“I came here for a fresh start away from everything that happened back home and I can’t get away from it.”
“My mom says you can’t run from your past. You can only face it and deal with it.”
“I don’twantto deal with Joe.”
“I know, baby.” I hug her tighter. “I’ll talk to Cherese and Gretchen to see if it’s possible to get a restraining order against him. I think with your photos and if Lucy is up to talking to my future lawyer and signing an affidavit, it might be possible. That way you’ll have a legal avenue to fight. This isn’t some small town in West Virginia. This is Minneapolis and here,I’ma big deal. The Raptors are a big deal. The police will listen to you here.”
She doesn’t look like she believes me and I don’t blame her. She’s had bad experiences with law enforcement. I’ll talk to Mom in the morning. I’m pretty sure she’s friends with a cop’s wife. Maybe she can talk to him to see what Daisy can do.
She sighs heavily. “I was starting to feel normal again and the fear was all but gone. He was in Texas and had no idea of where I was. Now that Lucy’s made the point about his connections on other college teams, I can’t get it out of my head. It was stupid of me not to think about that.”
“No, it wasn’t,” I disagree. “You were told by law enforcement who is a member of his family, that he’d stay away. You believed that. It wasn’t stupid. It was a natural response.”
She snuggles against me and I pull her closer until she’s laying on my chest. Her shaking has almost stopped.
“You make me feel safe,” she whispers.
“Good.” I kiss the top of her head.
“Lucy asked me tonight if Joe ever made me feel safe and I had to think about it before I said no. I’ve never had to think about that with you, even when I did my best to push you away.”
“I’m not going anywhere, sweetheart, and I’m going to do my best to always make you feel safe.”
She tips her head back and looks up at me. Her eyes are bright and completely open and vulnerable. She’s never once looked at me with that much honesty. Her walls are down and she’s not hiding from me.
Finally.
“You have the potential to destroy me, Jonathan Hutchinson and for that reason you terrify me.”
“I swear on my mother’s life, I will do my best not to hurt you. I’m not stupid enough to think we’ll never fight or argue, but I won’t yell and I will never be physical. You have my word on that, Daisy. All I ask in return is that you don’t shut me out anymore.”
“It’s hard,” she says after a long minute, “but I promise to try.”
“All I can ask for, Red.” I kiss her forehead. “Feeling better now? Your shaking has almost stopped.”
She nods. “Yes, thank you for coming over.”
“You call and if I can get here I will. I’ll be gone a lot, though. We’ll be going all over to play, but you can call and we’ll Facetime for as long as you want.”
“I don’t have an iPhone.”
“Don’t tell me you’re an Apple snob.”
She laughs. “What?”
“One of those people who say Apple isn’t as good as some of the other phones. That they’re expensive pieces of junk.”
“Nope. I fall into the category of its too expensive for me. My phone is one I bought at Walmart that costs about a hundred bucks.”
I make a note of that. I’m buying my girl a decent phone. She will probably argue and refuse to take it, but it’s an argument I plan on winning. She needs a reliable phone.
“When’s your birthday?”
She looks up at me. “October 31st.”
“You’re a Halloween baby?” Her birthday is in a week. I have time to get her a good phone and an excuse to give it to her.
She laughs. “I had some of the best birthday parties when I was little. Not only did I get presents, but everyone got to dress up and we’d all go trick or treating afterwards.”
