Sanctuary

remained dark, but the shadows in them shifted from misery to temper. He pushed her hand aside. “You know what, Alexa? Even my limited little world doesn’t revolve only around you.”
    “You’ve got your nerve, thinking you can talk to me that way. If you think I care what your world revolves around, Giff, you’re very mistaken. I couldn’t care less.”
    “Right now that makes two of us. Get away from the truck.”
    “I will not. Not until I’ve had my say.”
    “I don’t give a damn what you have to say, now back off before you get hurt.”
    She did just the opposite, stretching through the open window to turn the key and shut the engine down. “Don’t you order me around.” She stuck her face in his. “Don’t you think for one minute you can tell me what to do, or threaten me into doing it.”
    She sucked in a breath, prepared to scold him properly. But there was misery in his eyes again, more than she’d ever seen or expected to. Her temper subsided, and she laid a hand on his cheek. “What’s the matter, honey? What’s hurting you?”
    He started to shake his head, but she kept her hand in place. “We can be mad at each other later. You talk to me now. Tell me what’s wrong.”
    “Ginny.” He let out an explosive breath that scalded his throat. “Not a word from her, Lexy. Not a single word. I don’t know what to do anymore. What to say to my family anymore. I don’t even know how to feel.”
    “I know.” She slipped back, opened the door. “Come on.”
    “I’ve got work to do.”
    “You do what I say for once in your life. Now come on with me.” She took his hand, tugging until he climbed out. Saying nothing, she led him around the side of the house toward the shade. “Sit down here.” She drew him down on the side of the rope hammock and, slipping an arm around him, nudged his head down to her shoulder. “You just rest your mind a minute.”
    “I don’t think about it all the time,” he murmured. “You go crazy if you do.”
    “I know.” Reaching around, she took his hand in hers. “It just sneaks up on you now and again, and it hurts so much you don’t think you can stand it. But you do, till the next time.”
    “I know what people are saying. She just got a wild hair and took off. It’d be easier if I could believe that.”
    “It wouldn’t, not really. It hurts either way. When Mama left I cried and cried for her. I figured if I cried enough she’d hear me and come back. When I got older I thought, well, she just didn’t care enough about me, so I won’t care either. I stopped crying, but it still hurt all the same.”
    “I keep thinking she’ll send some stupid postcard from Disney World or somewhere. Then I could just be mad at her instead of so goddamn worried.”
    Lexy tried to imagine that, let herself see it. Perfect. Ginny on some colorful, foolish ride, howling with laughter. “It’d be just like her to do that.”
    “I guess it would.” He stared down at their joined hands, watching their fingers interlace. “I just tore a strip off Brian over it. Stupid.”
    “Don’t you worry about that. Brian’s hide’s thick enough to take it.”
    “How about yours?” He eased back, absently pushing a loosened bobby pin back into her messy topknot.
    “All us Hathaways are tougher than we look.”
    “I’m sorry anyway.” He lifted their joined hands and kissed her knuckles. “Do we have to be mad at each other later?”
    “I guess not.” She kissed him lightly, then smiled. The birds were singing in the trees above her, and the flowers smelled so nice and sweet on the air. “Since I’ve been missing you, just a little bit.”
    Her breath caught as he pulled her close, pressed his face hard against her throat. “I need you, Lexy. I need you.”
    When she released her breath, it was unsteady, shuddering from lungs to throat to lips. She put her hands on his shoulders, her fingers pressing once into those hard muscles. Then she pulled back, rose, struggling to grip her own emotions as firmly.
    She’d turned her back on him. Giff rubbed his hands over his face, then dropped them helplessly. “What did I say now? What is it I do that always makes you take that step back from me?”
    “I’m not.” She had to press her fingers to her lips to stop them from trembling before she faced him again. When she did, her heart was swimming in her eyes. “In my whole life, my whole life, Giff, no one’s ever said that to me. Unless it was a man