“When I was seventeen,” said Sadie hoping it didn’t sound too much like the start of a song, “I ran away with my boyfriend. We got married when I turned eighteen. He was a douche who drank too much and smoked too much weed, but I was young, and I thought I was in love and I wanted to get away from my mom.” She snorted. “As you can imagine, it didn’t end well. He robbed a liquor store and took off with another girl after we’d been married for about two months.
“He pretty much left me with nothing so I had to take any job I could get. I saw this ad for a car dealership that wanted girls to present the cars – by which I mean they wanted cute women to wear bikinis and point at the cars to make perverts want to buy them. It was stupid, but I was hungry.
“While I was there, I met the owner of the dealership – Al. He was nice and handsome, and he singled me out. I wasn’t the prettiest girl he hired, but he flattered me, and when I told him about my problems, he made sure my landlord didn’t kick me out. So, I went out with him. After being with my husband, it was nice to be with a guy who didn’t get into an argument with the waiter, or steal all the sugar packets or try to dine and dash. He was older and back then I thought he was worldly and sophisticated. Ha!”
Sadie groaned at how naïve she had been. She thought he was wonderful – her hero. But in reality, he had just been a guy in his thirties lusting after a teenage girl, and she had been too foolish to see he was an overgrown bully.
“After a few weeks of dating, he started paying my rent. Then he said it was silly to pay rent when I could live with him, so I moved in, and a couple of months later I was already pregnant with Mandy. He proposed, and I said yes. He wanted a family, and so did I. He tracked down my first husband, forced him to sign the divorce papers, and that was that.”
She looked at Lorenzo, walking quietly beside her. His face was a blank mask as he patiently listened.
“Things were fine for a while. I was so wrapped up in Mandy that I didn’t see anything was wrong, but when she started going to school, I started noticing little things that made me unhappy. Like the fact that Al didn’t like me leaving the house on my own. He insisted he come grocery shopping with me. He got angry and accused me of cheating on him if I even talked to another guy. He was so possessive. I put up with it for a long time because I cared for him, and I wanted Mandy to have both her parents. But, it got to the point where I couldn’t stand it anymore.
“A courier came to the house – he was just delivering a package for Al. He started choking on my doorstep, so I let him into the house for a glass of water. He delivered things to us regularly, so I knew him – he was a teenage boy working to put himself through college, and more harmless than a housefly. But Al came home found him there and went berserk. He broke the poor boy’s jaw.
“I left that day. That was a year ago. I took Mandy and moved in with my cousin, Gina until we could find our own place. Then I started divorce proceedings.”
Sadly she couldn’t use what he did to the courier as a reason for leaving him – Al paid off the boy and had him sign an agreement that said he could never talk about it again. No one else knew what he did.
Lorenzo stopped walking and faced her, his expression grim. “I’m guessing he didn’t take too well to you doing that.”
Sadie shook her head. “No, he did everything to try and get us back, but I refused. He’s been dragging the divorce out for a year. I’m worried he’s going to get Mandy. He has a lot of powerful friends who are all happy to say how wonderful he is, and how crazy I am for leaving him.”
He stared into the distance. “Does he still want you back?”
“Yes, he tells me all the time. He’s… very cruel. He even found a girlfriend to try and make me jealous. If I went back to him, he’d just toss her aside.”
“What do you want?”
Sadie let out a sad laugh. “I don’t want to go back to him. I want… I want a chance to be happy with someone else.”
“Someone else?”
Lorenzo looked at her. His eyes were swirls of gold, and her insides trembled. He lifted a hand and cupped her face. She sighed as she pressed her cheek into his touch.
“I wanted you the moment I saw you,” he murmured. He kissed her, just above her eyebrow. “I moment I scented you.” He kissed the end of her nose, and she giggled softly. “I knew you were special and I want you to be mine.”
He pressed his mouth to hers for an all too brief kiss. She licked her lips, savoring the taste.
“I don’t expect you to agree to stay, but can you stay until the two weeks are over?”
She looked into his eyes, and no seemed like the most impossible word in the world.
“Yes,” she agreed softly.
His lips curled into a gentle smile. “Thank you. Do you want to walk some more?”
“Goodness, no!”
Lorenzo burst into laughter.
“In fact, we’ve walked too far as it is – why did you let me yammer on for so long? Look how far we are from the compound?!”
He shook his head and smiled. “Alright, come on.” He swung her around, so she was on his back. “I’ll carry you back.”
Sadie wrapped her arms around him and rested her head on his shoulder. Now, this was the kind of hiking she could come to love.