Beth gave an approving nod, then grinned and winked at me. “Got yourself a good man there. You let him pamper and take care of you, so that the next time I see you, maybe it can be over a glass of wine instead of a first aid kit. Yeah?”
“I’d like that,” I answered, meaning it.
“Good.” She pointed at the card in my hand. “Then use that number for a girls’ night when you’re ready.”
“Will do, for sure.”
She walked away with a promise to check on me tomorrow.
Chase went back to sitting quietly beside me. I could feel the fury still radiating from him as he stared into the distance.
“Jordan, honey,” I said quietly. “Why don’t you head back inside? I think there’s a young lady who is worried and would really like a dance with you.”
He shifted on his feet. “I don’t want to leave you. You might need something, and I can go get it.”
“Chase is here if I need something.” I gently tipped my head toward the barn. He picked up on the clue that I wanted to be alone with Chase.
“Okay. But I’ll be close by if you need me.”
“I know.”
He hesitated, then carefully hugged me.
“Sweet boy,” I whispered in his ear. “Now go have fun. I want to hear about this girl sometime.”
His expression grew a little sheepish before he turned and walked back to the barn, casting one last glance over his shoulder before disappearing inside.
“I can feel you thinking,” I said softly to Chase once we were alone.
He didn’t look at me. “I can’t stop replaying it. Seeinghim with his foot lifted, ready tokickyou. My God. Anna, I…”
I laced my fingers with his. “But you stopped him.”
“But I should have seen the signs. The way he seemed infatuated with you. The way Jordan didn’t like working with him. Something.Anything.This should have never happened.”
“Chase, honey. He was your friend. You had no reason to suspect him of anything other than being a good employee. We might never know what caused him to snap. But that’s not on you.”
He let out a strangled laugh.
“Stop,” I said firmly. “Lay it down.”
His brow furrowed as he looked at me.
“The guilt you feel. I’ve carried a lot of that kind of weight in myself. It doesn’t do any good. If Mason was in a bad mood, I’d wonder what I’d done wrong. If he ignored me, I thought I hadn’t done something well enough. If I asked too many questions, I wasn’t supportive enough. No matter what happened between us, I took the blame. He handed out guilt like Halloween candy, and I swallowed it up. And even here, I believed his choices were mine to answer for.”
Chase’s fingers tightened around mine.
“But they weren’t. Since I’ve been here, you’ve helped me to unlearn that.You.Supporting me. Helping me let go of guilt that was never mine to begin with. And I’ll be damned if I let you carry this when itwasn’t your fault.”
His throat worked, like he was trying to find words but couldn’t.
“You showed up, Chase. Not just tonight, but back in high school when I was having a hard time adjusting. Again, when I came back to town with nothing and no one.”
“I didn’t show up in college, though.”
I shook my head. “We’ve been over that. We’ve made peace with it. We were kids doing the best we could with what we knew. We can’t rewrite that. But we can protect what we have now. Let’s not start building up extra burdens that aren’t ours.”
His eyes turned glossy with emotion. “I was terrified, Anna. When I saw him about to kick you, I don’t know. I just saw red.”
