“I know we’ve already moved that run around the property off a couple times for various reasons, but another day couldn’t hurt. Let you get some sleep.”
She exhaled. “Would that be okay?”
“Of course.”
The moonlight played over her face as she smiled. “Thanks.”
“What memories are haunting you?”
She looked past him, her gaze going distant. Her tongue slid over her lips, and she lifted a shoulder. “Talking to your guys the other day just brought up some of the rougher memories from my travels. And my mom is always a complicated ball of thoughts.”
“Miss her?” he asked, thinking of his own parents and how long it had been since he’d seen them. They’d never approved of him going into the military and criticized the way he’d handled the situation with Bella. He’d been at odds with them ever since.
“Yes and no,” Everly said.
That surprised him. “No?”
She pushed off the wall and floated a few feet away. In the dark, he couldn’t appreciate all the details of her body, but her silhouette alone was enough to assure his own sleep wouldn’t improve any. “She had issues. Our relationship was rocky.”
“What kind of issues?” he pressed gently.
Everly thought about it a second. “She has trouble with mood swings, personal barriers, and limits. She’d often overdo, overpromise, overtax herself. She’d get manic and work double shifts, then crash and burn. I’d end up taking care of her after already long days of my own. She didn’t stop when she got sick, and her resistance to taking care of herself drove a wedge between us.”
One word from that explanation stuck in his head. Has. Present tense. He tried to convince himself it wasn’t important.
“In my experience, do-gooders often overextend themselves,” he told her. “We met many a missionary during our work overseas. Too many worked themselves into burnout. They couldn’t understand how taking time to care for their own needs ultimately benefited the people they were there to help.”
“That’s exactly what I tried to explain to her, but she never stopped and never sought help for her mental health. Our last words were angry words.”
They relaxed into the silence and Austin was surprised to find that he didn’t want to go back inside. Back to his lonely bed. He found himself fighting an inner battle. Part of him wanted to let go of his fears and suspicions, let his guard down and get to know her. The other part kept erecting red flags, making him search for discrepancies and warning him to keep his barriers in place.
She held his gaze and tilted her head. “Why isn’t there a Mrs. Hix?”
He huffed a laugh. “There’s really no time for a Mrs. Hix. Besides, I’m not exactly the marrying kind.”
“Weren’t you married to Bella’s mother?”
“No. Bella was a surprise to both of us.”
“Where’s her mother now?”
“She died.”
“Oh.” A frown pulled at her brows. “I’m sorry.”
He nodded. “Thanks. We weren’t together when it happened. Hadn’t really been together for years. We dated in college, you know? Nothing serious. More friends than lovers. She got mixed up in drugs. I wanted to go into the military, and I knew I needed a clean sheet, so we went our own ways. We’d connect now and then when I came home on leave.”
“And one of those connections created Bella,” Everly said.
“Yeah.” He looked down at his clasped hands. “I didn’t know about her. I was overseas, doing classified work. Dawn, her mom, couldn’t reach me. Two years had passed by the time the news caught up to me, and then only because Dawn’
s parents wanted custody.”
“Bet finding out you had a kid that way shocked you into cardiac arrest.”
“For sure.”
“Well, she’s here with you. It must have worked out.”