his gaze and for once she didn’t argue with him. She hurried into the store, grabbed the first carton of vanilla ice cream she saw, and paid for it without ever looking at the cashier.
“Are you all right?” a soft teenage voice asked her from behind the counter. “Do I need to call someone for you?”
She shook her head wildly. “No, it’s fine, really.” She peered through the door and saw Mike stalking off to his car again and her body relaxed a fraction. “It’s all good now. Sorry for the disturbance.”
“Receipt in the bag okay?”
It was such a mundane, ordinary question that Jess barely registered it. “Oh, yes, fine,” she stammered, distracted, then grabbed the bag and went back outside.
Rick was waiting for her. “Let’s go,” he said shortly, and stalked off toward the sidewalk.
“Wait up!” She hurried after him, totally freaked out about what had just happened. In her mind she’d wondered what it would be like to see Mike. If he’d changed, if she’d be afraid, what he’d say. If he’d ignore their past or if he’d be hostile and aggressive.
Now her body trembled wondering how it would have gone down if she’d walked to the store by herself. It was back to this now. Being afraid to be alone. And boy, did that piss her off.
“Rick, wait!”
He hesitated, long enough for her to catch up with him again. “Sorry,” he said, his voice tight. “I’m a little keyed up. I didn’t realize how fast I was going.”
She reached for his hand and then drew hers back as she felt wetness on her fingertips. The punch to Mike’s face had ripped his knuckles, making them bleed. “Stop,” she pleaded. “Let me look at your hand. Rick…”
“You can look at it once we’re at Sarah’s. The ice cream is melting.” He started walking again, not much slower than before.
It was a cool November day and it was a ten-minute walk at best. The ice cream would be fine. But Jess could tell that Rick wasn’t. He was agitated, full of adrenaline. Not much wonder. He’d held his cool remarkably well at first. And even when he’d stepped in, he hadn’t lost it the way Josh had that first night.
She couldn’t escape the look of Mike’s mocking face as he’d said, “You never know where I’ll show up.” He was a master of intimidation. If he wanted Jess to be looking over her shoulder, this was the perfect way. The rest of the words she didn’t care about. The insults didn’t matter. But the fear … that was his objective. And until she stopped being afraid, he would always win.
“Wait. Rick, goddammit. Wait just a minute, okay?”
She stopped, put her hands on her knees, and felt the shakes start, the aftermath of the adrenaline rush. Her breath came in short gasps and she dropped the grocery bag on the ground. It was over and she was fine. She knew that. She just needed a minute for her body to get the memo and steady out.
She heard Rick swear and then his arm came around her. “I’m sorry, Jess. I’m so wound up I don’t know what to do with myself. Take deep breaths. Maybe we both need a few minutes to get ourselves together, huh?”
She focused on breathing and let him pull her into his embrace, working on slowing her heart rate. “You gonna be all right?” he asked roughly.
Jess nodded against his shoulder. “Yeah. Delayed reaction I guess. What you did back there…”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to … I mean, I know you’ve got to be sensitive to violence, but I swear he knew how to push my buttons and…” He cursed again, and she smiled.
“It’s okay. I could see how hard you were trying.”
Rick pulled back a little and looked down into her eyes. There’d been so many emotions today but right now she looked into Rick Sullivan’s face and felt as safe and loved as she’d ever been. He pushed a bit of hair back from her face with his hurt hand. “What makes people like that, do you think?” he asked. “The Greers are normal people. I can’t imagine Mike learned that at home.”
Jess shrugged. His hand felt so good along the side of her face and she reached up and covered it with her own. “I don’t know. I wondered if he had changed, you know? Sometimes I wondered if some things had really happened or if I imagined it. But it did and he hasn’t changed and…” She shivered all over, then took a deep breath and pushed out of his arms a little, determined to be stronger. To not give Mike one more ounce of power over her.
She met Rick’s gaze. “What did you say to him? When I went inside?”
His thumb touched the corner of her mouth and he kissed her, a soft, brief kiss that was tender and healing.
“I told him that I’d already seen hell, and I’d go back there in a heartbeat if it meant protecting you from the likes of him.”
* * *
Sarah was on them the moment they went back inside the house. “What in the world took you so long? We’ve been waiting for ages!”
Jess’s temper flared. “Give it a rest, will you?” She barely had the door shut and someone was in her face. The afternoon had been stressful enough without family getting on her back about something as trivial as dessert. “Here, take your ice cream.”